although she has appeared in some later episodes. Taylor was replaced by Oluniké Adeliyi, who portrays Leah Kerns as of the second episode of the second season. In the fifth episode of the fourth season, Michael Cram, known as "Wordy," left the show when his character was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Cram was replaced by Clé Bennett, portraying Rafik Rousseau. This character left by the first episode of the fifth season. Two episodes later, Adeliyi's character returned to Team One. In an interview, the show's creators stated that they liked to cast only Canadians in Flashpoint; the only non-Canadians who have been on the show are Amy Jo Johnson, Colin Cunningham, and Ben Bass. Episodes Production Flashpoint began life in 2005 as a part of a CTV project that encouraged actors to submit scripts to the network. The original Flashpoint script (known earlier as Sniper and Critical Incident) 1 was for a two-hour TV movie. A pilot episode was produced for CTV in July 2007 under the Critical Incident title featuring most of the cast of what would become the series, but without the characters Jules Callaghan and Lewis Young; the characters in the pilot were Kate Travers and Robert "Shakes" Boneyman. CTV's interest in the project led to Flashpoint'''s being reworked as a regular CTV series, which was approved in mid-December 2007. The show was unaffected by the 2007–08 WGA strike because WGC rules allow any members of the WGC living in Canada, including writers with dual WGA/WGC membership, to write for Canadian productions. Writers living in the US with dual WGA/WGC membership were required to get a waiver from the WGA to work on Canadian productions during the strike. Although originally developed for a Canadian audience, it was announced on January 29, 2008, that American network CBS had purchased the rights to air the series in the United States, making it the second Canadian TV series aired in primetime on a US broadcast network after Due South, also a CTV show aired by CBS. In addition, Flashpoint is the first Canadian series aired by a major U.S. broadcast network set entirely in Canada (as Due South was primarily set in Chicago but filmed in Toronto). On March 5, 2008, CBS announced that Flashpoint would premiere in July. CTV announced on May 8, 2008, that it would simulcast the show in Canada beginning on July 11. Flashpoint began filming