High Road Low Road

Here’s what is happening on Seven for the much of the rest of summer.

Beat The Star fills in the timeslot vacated by The Amazing Race, 7.30pm Thursday From Dec 23. It remains on every Thursday until Thur Jan 13.

From Sun Dec 26, over 4 Sundays at 6.30pm, is the special Billy Connolly: Journey To The Edge of the World, in which Billy Connolly journeys through the remote regions of Canada and into the Arctic Circle. Note the last Vicar of Dibley special on Seven airs Sun Dec 19, 6.30pm.

Border Patrol, Coast Watch and Bones all remain on Sunday nights from 7.30 until Jan 16. Bones fans receive a special treat, with a double episode on the night of Sun Jan 16.

On Sun Dec 26 and Sun Jan 2, repeats of the Castle at 9.30 are replaced with movies Species and Derailed respectively.

The spectacular special Journey to the Edge of the Universe airs at 10.30 Monday Dec 27 – over just one hour. I thought I saw it as a two hour show on National Geographic a few years ago. Perhaps cut down? Still, well worth watching for the imagery.

The last Under the Hammer for now airs Wed Dec 29 at 8pm.

The final of ICU is at 8pm Mon Jan 3.

One of the few new international shows screening anywhere over summer – Outlaw continues at 9.30pm Mondays, with an extra episode on Sunday Jan 9 before its final at 9.30 Monday Jan 10.

Travel show High Road, Low Road – having being forced out of Saturday nights to avoid a conflict with sponsors of No Leave, No Life premieres 8pm Wed Jan 5. The first episode covers LA and Palm Springs, the second, airing Jan 12, covers New York. The third which will cover New Zealand’s North Island won’t be seen until after the Australian Open tennis, maybe on a Saturday night but that is to be confirmed.

No Leave, No Life, has its final episode for series 2 on Saturday Jan 15, at 6.30pm.

The final of the US version of Minute to Win It will air 7.30 Tue Jan 11.

From Mon Jan 17, the Australian Open airs on Seven from 11am – 6pm daily, as well as from 7pm at night for the first week. The tournament concludes on Sun Jan 30 with the Men’s Final. While the Australian Open is on, the morning news moves to 10.30, while 9am – 10.30am are occupied with children’s programming. Areas not on AEDT check local guides closer to the dates. News and Today Tonight remain 6pm – 7pm weeknights.

Home and Away returns Monday January 24, 2011 at 7pm, coinciding with the second week of The 2011 Australian Open. Weekday night time sessions therefore start at 7.30pm as a result.

All times and information here based on Sydney market.

We cover a lot here about programming changes, but here is the story behind the reason why High Road, Low Road was suddenly pulled from Seven’s schedule at the last minute.

Travel show high Road, Low Road was to air at 7pm Saturdays, after No Leave, no Life – itself a travel shows of sorts, sponsored by Tourism Australia.

Tourism Australia told Seven that they would withdraw all sponsorship if the show they sponsored was to be followed by another travel based show.

To avoid losing valuable sponsorship dollars, Seven were left with no choice but to make the sudden programming change, that was so last minute, some guides did not represent the change on the day.

Tourism Australia felt that the second travel show would detract from the one they were sponsoring and it may have affected the benefit they receive from their sponsorship. The other issue, of course, is that High Road, Low Road promotes international locations which also violates the mission statement of Tourism Australia whose purpose is to promote tourism within Australia instead of overseas.

High Road, Low Road will air on Seven, but not until No Leave, no Life concludes. The season final for No Leave, no Life is at 6.30pm, Sat Jan 15. With the Australian Open Tennis being on Seven for the two weeks subsequent, High Road, Low Road may not be seen until Sat Jan 29 or later.

I guess I can add “an irate sponsor for a paid program” as another reason that is fair enough for a last minute program change.

 Source: Sunday Telegraph

Seven has changed their mind about airing new travel series High Road, Low Road at 7pm on Saturdays.

The new series, which explores the comparison between travelling to destinations with little or no budget to what it would be like with unlimited budget, has been placed on hold, in favour for playing out the remaining two unaired episodes of Find My Family.

Find My Family can now be seen at 7pm Saturday Dec 4 and Dec 11, while 7pm Dec 18 is an episode of Medical Emergency.

The future of High Road, Low Road is not clear – it may end up on Seven at another time, or go to 7TWO. The style of show is a good fit for one of 7TWO’s lifestyle nights. Although, having watched previews of the show, it fits perfectly into Saturday night on Seven, and makes a good show to follow No Leave, no Life at 6.30pm. Seven must have other ideas now.

Meanwhile, Seven have updated their movies for week 51. At 8.30pm Thur Dec 16 is the movie The Mummy Returns. At 8.30 Fri Dec 17, is The Santa Clause 3, followed by We’re Here to Help.

Sat Dec 18 at 8.30 is Carols in the Domain, which will be encored on 7TWO at 4.30 Fri Dec 24. Most shows on 7TWO in the week leading up to Christmas are Christmas specials, while on 7mate, programming is much the same as usual – you’d hardly notice it was Christmas with regular programming on Fri Dec 24 and Sat Dec 25.