Cold Case

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.

8:30pm – Wednesday, December 8 on Channel Nine

In part two of the seventh season finale, Valens partners with Rush to locate her sister, Christina (recurring guest star NICKI AYCOX), who was abducted from a drug-littered motel room, and Jeffries tries to bring justice and closure to a long-suffering mother whose daughter’s murder case has remained unsolved for 17 years.

Guest star ERICA HUBBARD (Lincoln Heights) appears as Wanda Johnson, the victim in Jeffries’ case, and guest star KEVIN CHAPMAN (Brotherhood) appears as Nightstick Joe Mueller, one of the original officers who worked on the case.

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

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

The first week of programming for GEM has been released. Like GO, GEM will offer repeats of prime time shows late night – which is great to help avoiding PVR conflicts earlier in the night. The Ellen Degeneres show will be on GEM at 5pm weekdays in HD, 4 hours after it airs on Nine. The mornings feature a simulcast of Today from 5.30am – 9am.

In going through the guide, for a HD channel, it is somewhat disappointing to see the number of shows not in HD. The inclusion of Today in the mornings – which is made in HD – would have to have been done to make sure Nine meets its daily HD requirements. Numerous older shows, movies, and even recent programs are not in HD.

Nevertheless, GEM will offer more alternative viewing and represents now 1 of 14 digital free to air channels we have the option to watch. Ratings will be interesting considering GEM is HD only and HD penetration is about 60%.

Like when GO began, there is NO Home Shopping on GEM. Let’s hope they keep it that way, as the late night / early morning repeats will give people some options when they would usually have nothing but Home Shopping or sport to chose from on free to air TV.

Here is the summary.

Prime Time.

Sunday Sept 26.
6.00 The New Adventures of Old Christine HD
6.30 Wife Swap USA
7.30 Random Acts of Kindness NEW
8.30 Movie: The Bodyguard
11.10 The New Adventures of Old Christine HD
11.40 Wife Swap USA
12.40 Random Acts of Kindness reply
1.40 Movie: The Bodyguard

Monday – Friday 6.00 – 7.30pm
6.00 The New Adventures of Old Christine HD
6.30 Friends
7.00 The Zoo

Monday Sept 27
7.30 60 Minutes (not clear whether this is exactly the same as Nine on Sunday)
8.30 Movie: The Fugitive.
11.15 Friends
11.45 Old Christine HD
12.15 60 Minutes
1.15 Movie: The Fugitive

Tuesday September 28
7.30 Secret Millionaire USA
8.30 Cold Case
9.30 Movie: Mystic River HD
12.15 Friends
12.40 Old Christine HD
1.05 Secret Millionaire USA
2.00 Movie: Mystic River

Wednesday September 29 HD night!
7.30 Who Do You Think You Are? HD
8.30 CSI HD
9.30 The Big C NEW – Pilot HD
10.00 Weeds NEW HD
10.30 Secret Diary of a Call Girl HD
11.00 Friends
11.30 Old Christine HD
12.00 Who Do You Think You Are? HD
1.00 CSI HD
2.00 The Big C NEW – Pilot HD
2.30 Weeds NEW HD
3.00 Secret Diary of a Call Girl HD

Thursday September 30
7.30 How Clean is Your House?
8.00 Neighbours at War
8.30 Marco Pierre White’s Chopping Block
9.30 The F Word
10.30 Amazing Medical Stories
11.30 Friends
12.00 Old Christine
12.30 Marco Pierre White’s Chopping Block
1.30 How Clean is Your House?
2.00 Neighbours at War
2.30 The F Word
3.30 Amazing Medical Stories

Friday October 1
7.30 Getaway Encore
8.30 Holiday Showdown
9.30 movie: Gangs of New York HD
12.50 Friends
1.15 Old Christine HD
1.40 Holiday Showdown
2.35 Movie: Follow the Boys

Saturday October 2
6.00 Old Christine HD
6.30 Deadly Surf
7.00 Animal Emergency
7.30 A Year With the Royal Family
8.30 Movie: Being Julia HD
10.45 Movie: The Jazz Singer
1.00 Old Christine
1.30 Movie: Being Julia HD

Daytime – Weekdays.
5.30 Today HD
9.00 Alive and Cooking
9.30 The Zoo
10.00 Old Christine HD
10.30 Friends
11.00 The Alice
12.00 Old Midday Movie
2.00 Varies – usually a replay from previous night.
3.00 McLeods Daughters
4.00 Sea Patrol
5.00 The Ellen Degneres Show HD

Weekend day times at this stage mostly made up of old movies.

Programming information TV Tonight. Subject to change.

11:00pm – Sunday, September 12 on Channel Nine

In part one of this two-part episode, the team investigates the 1989 case of a prom queen who was killed after her prom by a potentially deliberate hit-and-run driver.

Meanwhile, Rush tries to ignore her father’s appeals to give her troublemaker sister, Christina (recurring guest star NICKI AYCOX (Dark Blue), another chance after she suddenly resurfaces.

Recurring guest star RAYMOND J. BARRY appears as Paul Cooper. Guest star KERRY O’MALLEY (Brotherhood) appears as Suzie Hill, the prom queen’s closest friend in present day.

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

Rush and FBI agent Ryan Cavanaugh (recurring guest star JOHNNY MESSNER – Burn Notice, Wrong Turn at Tahoe) discover their attraction for one another while investigating the 1969 murder of a U.S.

soldier at Woodstock in between tours in Vietnam.

Plus, Vera helps his married ex-girlfriend, Megan (guest star SARAH ALDRICH – Monk), after sentimental jewellery is stolen from her home.

9:30pm – Sunday, August 29 on Channel Nine

In the conclusion of this two-part episode, after determining the serial killer’s identity — and some of his likely future targets — the team and the FBI work together to apprehend him while trying to locate and protect the people he’s preparing to kill. Recurring guest star SUSANNA THOMPSON appears as FBI agent Diane Yates.

Nine will play double episodes of CSI over the next two weeks to quickly finish off the current season – with the season finale to be seen Sunday September 5.

As a result, new episodes of Cold Case will move to 10.30pm. As there are 4 episodes to go for eastern states. 3 in WA and 2 in SA, this arrangement will vary from state to state – with possible repeats for SA and WA while the east coast catches up.

No word yet what will replace CSI on Sunday September 12.

The new season of CSI starts in the US late September. With Nine finishing off the current season so quickly, a seamless transition to the new season being fast tracked is unlikely.

Is August 31 international Bermuda Triangle day or something? Or is Seven running a strategy of tit-for-tat programming with Nine.

On Tuesday August 31, Nine has a premiere special at 9pm called The Bermuda Triangle Exposed, while, an amendment from Seven, puts a special on 7TWO at 7.30pm the same night called The Truth Behind The Bermuda Triangle.

The move is most likely to take some steam out of Nine’s special – but honestly – what do Seven have to worry about there? If anything, more than the usual amount of people will be watching Packed to the Rafters that night, following on from the second night of The X Factor. Seven will easily win the night, as they do every Tuesday night.

An Idiot Abroad trailer

The first trailer for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s new series An Idiot Abroad has been released, which centres on collaborator Karl Pilkington’s hilarious adventures in foreign lands.

More Billy Joel music to feature on Glee

More Billy Joel music will pop up in the second season of Glee after the singer agreed to its use. Joel’s Piano Man featured in the first season in a duet sung by guest Neil Patrick Harris and Matthew Morrison.

Miller for The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries has signed Simon Miller to appear in the drama’s second season to play a character called George.  Miller, whose previous TV credits include Gossip Girl and CSI: Miami, will make his debut on the show’s fourth episode in a flashback scene.

Brothers & Sisters casts Soto

Actor Bobby Soto has been cast in Brothers & Sisters for the show’s upcoming season. Soto, who has appeared previously in the likes of Cold Case and The Closer, will play a character called Mateo.