Ocean Giants

Nine are now heavily promoting new Two and a Half Men which is set to air at 8.30pm, Tuesday September 20. This will be the much anticipated first episode of the new season without Charlie Sheen and with Ashton Kutcher filling Sheen’s void.

New Two and a Half Men will be followed by the premiere of new locally produced comedy series The Joy of Sets which is another TV based comedy show involving Ed Kavelee. While I am tempted to say “it won’t work”, based on the (lack of) success of anything comedy Nine have done this year, as well as similar shows in past years, The Joy of Sets could maybe become the exception. It airs at 9pm Tuesday Sept 20.

That will be followed by The Roast of Charlie Sheen at 9.30pm that night.

Looking at the rest of that week on Nine, the network are yet to decide what to air at 9.30pm Sunday Sept 19, with two hours of TBA currently slated at that time.

On Monday night (Sept 19), at 8.30pm will be the movie Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Whether this remains in that timeslot will depend how this week’s movie “The Ugly Truth” (which airs 8.30pm Monday Sept 12) does in ratings.

To Tuesday night, prior to NEW Two and a Half Men at 8.30pm, is an hour of repeat Two and a Half Men from 7.30pm. Perhaps the idea here is to wet the viewers’ appetite for the new one, but honestly – my concern is that the new one will be lost in a sea of reteats and the result will be the new episode at 8.30pm won’t do anywhere near as well as it could have in ratings.

Wednesday night – Nine’s equally troubled night as Tuesdays sees the final in the Ocean Giants series air ay 7.30pm. A Mentalist repeat airs at 8.30pm, then new RPA at 9.30pm. UPDATED – NOTE: Although Nine have now changed Wed Sept 14 moving RPA to 8.30 and Where Are They Now in at 10pm, they have not yet issued an amendment for Wed Sept 21.

Thursday night (Sept 22), and Big Bang repeats fill 7pm – 8.30pm, while, in the US, the season 5 premiere of NEW Big Bang Theory airs on this night their time. Will Nine fast track and get new Big Bang on the following week? We hope so!

On Friday (Sept 23), NRL (NRL markets, plus VIC if the Storm are still in the comp and playing that night) will see the NRL preliminary final no.1 at 7.30pm, followed byThe Rugby World Cup 2011 at 9.45pm in which Australia play the USA (should be on GEM in non-NRL markets). Should be a shoe-in for the Wallabies!

As mentioned in the Ten programming post for the week Sept 18-24, I will soon be posting a tally of which Australian network is doing the best with fast tracking as the new US season takes off from Sept 19 their time.

So far Nine and Ten are equal with one each. Nine have Two and a Half Men, Ten have Glee. As for Seven, they are almost overflowing with content that fast tracking hardly seems necessary for them. Besides – Seven have well and truly won the 2011 ratings year in any case.

Programming news for the week September 25-October 1 will be very interesting! Monday September 26 for Nine will be especially interesting, as it is obvious that the movies on Monday nights now are a temporary programming measure.

Will we see new Mentalist at 8.30pm Monday Sept 26?

Try not to look too surprised here.

Nine have taken off $#*! My Dad Says from Tuesday nights, replacing it with The Big Bang Theory at 8pm. That now means there are two nights a week in Nine’s schedule with triple episodes of Big Bang from 7pm – Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Same Name – Lame programming. Why is it, that just about everyone who comments on sites like this and Nine’s own Facebook page knew that Same Name would have been a flop in ratings?

Last Wednesday, the show managed 525,000, and dragged down Nine’s night with it. Expect to see it on GEM one day! Same Name will be replaced by documentary series Ocean Giants: Giant Lives – the fourth change to 7.30 Wednesday in as many weeks. Methinks Top Gear Australia might work better at this time, when it is not against Packed to the Rafters on Seven?

Speaking of Top Gear Australia, Nine have moved that as well from 8.30 to 9.30 on Tuesday night. No idea why they thought it would do well in that timeslot either. At 8.30, Under Surveillance airs, with an episode called Charlotte’s Web.

10.30 that night is a repeat episode of Top Gear.

Source: Many EPGs.

Questions: Why do I now have to find out this information from EPG’s? Why aren’t Nine sending out amendments to bloggers anymore? Whether they send them out or not, it’s not going to change anyway at all what we post and write about these excessive programming changes.

Ratings predictions: Ocean Giants 600,000. Under Surveillance 600,000. Top Gear Australia 300,000.

At this stage, no clue as to what will happen the week after next as the Foxtel advance guide ap – which allows you to look 14 days in advance – still has the programming unchanged – that is, Same Name is still on, Top Gear Australia at 8.30 Tuesday. Obviously that is all wrong now.

I don’t think Nine have any clue what to air that week either – they’ll watch and see what happens with ratings and then decide.