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So what’s been your summer gem?
The other week a journalist asked me for some quotes on how our TV summer season was faring and I pointed out that historically, the 09 / 10 season has offered an abundance of choice -at least compared to when we had just 5 channels, half of which were stuck on sport.
This year the amount of content has boomed, thanks to our extra digital channels.
But when the article appeared in print, readers hit back saying summer is still a dead zone. I got slammed. Well, it is if you stick with …
Bumped: Jay Leno Show. Airdate: Benidorm
A number of changes will be coming to 7TWO in January including The Jay Leno Show moving from 6pm to midday from Monday January 18, it will be replaced with reruns of Alf and Full House at 6 / 6:30pm.
Leno will be preceded by HeadLand at 11am and followed by US soap All My Children at 1pm. PG programmes are allowed in daytimes on digital channels from January 1st due to recent ACMA changes.
UK comedy Benidorm will premiere at 8:30pm also on January 18th. Benidorm revolves around the world of package …
Bumped: Shark, The Unit.
Digital channels continue to fine tune their programming.
7TWO has made the latest changes:
Thu Nov 19
8:30 -11pm Stargate Atlantis (3 eps) replaces Shark.
Tue Nov 24
8:30pm Reaper (2 eps) replaces The Unit.
10:10m Movie: Alien v Predator
Updated: Just noticed both are back in schedule in the week of November 29th. Apologies for any confusion.
Sam Who, The Unit, Shark on 7TWO
If you hadn’t noticed it in the guides, three more shows are added to 7TWO next week: Samantha Who, The Unit and Shark.
Samantha Who is in repeats, beginning with its pilot episode at 7:30pm Monday November 9th.
The Unit returns with new eps, “Misled & Misguided” S4E10 from 8:30pm Tuesday November 10th, with Reaper locking in to 9:30pm (it was a double this week).
Shark is also back with new eps, beginning with a double, “Gangster Movies / For Whom the Skel Rolls” S2E1/ E2 at 10pm Thursday November 12th.
Returning: Lie to Me
Tim Roth will be back as psychlogist Dr. Cal Lightman early next month in the second season of the procedural drama, Lie to Me.
The show is back on TEN oat 9:30pm Tuesday October 6th, eight days after it resumes in the US.
Based on the real-life scientific discoveries of Paul Ekman, the series follows Lightman and his team of deception experts as they assist law enforcement and government agencies via microsexpressions and body language.
This season Shawn Ryan, the producer-writer behind The Shield and The Unit, will be the showrunner for …
The cancelled list
As the US Fall Season nears it’s time to take stock of the shows in the US that are not moving forward (including two Aussie adaptations).
Whilst many of us are up to speed on most of these, sometimes one or two escape out attention, and others kinda never get cancelled but remain in permanent hiatus.
For the record here is the list of those that are no more:
ABC has cancelled Cupid, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, In the Motherhood, Kyle XY, Life on Mars, Pushing Daisies, Samantha Who, Surviving Suburbia, and The …
Linda Hunt joins NCIS: Los Angeles
Charismatic actress Linda Hunt will join as a regular cast member of NCIS: Los Angeles.
Hunt will play a hard-nosed former film industry technician who oversees the “backroom” support staff, providing everything from micro surveillance cameras to cars for the team.
Australian Shane Brennan who is the show’s executive producer says, “Nothing fazes her.
“But as tough as she might seem, she genuinely cares about Callen (Chris O’Donnell) and the team.”
Linda Hunt shot to fame in the Peter Weir-directed feature The Year of Living Dangerously and has more recently appeared in Without a Trace, …
Cancelled: The Unit, Sam Who, According to Jim.
More news of cancelled shows to emerge from the US includes The Unit and According to Jim (it made it this far because?).
Medium has been dropped by NBC but is still a possibility of heading to CBS. Maybe Patricia Arquette can forsee her fate?
FOX may also pick up My Name is Earl, which was also let go.
ABC cancelled Samantha Who, after the show couldn’t slash its budget deep enough to make a third-season pickup work.
Networks are currently revealing their Fall slates, which sees ABC offering a new two-hour comedy block on …
FOX renews Lie to Me
Lie to Me has won a renewal from FOX for an additional 13 episodes.
The Shield’s Shawn Ryan will take over as its new showrunner, although he is currently attached to The Unit -a show that is yet to be renewed by CBS.
In the US Lie to Me scored its best ratings in five weeks last week. Its pickup follows the early renewal last week of another new FOX drama, Fringe.
On the back of NCIS the Tim Roth drama is still performing for TEN too, gaining 986,000 viewers last night, #1 in …
Decision time for US dramas
America is fast approaching decision time for a number of series that air in Australia.
Not all shows that haven’t been renewed yet are in jeopardy: For such series as CBS’ How I Met Your Mother, which traditionally gets picked up at the last minute, and ABC’s Ugly Betty, the orders are just a formality.
But that can’t be said for a dozen or so other series anxiously awaiting their fate.
CBS has the most, including a quartet of long-running procedurals — Without a Trace, Cold Case, Numb3rs and The Unit — along with …
Melrose remake wins a pilot
In the ’90’s Tuesday nights were a bitch.*
Could they be the same all over again? The CW Network is moving forward on a remake of Melrose Place has received an official pilot order, and Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, Deadwood, 24, The Unit, Party of Five) has come on board to direct it. He is known for directing edgier dramas such as .
The new script is written by Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin (Smallville), who will serve as executive producers/showrunners.
Red Carpet lush Lisa Rinna has been outspoken about the …
CBS, ABC pilots
More pilots have been greenlit in the US with big names attached including Jerry Bruckheimer, McG and Mitch Hurwitz.
ABC approved an untitled pilot from Jerry Bruckheimer revolving around a team of dedicated amateur detectives working on cases of unidentified victims. If the pilot goes to series, it would be Bruckheimer’s first scripted show on ABC. The network famously passed on CSI before it was sold to CBS.
Producer/ Director McG also won pilot approval for Limelight, a soap set around the teachers and students of a performing arts college in New York …