TORONTO (CP) _ American newswoman Paula Zahn and a crew from CNN visited the set of the CBC’s highly anticipated "Little Mosque on the Prairie" on Wednesday in advance of the TV show’s premiere Jan. 9.

A CBC publicist says Zahn was on the show’s temporary set in west-end Toronto for a story she’s working on for the cable news giant about "Little Mosque," the brainchild of Zarqa Nawaz, a Muslim filmmaker and mother of four who’s lived in Saskatchewan for 10 years.

CNN will run a small segment on "Paula Zahn Now" on Thursday at 8 p.m., just hours after "Little Mosque" publicists hand out more 100 kilograms of free halal chickens in downtown Toronto to promote the show.

"Little Mosque on the Prairie," a comedy about Muslims trying to interact with their small-town neighbours in a fictional Canadian prairie town called Mercy, has been receiving the kind of advance buzz that most publicity departments only dream about.

It’s been written up in the New York Times, the Houston Chronicle and by The Associated Press, with Stephen Colbert, the fake late-night talk-show host, also taking notice. CNN has also done previous items on "Little Mosque."

The CBC is so pumped by the attention the show started getting _ largely on the strength of its title and premise _ that it decided to take advantage of the buzz and premiere it this month instead of waiting until next fall. That meant the show’s production crew had to move into overdrive to get the initial episodes ready for broadcast.