Chase

9:30pm – Sunday, December 26 on Channel Nine

When a desperate fugitive convicted of defrauding investors of millions of dollars jumps bail and turns violent, the U.S. Marshals must find him before he disappears. Sparks fly between Annie and a bounty hunter who is also trying to capture the criminal, while Jimmy and Luke begin to bond.

Another change from Nine.

The troubled time of Sunday 9.30pm – which saw Chase ditched for The Commander has been changed again. Last Sunday (Dec 19), the Commander rated worse than Chase did with less than 300,000 tuning in. In fact – there were almost as many viewers watching Wild Wild West on GO as there were watching The Commander on Nine.

At 9.30pm this Sunday Dec 26 is the movie The Bone Collector, followed by Killer Instinct at midnight.

UPDATED. Sun Jan 2 from 9.30pm is CSI: Miami followed by CSI: NY repeats. movie Fracture is out.

Plans for Sunday Jan 9 at this stage is are repeats of CSI: Miami at 9.30pm and CSI: NY repeats at 10.30pm. Also that week, the regular Wednesday night CSI’s move to Thursday due to one day cricket coverage. A full update on that week will come closer to the time.

With all these movies spread over Nine’s three channels on multiple nights, we are starting to see some repeat as quickly as one month apart between airings on two different channels. Elf is one example, Murder at 1600 is another that will appear on two channels just a few weeks apart unless amended beforehand.

9:30pm – Sunday, December 19 on Channel Nine

A mother (Jennifer Morrison) goes on the run with her young daughter after a grisly murder. The team must reassess their strategy for capturing her, however, when doubts arise about the woman’s mental state.

More changes from Nine.

Try and keep up with me here…!

Ready?

OK – tomorrow night – Wed Dec 15, The repeat of CSI: Miami at 10.30pm has been replaced with a repeat of Cold Case.

Considering there is now new CSI: Miami at 8.30pm, then new CSI: NY at 9.30, the repeat of Miami at 10.30 did not make sense to remain on the schedule any way.

So – from tomorrow, Wed Dec 15, Wednesday nights on Nine are:

8.30 New CSI: Miami
9.30 New CSI: NY
10.30 Cold Case repeat.

Next.

Were you one of the 398,000 or so that watched – and perhaps enjoyed – Chase last Sunday night on Nine? Then did you feel rewarded that there was another episode straight after it that you did not know about it until that night?

Well – bad news for you.

Chase – thanks to low ratings – yes 398,000 is too low for 9.30pm on Sunday on a primary channel even if it is summer – is now gone. Not sure where it will now end up – hopefully somewhere on GO or GEM for those that were following it – but then again, even GO and GEM are having their schedules stripped of anything not performing to the strict requirements of Nine Network execs or programmers… or whoever is making the actual decisions there.

Fringe has gone from GO, Nikita as well a few weeks ago, Rizzoli & Isles gone from GEM. The list goes on.

Anyway, back to the point.

Chase, 9.30 Sunday on Nine is now replaced with the three part / two hour per part series The Commander. The Commander will be seen at 9.30pm Sunday Dec 19, Dec 26 and Jan 2.

Next.

Just yesterday, we reported that Myth Busters was coming to Nine, taking over the time slot that was occupied by Survivor Nicaragua – which has its finale Tue Dec 28. Some readers questioned whether Nine had secured the rights for the popular show from SBS – who also are still screening Myth Busters.

Not anymore.

Myth Busters will not be seen on Nine on Tue Jan 4. Instead, a repeat of 50-1. The “Super Sized” version of 20-1 which always seems to pop up on Nine each year around Christmas / New Years. It’s the 50-1 of All Time Greatest movie Quotes. “Play it again, Sam”. And Nine are.

That’s it for today’s changes at Nine.

Big time disclaimer:

All programming information is subject to last minute change. Most recent programming posts supersede older ones. Sometimes I may go back and edit some of them to reflect latest changes but may not always get the chance.

In any case, it I probably a good idea to check EPGs or internet guides on the day. The 10.30 Wed Dec 15 change for Nine is yet to show up on any guides as I publish this post. It should do so before the end of the day.

9:30pm – Sunday, December 12 on Channel Nine

After living a life in hiding using a false identity, fugitive Jack Drugganembarks on a vengeful killing spree in an attempt to return to his notorious mobster glory days. Boasting of his crimes and challenging the U.S.

Marshals to catch him, tension arises between Annie Frost and Jimmy Godfrey as they race to track down Druggan before he can strike again.

9:30pm – Sunday, December 5 on Channel Nine

Chase drops viewers smack in the middle of a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse as a crack squad of US marshals hunt down America’s most dangerous fugitive. This gripping drama series carries the familiar production polish of Bruckheimer, creator of such hits as the CSI franchise, Cold Case, Without a Trace and The Amazing Race.

Chase stars Kelli Giddish (Past Life), Cole Hauser (Tigerland), Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break), Rose Rollins (The L Word) and Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives) as the marshals on the manhunt.

Leading the team is US Marshal Annie Frost (Giddish), whose sharp mind and Texas upbringing equip her perfectly to track down violent criminals on the run.

Frost’s elite outfit includes Jimmy Godfrey (Hauser), an East Texas kid who never grew up and is a true American cowboy; Marco Martinez (Nolasco), an intelligence guy who just loves to talk; and Daisy Ogbaa (Rollins), a weapons and tactical specialist who, in contrast to Marco, is a woman of few words. Rounding out the team is Luke Watson (Metcalfe), the fresh-faced newcomer whose upbringing in Washington, DC, did little to prepare him for the lawlessness of the Lone Star State.

With non-stop action, this Chase never stops to take a breath once the ride begins.

All your favourite shows for the year have finished. Large chunks of TV schedules for the three commercial main channels have transformed into almost unrecognisable lists of shows. Just about everything on is a repeat. New shows a few and far between – except on Pay TV, ABC and SBS.

To me, if you have seen a show, you have seen it. I have never understood watching repeats of procedural shows like Bones, The Mentalist, Criminal Minds, City Homicide, Rescue Special Ops and the like as you already know what the outcome is going to be. You already know the twist or who the baddie is or whose bones were found.

There are some sitcoms you can watch more than once, but it depends on how well written the show is. A well written sitcom can be watched many times as one picks up stuff they may not have first time round. But – again – for the most part, a repeat is a repeat – you already know the jokes, you know what is going to happen, you know the story.

Same goes for movies. A great movie people will watch more than once, but others, no need to see again. To me, a repeat is something you don’t necessarily go out of your way to watch. A repeat you may have on in the background while doing something else. Whereas first run TV you may pay attention to and sit down and watch.

So as a result, when we hit summer non-ratings, less and less of Seven, Nine and Ten end up being watched. More attention turns to what is on Foxtel, ABC and SBS – who all still have first run content. There are a few first run shows on Seven, Nine and Ten, but only those that either do not do well during ratings or the networks thought would not do well and were not worth the risk.

Nine has Chase on Sunday nights, Better with You on Wednesdays. Seven has Outlaw while the Event has one more episode to go. Plus all those factuals – yes – they are first run but half are from NZ and others just didn’t cut it during the year. Ten has season two of White Collar on Wednesday night, and Rules of Engagement on Sunday nights. White Collar I look forward to – as for Rules of Engagement, I am not sure why it still airs on Ten as it rates so low. Rush and Neighbours defy the commercial trend and continue for a few weeks yet.

There is one commercial channel that delivers more first run content than any other – that is GO! The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Fringe, Nikita and new eps of Community to name a few. Yes, GO does have repeats throughout its schedule as well, but the number of new shows leave the main channels for dead. Any wonder it is the number one multi channel in Australia.

As for the other multi channels, 7TWO, there are plenty of first run lifestyle programs, a few movies not shown before on free to air, Jonathon Creek, Benidorm and Not Going Out. 7mate has Gene Simmons Family Jewels, Whacked out Sports, Australia Smashes Guiness World Records, The Shield, Punk’d, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and a number of its documentaries – actually, probably more of these shows are first run than GO – BUT – many have already been on Pay TV – especially the docos.

And finally GEM needs a mention. First run content on Gem includes Conan four nights a week, Southland, The Big C, Weeds, Rizolli and Isles, The Closer and Hotel Babylon. Let’s not forget Wild Caribbean and David Attenborough’s Life of Mammals on the weekends.

So there is definitely first run content around the free to air commercials if you look for it – the main difference now, is that it is spread over many channels. Having to spread content over multiple channels stretches what the networks can offer on each channel – this is the main reason there ends up being so many more repeats on the main channels.

Before the digital channels arrived, some of those shows seen on the digitals would have been seen on the main channels or not at all.

All the reality competitions are finishing up, final new episodes for shows are being called season finals whether they are mid season or not and the program guides for free to air channels are transforming into completely new and different schedules to what we have been used to for the last few months.

It is time for summer TV – starting Sunday November 28, 2010 – the time of year when the commercial free to air networks deliver more repeats than ever before, and give us more of those shows that simply don’t cut it during the main ratings season as well as a swag of New Zealand factuals (channel Seven mainly) that will help keep their local content quota up over summer.

Officially, the summer months do not count towards winning or losing the ratings but – ratings are still measured during summer, and networks will still adjust schedules to improve their chances of doing better in the ratings – afterall – summer or not – ratings is money for them.

Ten are easing us into summer with Neighbours and Rush continuing for a few weeks yet and a new episode of Glee remaining to be played on Monday Nov 29, before repeats air the week later. They also have All New Simpsons on Tuesday nights – new Simpsons no longer rates well enough to be on Ten during the main part of the year.

Nine have new episodes of Without a Trace and Cold Case as well as new shows Chase and Better With You. The best of 60 Minutes contains stories you would have already seen throughout the year while Two and a Half Men continues to be spread throughout the schedule of Nine and GO! Also on both channels, you can catch repeats of Top Gear on four nights.

Seven bring us new episodes of Border Patrol, Coast Watch, Animal Squad, ICU, Medical Emergency and Under the Hammer. They’ll be showing the US version of Minute to Win It followed by I Shouldn’t Be Alive. The Amazing Race continues, while new NCB drama Outlaw premieres on Monday night.

As for ABC1 and SBS ONE, you wouldn’t really notice that much of a difference as they move into summer TV. Australian drama Rake continues on ABC1, SBS premieres the new series of Who Do You Think You Are while quiz show Letters and Numbers continues at 6pm weeknights into December. ABC1 will be airing the Doctor Who Christmas special on December 26, hours after they see it in the UK.

To digital channels, and GO has re-shuffled parts of its schedule but it’s highest rating show The Big Bang Theory will not be seen on GO in summer. There is one episode on Nine in Tue Dec 7. Pretty Little Liars premieres Mon Nov 29, while new episodes of The Vampire Diaries return from Mon Dec 6.

GEM has a few subtle changes – one of which is that there will now be no movies on Monday nights because Nine is showing movies on Monday nights.

7TWO have transformed Sunday night completely with a line up no too different to their very successful Friday night lifestyle line up. 7mate’s programming remains much the same in summer, only difference is those new episodes of Family Guy and American Dad will be repeats while Gene Simmons moves into two nights a week instead of just the one. Stargate fans – look out for three hours of Stargate Atlantis on Thursday nights.

ONE HD will start showing a movie on Sunday nights while the rest of the week the channel is grouping roughly into themed nights.

Watch out for the launch of Ten’s new channel Eleven on January 11, 2011. Programming information should become available around Christmas time.

Meanwhile – Pay TV is premiering numerous new shows and series in December as part of their (Foxtel’s) 100 days of summer promotion.. Pay TV’s shares increase during free to air non ratings periods – a fact they now capitalise on to woo viewers over during summer.

As always during summer, there is plenty of cricket on Nine with the Ashes, the one day series and a few Twenty/20’s thrown in while Seven will have the Australian Open Tennis in January – which will also be seen on Fox Sports this time as well.

Carols in The Domain will air on Seven on Saturday Dec 18, while Melbourne’s traditional carols night will air Friday Dec 24 on Nine.

Ratings season for 2011 resume Sunday February 6, 2011.

Following are the links to programming and information for most channels for the first week of summer.

Seven

7TWO

7mate

Nine

GO!

GEM

Ten

ONE HD

Foxtel’s 100 Days of Summer

Chase, a lightning-fast-paced new drama from Emmy Award-winning producer Jerry Bruckheimer, premieres on Nine on Sunday, November 28 at 9.30pm.

Chase drops viewers smack in the middle of a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse as a crack squad of US marshals hunt down America’s most dangerous fugitive.

This gripping drama series carries the familiar production polish of Bruckheimer, creator of such hits as the CSI franchise, Cold Case, Without a Trace and The Amazing Race.

Chase stars Kelli Giddish (Past Life), Cole Hauser (Tigerland), Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break), Rose Rollins (The L Word) and Jesse Metcalfe (Desperate Housewives) as the marshals on the manhunt.

Leading the team is US Marshal Annie Frost (Giddish), whose sharp mind and Texas upbringing equip her perfectly to track down violent criminals on the run.

Frost’s elite outfit includes Jimmy Godfrey (Hauser), an East Texas kid who never grew up and is a true American cowboy; Marco Martinez (Nolasco), an intelligence guy who just loves to talk; and Daisy Ogbaa (Rollins), a weapons and tactical specialist who, in contrast to Marco, is a woman of few words. Rounding out the team is Luke Watson (Metcalfe), the fresh-faced newcomer whose upbringing in Washington, DC, did little to prepare him for the lawlessness of the Lone Star State.

With non-stop action, this Chase never stops to take a breath once the ride begins.

CHASE: Premieres Sunday, November 28, at 9.30pm on Channel Nine

Nine have released details that fill in all the blanks for their programming for the first week of summer, the week commencing Sunday November 28.

Repeats of the Mentalist move to Sunday night, The Middle moves from GO back to Nine, and new series for summer include Chase and Better With You – both new US titles for season 2010/11. Returning are new episodes of Without a Trace and Cold Case.

Here’s the summary:

Sunday Nov 28
6.30 The Enforcers – new
7.00 Hot Pursuit – new
7.30 Best of 60 Minutes
8.30 The Mentalist
9.30 Chase – new
10.30 Without a Trace – new

Monday Nov 29
7.30 Two and a Half Men
8.00 The Middle – from the start
8.30 Movie: Miss Congeniality
10.45 Embarrassing Bodies

Tuesday Nov 30
7.30 Top Gear
8.40 Richard Hammonds Invisible Worlds – new
9.40 Survivor Nicaragua – new
10.40 Ramsays’ Kitchen Nightmares

Wednesday Dec 1
7.30 Two and a Half Men
8.00 Better With You – new
8.30 Cold Case – new
9.30 Cold Case
10.30 Rescue Special Ops S2E1

Thursday Dec 2
7.30 Top Gear (not the Australian version as orginally planned)
8.30 Warnie – new, new regular time.
9.30 Movie: S.W.A.T

Friday Dec 3
7.30 Movie: Elf
9.30 Movie The Bodyguard – which was only recently on GEM.

Saturday Dec 4
6.30 Australia’s Funniest Home Videos Summer Edition – new
7.30 Celebrity Singing Bee – new
8.30 CSI – This means there will be CSI on Nine as well as CSI: NY and CSI: Miami on GEM on the same night from 9.30. A CSI triple over two channels.
9.30 Movie: Cactus

All repeats unless otherwise specified

New shows:

Chase:
From Emmy Award–winning executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Chase is a lightning-fast-paced drama that drops viewers smack into the middle of a game of cat and mouse as a team of U.S. marshals hunts down America’s most dangerous fugitives. U.S. Marshal Annie Frost and her partner Jimmy Godfrey investigate a case involving a serial killer robbing safes and killing the families who own them.

Better With You:
Hilarious new comedy about the relationships among three couples from the one family. Maddie is distressed to learn her younger sister, Mia is engaged to a guy she’s only known a short while. Stars Joanna Garcia, Jennifer Finnigan, Josh Cooke and Jake Lacy