Law & Order: LA

Looking at Seven’s advanced TV Guide for the week of September 18-24 and it’s TBA’s for 7.30pm Monday to Thursday.

On Monday September 19, there is a two hour TBA from 7.30pm which will almost certainly be the first X Factor Australia live show where the top contestants perform for our votes.

That will be followed by a Castle repeat at 9.30pm, then Suits at 10.30pm, and the first seaosn finale of Teen Wolf at 11.30pm.

On Tuesday September 20, my guess is 7.30 will be the X Factor result show. Packed to the Rafters is at 8.30, then Dinner Date at 9.30, followed by Hung and Parks and Recreation at 10.30 and 11.10 respectively.

Wednesday September 21, the 7.30 TBA is most likely to be World’s Strictest Parents. Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour airs at 8.30pm, Law & Order: LA at 9.30 and Great Escapes at 10.30.

Thursday September 22 sees a 90 minute TBA from 8.30 – 10.00pm. This will almost certainly be the 90 minute premiere of Beauty and the Geek Australia season 3.

Back an hour – the 7.30 TBA on Thursday September 22 could well be NEW How I Met Your Mother as it premieres in the US Sept 19. If Seven fast track Mother, that will give them a fast track point, in line with Nine (Two and a Half Men) and Ten (Glee) for the week.

Law & Order: LA also airs from 10pm that night.

To Friday night, and it is the last Friday night AFL for the year, the week before the Grand Final (which will air on Ten this year). Most likley to be aired live in AFL markets. In Sydney, live if the Swans make it that far.

As soon as we have defnite confirmation of the TBA’s, we will advise!

Seven have made a number of schedule changes for next week, starting with the premiere of Wild Boys on Sunday September 4 at 7.30pm. Wild Boys replaces Highway Patrol and The Force that were airing at that time until last Sunday. Last night’s Highway Patrol even finished with “Next week on Highway Patrol…”.

The two shows have not been rescheduled at this stage,but are likely to turn up on one of the weekday 7.30pm timeslots left free when X Factor settles into a normal weekly routine. 

At 9.30pm on Sunday is the season 3 finale of Castle.

Moving to Monday (September 5), and Suits drops back to the later time of 10.30pm permanently, with a repeat of Castle airing at 9.30pm. Teen Wolf 11.30pm.

No changes for Tuesday, but on Wednesday September 7, Law & Order: LA finds a new night and time at 9.30pm. Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour continues at 8.30pm that night.

Over to Thursday September 8, and Law & Order: LA remains at 9.30pm. That is followed by new series The Truth Behind… at 10.30pm – the first episode looks at Noah’s ark. The series puts the world’s most iconic myths and peculair phenomena to the scientific tests of today. Off The Map remains at 11.30pm.

Sunday September 11, sees Bones air in a double episode with a very typical channel Seven compile where a new episode is followed by a repeat seamlessly joined together in the hope that noone will notice.

The X Factor for its thrid week remains on four nights a week Monday to Thursday 7.30pm. Monday night September 12 is the 3rd Boot Camp episode, then the remaining three nights are “home visits” during which the contesntants of the top 24 travel the world meeting the four judges. The top 24 will be cut down to the top 12.

On Tuesday September 13, Seven will air the 2011 Miss Universe Pageant, held in Sao Paula Brazil from 10.30pm.

Detroit 1-8-7 has its final from 11.30pm, Wednesday September 14. Seven have done well to persist with this series, which initially aired at 9.30pm to low ratings.

Thursday September 15 remains same as September 8.

More Tennis for Seven, with the network airing the Davis Cup live from 11am Friday September 16. And of course, on that night, is the AFL finals at this stage, scheduled for 8.30pm, after Better Homes and Gardens.Please – make it live Seven?

Seven changes its worst performing night of the week – Thursday nights.

This Thursday, at 7.30pm, Manu Feildel’s Dinner Date airs at 7.30pm. The show, which features guests cooking for potential dates, was previously airing on Tuesdays at 9.30pm.

Following Dinner Date, at 8.30pm is the movie The Proposal. Then, at 11pm, a single episode of Law & Order: LA, while Off the Map is pushed almost off the night – starting at midnight.

A double helping of Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour this week, with Seven airing another episode tomorrow night (Thursday August 18) at 8.30pm instead of Pawn Stars which moves to 7mate.

Last week, Pawn Stars barely managed 500,000 in ratings. The show was originally planned to air on 7mate in any case, where it is more suited.

As a result, tonight’s programming has Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour at 8.30pm, Covert Affairs from 9.30 – 11.30, with Detroit 1-8-7 from 11.30pm.

Tomorrow night, Suspect Behaviour is at 8.30pm, with double Law & Order from 9.30pm and Off the Map from 11.30pm.

No word on subsequent weeks yet.

Hamish and Andy’s Gap Year’s Gap in ratings.

After a solid debut last week of over 1.4 million viewers, Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year dropped this week to 1,069,000 viewers – losing around 30% of the first show’s audience.

The lack of viewers for Gap Year allowed Ten’s The Renovators to gain its biggest audience of the series so far – 1,056,000 – only slightly short of Hamish & Andy. Last night’s episode though was only half an hour long, instead of the usual hour they all have been until now. In 16-39 and 18-45 demos, however, Hamish & Andy easily dominated its timeslot, well ahead of The Renovators. In 25-54’s the two shows were neck to neck, with just 1,000 separating the two – Hamish & Andy only just in front.

Over on Seven, Law and Order: LA only pulled 633,000 for its first episode at 8.30pm, and 454,000 for the second while Law & Order: SVU on Ten pulled 712,000 for its first episode at 9pm, then 495,000 for a repeat at 10pm – easily winning the battle of the Law & Order franchises for Thursday night.

So what will happen to Hamish & Andy next week? Will ratings decline further? Will they stabilise around a million or so, or will they recover and settle at perhaps 1.1 million?

Given that the competition was only half an hour of The Renovators, and two different Law & Order franchises, there may be some very nervous executives at Nine over Hamish & Andy. Sure the first show delivered the results, but the second is a huge drop, and typical trends of the way ratings go with new shows would suggest a further drop next week.

Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year airs on Nine Thursdays, 8.30pm.

Next week sees a transformation in Seven programming as new and returning shows fill a number of timeslots vacated by those that have concluded this week.

Prime time programming for the week looks like this:

Sunday August 7
6.30 Sunday Night
7.30 Great Migrations (final)
8.40 Bones
9.40 Castle (double episode)

Monday August 8
7.30 Unlikely Animal Friends
8.30 Body of Proof Premiere
10.30 Teen Wolf

Tuesday August 9
7.30 Four Weddings new
8.30 Winners & Losers
9.30 Dinner Date Australia
10.30 How I Met Your Mother (rpt)
11.00 Keeping Up with the Kardashians (final)
11.30 Perfect Couples – New Series.

Wednesday August 10
7.30 World’s Strictest Parents
8.30 Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour
9.30 Covert Afffairs

Thursday August 11
7.30 WWII Lost Films: The Air War
8.30 Pawn Stars – about a family Pawn shop operated by Ruchard Harrison and his sons.
9.30 Law & Order: LA
11.30 Off The Map

For the following week – week commencing August 14, there is a TBA at 10.30pm Tuesday night August 16 which could be the timeslot for the return of HBO series Hung. And still to slot in somewhere during that week is new series Suits, made for the USA Network in the US, the same network that airs Burn Notice and White Collar over there.

7.30pm Sunday August 14 and 7.30 Monday August 15 both remain as TBAs so far. With Seven ramping up X Factor promos, could we see the 2011 return of the show premiere August 14?