TORONTO – CBC television personality Rick Mercer has announced that this season will be the last of his popular travel show The Rick Mercer Report.

“People always tell me I’m funny. I figured I would give a career in comedy a shot,” said Mercer as he scribbled jokes into a notebook. “I’m hitting up the open mic in the basement of the Crown and Tiger this Saturday. You should come out.”

The Rick Mercer Report first premiered in 2004, and was a breakout hit. The show follows host Rick Mercer as he does random activities with Canadian celebrities and political figures, while showcasing various locales around the country.

“It’s been a fantastic run,” said the Canadian travel guru as he prepared for a game of jai alai with Canadian literary icon Michael Ondaatje. “But it seems like the right time. By now I’ve literally seen every quirky roadside attraction and trained with every sports team, law enforcement agency, and military unit in the country. Plus, the suits at the CBC say most of our key demographic is going to be dead soon anyway.”

Mercer said that after ten years of making a travel and tourism show, he wanted to “spread his creative wings” and take his satire of Canadian life and politics from being a two minute side project on his website to his main focus.

Supervising producer Tom Stanley said they tried asking to take the show in a new direction, but, when the CBC executive heard the word ‘new’, she screamed and jumped out a nearby window, plummeting 20 stories to her death.

At press time, CBC had cancelled Heartland for being “too edgy.”