Degrassi: The Next Generation (season 4)

Degrassi: The Next Generation (season 4)

The fourth season of Degrassi: The Next Generation commenced airing in Canada on 7 September 2004, concluded on 14 February 2005 and contains twenty-two episodes. Degrassi: The Next Generation is a Canadian serial teen drama television series. It continues to depict the lives of a group of sophomores and juniors as they deal with the some of the challenges and issues teenagers face such as coming out, rape, relationships, mental illness, sex, bullying, alcoholism, school shooting, sexual identity, and sexually transmitted diseases. Every episode is titled after a song from the 1980s, except for the two-part season finale "Going Down the Road", which took its name from the 1970 Canadian film Goin' Down the Road. Filming took place between April and October 2004.

The first six episodes of season four aired Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on CTV, a Canadian terrestrial television network, before settling into its regular 8:30 p.m. timeslot. When the season returned to the schedules in January 2005 following a break over the Christmas period, it aired on Mondays at 8:30 p.m. In the United States, it was broadcast on The N, a digital cable network aimed at teenagers and young adults. The season was released on DVD as a four disc boxed set on 28 November 2006 by Alliance Atlantis Home Entertainment in Canada, and by FUNimation Entertainment in the US on 24 October 2006. The last three episodes were also sold in the US, packaged together in two different releases; one version was dubbed "unrated, uncensored and uncut" and featured an audio commentary and other bonus material, the other version was dubbed "rated", and did not feature the audio commentary. Registered users of the Canadian and US iTunes Stores are also able purchase and download the season for playback on home computers and certain iPods. This was the first season to release a soundtrack, Songs from Degrassi: The Next Generation was available as a digital download on 1 November 2005.

Season four was one of Degrassi: The Next Generation's most successful seasons for viewing figures. Two episodes were watched by nearly a million Canadian viewers and helped the season garner an average audience of 600,000, making it the most-viewed domestic drama in Canada. In the US, one episode from the season was watched by over half-a-million viewers, the highest audience figure The N had ever had. Only three awards were won for the season, from a total of nine nominations.