TORONTO — Awards shows are always filled with strange anomalies and Canada's TV Geminis are no exception.

The 20th annual Geminis will be handed out during three gala nights Thursday, Friday and Saturday. And there are ironies. For example, two shows are tied for the most nominations at 15. They are CTV's The Eleventh Hour, the story of life behind the scenes at a fictional TV newsmagazine show, and The Fifth Estate, CBC's real newsmagazine show.

The Eleventh Hour, however, has already been cancelled.

"There's always one of those stories, sadly," concedes Geminis gala producer Lynn Harvey. "But it was a great show. It's a funny thing, the nominations. It's the way, somehow, these juries work."

The star of another cancelled CTV drama, Julie Stewart of Cold Squad, is also up for a Gemini nod.

Then there's the fact the Saturday night broadcast gala this year is being carried by Global TV, which airs very little of the home-grown drama content that might qualify for a Gemini. One high-profile nominee, though, is Canadian Chris Diamantopolous, whose uncanny impersonation of Robin Williams in the NBC-TV movie of the week Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Mork and Mindy, earned him a best-actor nod.

The U.S. movie was only carried by Global, but because it was shot in Canada, it did have enough Canadian content to be officially certified under a complicated points program involving the level of government tax subsidies granted.

"We don't make our own rules," explains Maria Topalovich, president and CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, which oversees both the Geminis and their film counterpart the Genies. "If a production qualifies as a Canadian production then everybody qualifies."

But why was screen legend Sophia Loren not nominated for her role in the Canadian-made Lives of the Saints, yet California-born Charles Martin Smith was for his performance in The Last Casino? Well, it wasn't that Loren wasn't considered good enough or that as a foreigner she didn't qualify. The Lives producers just didn't submit her name for consideration in the first place.

And there's the case of awards shows up for awards themselves. The Canadian Country Music Awards and the MuchMusic Video Awards are competing in the best music, variety program or series.

The Geminis - all 86 categories of them - begin Thursday with the Documentary, News and Sports gala celebrating information television and hosted by Evan Solomon. On Friday it's the Industry gala, a mix of technical and performance awards and hosted by Graham Greene. And finally, the Saturday Broadcast Gala where the 15 biggest pieces of hardware are handed out on national television.

There will be no single host but presenters will include Nicholas Campbell, Wendy Crewson, Cynthia Dale, Peter Keleghan, Colin Mochrie, Ben Mulroney, Peter Outerbridge, Scott Thompson and Mary Walsh.

Harvey says the telecast will not be that different from the past, although a number of past celebrities will appear to mark the anniversary.

"The stars of Night Heat are coming up and the stars of E.N.G.," she says. "We've had Scott Thompson and Peter Keleghan and Colin Mochrie and Doug McGrath and Pat McKenna in here doing bits. Lots of comedy.

"We're going to do a great, entertaining two hours."

For the first time this year, the final night Gemini gala will not be telecast by CBC. Two years ago, the Genie film awards also left the public broadcaster to be picked up by CHUM Television, with an increase in ratings, something the Academy is hoping will happen with the TV awards.

So did the CBC jump or was it pushed?

"That's a complicated question," says Topalovich cautiously. "Our primary goal with the Genies or the Geminis is really to build audiences and to find a home with. . .the right broadcaster."

The Saturday gala will be repeated late night Sunday on CBC-TV which also airs an hour-long Gemini anniversary special Thursday (which, in turn, will repeat at a later date on Global).