MasterChef

With Easter just two weeks away, the networks are starting to promote shows that will air after Easter, in May and beyond. Seven lead the way with the most titles, Ten are aggressively promoting Masterchef’s return, while Nine are spruiking the return of two of their local productions Rescue and Sea Patrol.

Here is the run down of some of the shows that will grace our screens in May.

Masterchef, series three. Ten from Sunday May 1^st.

The third series of Masterchef promises to be the best yet with new challenges, new guests, more sponsors – watch out for product placement – and plenty of the drama that has helped make Masterchef the highest rating series on Australian television.

Offspring, second season. Ten in May.

Ten have just started promoting the return of season two of Offspring, retuning in May. At this stage the timeslot is not known. Chances are, Ten will try the show on a different night as Hawaii Five-O currently occupies Offspring’s 2010 timeslot of 8.30pm Sundays and has still has enough episodes to play to continue in that timeslot until the end of May. Despite the second season not even airing yet, Offspring has been renewed for a third season.

Stars: Asher Keddie, Kat Stewart and Don Hany.

Dancing With the Stars 11. Seven in May.

The celebrity dancing contest returns for another year, with eleven more hopeful “celebrities” including My Kitchen Rule’s Manu Fiedell vying for that elusive mirror ball trophy. Dancing with the Stars will almost certainly return to its regular timeslot of 6.30pm Sundays. Premiere date is most likely May 1, the night of the Logies and the premiere of Masterchef season 3.

Australia’s Got Talent. Seven in May.

Judges Kyle Sandilands, Danii Minogue and Brian McFadden return as judges in an effort to find who’s got talent in 2011. The level of promotion for the show suggests a return in the first week of May.

The Amazing Race Australia. Seven late May.

Seven are certainly rolling out the local productions this year. The Amazing Race Australia has already been filmed, and will premiere on Seven after the conclusion of the current US series which is airing on 7mate. The US series has 6 episodes to go, with the next episode airing Wednesday April 20, 7.30pm. Hot tip for timeslot is Mondays, 7.30pm from May 30.

No Ordinary Family. Seven soon.

This show is about the Powell family who mysteriously obtain hero-like super powers after the crash of their plane in the Amazon River. The father Jim has the power of super-strength, mother Stephanie speed, 16 year old daughter Daphne telepathy and 14 year old son JJ who once had a learning disability is graced with genius level mental abilities. The series deals with how the family handle their powers, as they try to come to terms with their new found abilities.

Stars: Michael Chiklis, Julie Benz, Kay Panabaker and Jimmy Bennett.

Downton Abbey. Seven soon.

Downton Abbey is an English produced period drama set in pre-WWI England, centred on the Crawley family and their servants. The seven part series starts off in April 1912, when the heir to the title of Earl of Grantham, long term inhabitants of Downton Abbey perishes on the Titanic. In order to inherit the wealth, the current earl, who owes his wealth to his rich American wife only has three daughters who cannot inherit by law. The challenge is to find a husband for the eldest, but the most likely candidate turns out to be gay. Donwton Abbey has a second season which airs in the UK late 2011. Stars Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern and Maggie Smith.

Rescue. Nine, soon.

Rescue, formerly known as Rescue Special Ops, returns to Nine for its third season most likely in May. Stars Peter Phelps, Andrew Lees, Les Hill, Gig Edgley and Libby Tanner.

Sea Patrol. Nine, soon.

Sea Patrol returns to Nine for its fifth and final season soon, also most likely in May. Stars Lisa McCune, Matthew Holmes and John Batchelor.

Seven by FAR have the most new content coming up in May with five titles currently being promoted. On top of those five, there is also Jersey Shore coming soon to 7mate, while 7TWO will expand its British crime library with the addition of The Bill and Doc Martin to its line up in May.

Meanwhile GO! continue to promote new shows like Glory Daze yet to be given an air date. Questions remain as to when numerous new content titles return to GO! including The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Hellcats, Community and the second season of Spartacus.

On SBS ONE in May is the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest, The Secret History of Eurovision, the FA Cup final and new Monster moves. A new (to free to air) nine part series of the UK version of Who Do You Think You Are? returns in May featuring Alan Cumming, Jason Donavon, Rupert Everett, amongst others.

Critically acclaimed East West 101 returns for a new seven part season, Tuesday April 19, 8.30pm on SBS ONE. The return of the multi-award winning series explores the fallout from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through a series of violent crimes committed in Australia. In the first episode, a sophisticated robbery of an armoured guard van leaves four dead, including some of the robbers themselves. Meanwhile Malik clashes with new detective on the squad, a former army officer, Neil Travis, in his impassioned pursuit of those who have hurt him and his family. Stars Don Hany, Susie Porter and Matt Nable

Coming to ABC1 in May is the four part series, The Kennedys starring Katie Holmes as Jacqueline Kennedy and Greg Kinnear as John F Kennedy. It will air as a four part mini series, with each episode being 90 minutes long.

May will also see ONE HD relaunched with more general entertainment – read more about the ONE HD makeover here.

The ratings battle and falling revenue will see ONE HD shift it focus away from sport and into more general entertainment appealing to a male audience, the very audience that Seven’s third channel 7mate is aimed for.

ONE HD has recently added more and more non-sports programming into its prime time line up. Initially, it was sports based movies once a week, now there are movies on two or even three nights – and they are definitely not sport related.

On top of that, documentaries like Black Gold, Ice Road Truckers and Ax Men air on Tuesday and Wednesday nights billed as “One Adventure”. This move has seen an increase in average prime time ratings for ONE.

But now, as head of sports programming for Ten Network Holdings, David White is set to leave the network after 14 years of service, and once the 2012-2016 AFL broadcast rights are finalised, the former 24 hour sports channel could take a new direction, with less focus on sport.

Originally promised as a title for sister network Ten digital channel ELEVEN, Sons of Anarchy may end up on ONE in prime time on weeknights. The aim is to broaden ONE’s audience beyond 1-2% it achieves now, and therefore increase revenue as a result.

The Ten network have had a very soft first quarter. Ten’s revamp of early evening news did not draw the audience the network had hoped for. 6pm With George Negus moves to 6.30pm from tonight (April 4)., while the Evening News is gone altogether. Ten’s First at Five news has been extended to 90 minutes, now airing from 5-6.30pm.

Ten’s prime time line up has changed a number of times in the first 8 weeks of 2011 ratings. The list of prime time shows that have moved timeslots in the last weeks includes House, NCIS: LA, Undercover Boss (US), Blue Bloods and Lie to Me – 5 shows in total.

Ten is regularly third, and sometime fourth in main channel ratings. Masterchef in May will give the network a lift while George Negus at 6.30 may also help. ELEVEN is doing well, now often amongst the top 3 most watched digital channels each night.

Only ONE drags the chain. While Seven and Nine see ratings for GEM and 7mate around 3% or so, 7TWO and GO at 4% and beyond, and ELEVEN close to 4%, ONE sits around the 1% mark – amongst the lowest rating digital channels.

A new direction for ONE could see the channel’s ratings shares increase and help put the Ten network back into the ratings race and generate more revenue for the corporation.

The departure of David White means that ONE programming will be taken over by David Mott, responsible for overseeing programming for Ten and ELEVEN.

 Source: The Australian.

Several unlikely Gold Logie nominations have led to questions being asked over the 2011 Logie Awards voting.

The three nominations of The Circle co-host Chrissie Swan for the Gold Logie, Silver Logie for most popular presenter and most popular new talent was the big surprise following the announcement yesterday for the May 1 awards.

Other surprises include the nominations of Asher Keddie and Karl Stefanovic for the top award and the one single nomination for ratings juggernaut MasterChef for most popular reality programme.

Swan’s nomination is being questioned given she is one of four co-hosts of The Circle, a show that draws around 70,000 viewers on average per day.

Packed to the Rafters has proved the biggest hit with fans, pulling 15 nominations in total, including Gold Logie nods for Jessica Marais and 2009 winner Rebecca Gibney.

Votes were cast this year by TV Week readers in both print and online mediums and are officially audited.

Source: News.com.au

Mad Men renewed for two more seasons

Mad Men has been given another two seasons by its American network AMC. The show will return for its fifth season next year.

MTV orders full season of US Inbetweeners

MTV has ordered a full season of the US version of UK teen comedy The Inbetweeners. The network has announced a 12-episode season of the comedy that will join MTV’s other new series Teen Wolf, Beavis and Butthead and This Is Awkward in the new season.

HBO developing Ridley and Tony Scott series

HBO is developing a new crime drama series with Ridley and Tony Scott’s production company Scott Free. The series, entitled The Sector, is believed to be inspired by the likes of Blade Runner and District 9.

Fans walk out of Sheen’s first live tour show

Charlie Sheen’s first live outing on his Violent Torpedo of Truth Tour in Detroit has ended with booing crowds and walkouts. Entertainment Weekly reports that the show was “padded and disjointed” with a “hodgepodge of video clips and Sheen-isms that felt hastily assembled and misjudged.”

MasterChef Australia champ releases cookbook

Last year’s MasterChef champion Adam Liaw has released his cookbook entitled Two Asian Kitchens. The book is the same as Liaw pitched it while on the hit cooking series, featuring easy Asian recipes to be cooked at home.

What were Ten thinking putting Modern Family repeats at 8.30pm on a Wednesday? Against one of Seven’s powerhouse imported drama Criminal Minds and Nine’s Farmer Wants a Wife? At the Same time as ABC’1 In Gordon St Tonight?

Especially seeing that these season one episodes of Modern Family are now being played for the third or fourth time.

Even in the younger demos – where Modern Family does well, the Modern Family hour languished third in the timeslot, and overall, the hour didn’t even average 500,000 over the two episodes. Furthermore, it has dragged down Lie to Me figures even further – Lie to Me even at 9.30 can draw overall figures around 700,000 or so.

It’s a shame that they didn’t put more thought into programming for the night as ONE had its best channel share yet for a weeknight that is devoid of any major sporting event. Observational Ice Road Truckers and One at the movies: Hitman helped ONE to a share of 2.3%, just 0.3% behind GEM. Given ELEVEN had a share of 3.8%, and GO! 3.2%, the Ten network’s digital shares in total are actually ahead of Nine’s.

Now that ONE’s non-sport prime time nights are starting to put Ten back into the race in terms of digital channel shares, have hey forgotten about their main channel?

Ten should have tried Lie to Me at 8.30. It’s never going to get the million plus that Criminal Minds does, but the show has achieved figures that high in the past. At the earlier time, Lie to Me could easily pull well over 700,000 which has got to be better than the sub-500,000’s that Modern Family repeats achieve.

I read in TV Week that Ten had no immediate plans to air Burn Notice anytime soon. Shame. Lie to Me at 8.30 and Burn Notice at 9.30 on a Wednesday would go well together – and would do better in the ratings than the current situation. With Lie to Me pulling over 700,000 – or possibly even more – at 8.30, and Burn Notice 500,000 – 600,000 at 9.30, it would put some spark back into Ten’s Wednesday night and prevent them from shares less than half of Seven’s.

I have said it before, and will say it again: Ten should move NCIS: LA to 9.30pm Tuesdays, after NCIS. NCIS: LA is dieing on Sunday nights. Sunday 9.30 could be where Law & Order goes or something similar.

That one simple move could put Ten second to Seven, and ahead of Nine on Tuesday nights- at the moment, Ten are a shade behind Nine – on the night that Nine has its biggest problems also using sitcom repeats to plug a timeslot hole, when they should be airing Survivor Redemption Island.

Ten could be holding off until Masterchef to hit us with their best programming – but given Masterchef is still at least six weeks away, can the network survive until then with such low nightly shares?

Aussie cooking legend Margaret Fulton has gone on the attack against reality shows such as My Kitchen Rules and MasterChef.

Fulton has accused the contestants on the popular shows of lacking the basic skills of cooking and directed some of her fire at the judges as well.

“I’ve seen enough people not cook well. I don’t want to watch people very pleased with what they’re doing but doing everything wrong,” Fulton said.

“What I found on MasterChef when I was on it, some of the basic things the contestants were trying to do – they didn’t know the basic things, such as pastry making.”

She attacked Matt Preston for turning into a showman.

“Matt found the inner showman in himself. Now he’s found the full showman,” she said.

“Matt used to be quite a serious food journalist. He is married into a Melbourne family that’s quite conservative, and they couldn’t believe what Matt was up to.

“He’s a nice person, but he’s developing this thing like Bernard King.”

Source: HeraldSun

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has confirmed the agreement to purchase UK TV production company Shine Group.

The two companies will continue to negotiate the terms of the $667 million deal which is also subject to regulatory approval.

The move will bring Shine chairperson and chief executive Elisabeth Murdoch back into News Corp after she departed in 2001.

Shine is responsible for producing MasterChef on Channel Ten in Australia along with The Tudors, which screens on ABC.

Source: B&T

Nine secures rights to Top Gear USA

Channel Nine has picked up the new American version of Top Gear, entitled Top Gear USA. The network is among a range of international broadcasters who have purchased the series, with others including Prime in New Zealand.

Viewers complain about new UK MasterChef format

The BBC are fielding complaints over the format changes to the new season of MasterChef in the UK which has adopted the style of the Australian version. Viewers are complaining that the series is too different now from its original, minimalist format.

Scrubs actor to guest on Cougar Town

Another former Scrubs cast member will guest star on Cougar Town in the show’s second season. Sam Lloyd, who played Ted Buckland on the medical sitcom, will play the same character in the second season finale of Courtney Cox’s comedy.

NPH to direct new comedy pilot

How I Met Your Mother actor Neil Patrick Harris will reportedly direct a new pilot for CBS. The sitcom is said to focus on a team of young people who work at a high-power venture capital firm.

Harry Potter actor lands pilot role

Harry Potter actor Jason Isaacs will return to TV in a new NBC pilot called REM. The British-born actor, who featured in the Harry Potter franchise as Lucius Malfoy, will join former 24 showrunner Howard Gordon on the pilot.

Matt Preston to feature on MasterChef USA

MasterChef Australia judge Matt Preston will appear on the next season of MasterChef USA as a guest judge it has been confirmed. The food critic will appear alongside the show’s regular judges Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich and Graham Elliot.

Kathy Griffin to guest on Glee

Kathy Griffin has confirmed that she will be making a guest appearance on Glee. The actress and comedienne will play a character who is based on former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin.

Mandel to host new reality show

America’s Got Talent judge Howie Mandel has been confirmed to host the new Glee-inspired reality show entitled Mobbed. The hidden camera show will see unwitting members of the public treated to a flash-mob style musical performance which informs them of some big news such as a marriage proposal or an offer of employment.

Cowell planning sports reality show

Simon Cowell is reportedly looking to develop a sports reality show which will run in the lead-up to the London Olympics next year.

The original UK version of MasterChef has taken a leaf out of Australia’s book by revamping their set and format for the new season.

The series has ditched its low-key kitchen and style and now boasts a flashier set that resembles that of the Australian version.

The series visits Australia during its new season as well.