Rules of Engagement

Life after Masterchef on Ten provides for some very different programming with numerous timeslots vacated by the show, as well as a few others that have finished in July.

From Sunday July 25, Modern Family will be seen twice a week with an episode at 6.30pm Sunday and at 7.30pm Tuesday, moving forward into the slot vacated by Masterchef.

Following Modern Family at 7pm Sunday from July 25 will season 4 of Rules of Engagement. It will also be seen at 8pm Tuesday, again after Modern Family.

At 7.30pm, Sunday July 25, is the finale of Masterchef Australia, with the winner to be announced some time after 9pm.

Premiering after the Masterchef finale around 9.30pm Sunday July 25, will be the new series Undercover Boss which is about bosses of large corporations joining their front line workers under cover to see what life is like for the workers.

Undercover Boss than settles into its regular timeslot of Monday, 7.30pm from July 26.

Good News Week continues at 8.30 Monday July 26 after a two week break, while NCIS repeats on Tuesdays from 8.30 are double episodes. NCIS: LA is not being repeated at this stage.

Wednesday 7.30, July 28, sees all new Simpsons back in double episodes. The animated series takes off from season 21, episode 11, having previously been taken out of Ten’s schedule last year.

Wednesday nights remain unchanged with new episodes of Lie To Me and Law and Order Criminal Intent at 8.30 and 9.30 respectively.

From Thursday July 29, Bondi Vet settles into its new regular timeslot of 7.30pm Thursday, while the second season of Recruits premieres at 8pm Thursday July 29.

8.30 Thursdays is Rush, followed by Law and Order: SVU.

From Friday July 30, Jamie’s Food Revolution moves to 7.30pm, followed by an NCIS repeat at 8.30pm. New episodes of Numb3rs follow at 9.30pm. Note that the NCIS Tuesday night repeats are season 5, while the Friday night is season 4.

At 7.30pm, Sunday August 1, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation returns.

With Hawke on July 18 and the Masterchef finale July 25, it looks like Fans of The Good Wife will have to wait until Sunday August 1 to see the first of the final two episodes.

Later in the year on Ten, expect to see Junior Masterchef, Offspring, Keeping Up With the Jones, the 2010 ARIA Awards and the 2010 Commonwealth Games from Delhi broadcast on both Ten and ONE.

Thursday, January 7 7.30pm

Jeff’s distaste for setting up friends on dates is made worse when a couple Audrey and Jennifer have introduced don’t work out during a triple-date, leaving him stuck with the bill. Jeff tries to make Adam pay for half of the tab, but Adam refuses, blaming Jeff’s big mouth has the reason the couple left.

Meanwhile, Russell is obsessed with a lady he has seen in Jennifer and Adam’s apartment building and spends the week riding the elevators in the hope to catch another glimpse of her. When he finally sees her again, she is so freaked out by his behaviour she maces him.

Monday, January 4 8.00pm

Featuring special guest star HEATHER LOCKLEAR

When Audrey’s sister Barbara (guest star Heather Locklear) returns to town, Russell makes it his mission to convince her they can be more than just friends. However the goody-two-shoes Barbara he once knew is a changed woman and she is now hell-bent on sowing her wild oats. Russell gets swept aside and it is left to Audrey to console him.

Meanwhile, when Adam and Jennifer’s toaster stops working, they decide it’s the perfect opportunity to have an engagement party and collect a few household items.

Ten have made some rather major changes to their programming line up, effective from next week. Ten were the first to make summer programming changes after Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader (US) failed in ratings, and was beaten by Wipeout on GO for the same timeslot.

Futurama: The new episodes that were to be seen on Mondays will now be seen on Wednesday nights at 8.00pm. At Mondays at 8.00pm will be Rules of Engagement.

Stargate Universe: Will now debut in a double premiere episode (like it did back in October on Sci Fi channel) from Monday 14^th at 8.30pm. Stargate Universe will continue at 9.30pm from Mon Dec 21.

Supernatural: As a result, Supernatural is off for a week, returning Monday Dec 21 at 8.30pm.

White Collar: Moves from 8.30 to 9.30pm Tuesday nights.

NCIS: At 8.30pm Tuesdays from Dec 15, repeats of NCIS will play.

And here are some of the highlights of what will be on Ten to end the year.

Hamish and Andy: If you missed the Christmas special that was on in November, then you can see it again at 8.30pm Sunday December 20.

7pm Project: Airs weekdays 7pm with one hour episodes on Mondays and Fridays. The last show for 2009 will be Thur Dec 24, with the first for 2010 to be 7pm Jan 4, 2010.

Christmas Eve: From 12 Midday, Ten will be airing Christmas movies. At 12, it’s Stealing Christmas, followed by The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus at 1.50pm then A Very Married Christmas at 3.20pm.

Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation: Another Christmas special originally aired in November will be repeated at a more sensible time for Christmas specials. That is followed by the Victoria’s Secret Lingerie fashion parade at 9pm.

Christmas Day: Another three movies: 1.00pm is Miracle on 34^th Street, 3.10pm is Silver Bells, and 5.30pm is the Grinch.

Glee: With the last of the new eps being seen Sunday Dec 13, Glee will go into repeats from Sunday Dec 20. And on Sunday Dec 27, there will be a Glee marathon with eps 4-6 playing from 7.30pm onwards.

Malcolm in the Middle: For the week that 7pm is off, Malcolm in the Middle plays in double episodes form 6.30pm Monday Dec 28 till Friday Jan 1.

Shaun Micallef’s New Year’s Eve Rave: Shot in front of a live studio audience last month in Shaun‘s own loungeroom (so they say), this show promises to deliver a night of laughs with celebrity appearances, sketch comedy and the lamest fireworks display ever. So if you are home on the night or would even like to record and watch later while you recover from New Year’s Eve, this show is set to get you into the mood for 2010. It airs 10pm Thur Dec 31, 2009.

Programming info from Ten, and subject to late change.

With all our fave shows for 2009 coming to a close in November, we have here our first glimpse of summer television viewing courtesy of Ten – the first of the three commercial networks to reveal their summer line up.

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader US – Sunday Nov 29 6.30pm
Although the local version has not done too well, Ten will be taking their chances over summer with the US version. Fifth graders Laura, Jacob, Spencer, Kyle and Alana will help contestants find out if they are smarter than a fifth grader.

Glee – Sunday Nov 29 7.30pm. New episodes.
NEW EPISODES continue in to summer! Nov 29 sees S1 Ep 11. Glee – Sundays 7.30 from Nov 29.

Just For Laughs – Montreal Comedy Festival 2009.
Paul McDermott hosts a night of laughs with highlights from the Montreal Comedy Festival 2009. Comedians appearing include John Cleese, Whoopi Goldberg, Martin Short, Jimmy Carr and Ross Noble.

Futurama – Mondays 8pm from Nov 30
Returns with season 6, episode 9.

Supernatural – Mondays 8.30pm from Nov 30
Returns for season 5 with a double episode.

Accidentally on Purpose – Tuesday Dec 1 7.30pm
New comedy series starring Jenna Elfman and Grant Show. In the first episode, when Billie (Jenna’s character) receives a box of chocolates instead of a marriage proposal, she oges out and gets drunk with her girl friends. A hang over is not the only thing she picks up on her night out.

The Office – Tuesdays and Thursday 8pm from Dec 1.
Returns with season 5.

White Collar – Tuesdays 8.30 from Dec 1
The premiere of White Collar is on Wednesday Nov 25 at 9.30pm after the finale of Celebrity Masterchef. The series continues on Tuesday nights at 8.30.

Numb3rs – Tuesdays 9.30 from Dec 1
Series return with season 5, episode 8.

Simpsons Hour – Wednesdays 7.30pm from Dec 2
What Ten schedule would be complete without an hour of the Simpsons somewhere? Homer is back to the old Wednesday night time slot with a double dose. This weeks eps from season 10.

The Cleveland Show – Wednesdays 8.30pm from Dec 2
The Cleveland Show is a new animated series that follows everyone’s favourite sotf spoken neighbour, Cleveland Brown to his hometown in Virginia as he settles down with his childhood sweetheart, her unruly kids and his own 14 year old son, Cleveland Junior.

Little Britain USA – Wednesdays 9.30pm from Dec 2
The series repeated from episode 2.

Californication – Wednesdays 10.05pm from Dec 2
Season premiere of the first episode of season 3.

Rule of Engagement – Thursdays 7.30pm from Dec 3
Its back – starting from season 3, episode 1.

Lie to Me – Thursdays 8.30 from Dec 3
The repeat catch ups continue with Lie to Me playing out from Season 1, episode 2.

Law and Order CI – Thursdays 9.30pm from Dec 3
Law and Order is back on Ten. Season 8, episode 1.

Bondi Vet – Fridays 8pm from Dec 4
Repeats from the start. Good chance to see what you missed out on.

Law and Order – Fridays 8.30pm from Dec 4
Did I say this already? Law and Order is back on Ten. The original franchise returns with season 19, episode 19.

Outrageous Fortune – Fridays 9.30pm from Dec 4
Series return, season 5.

Don’t Forget the Lyrics – Saturdays 6.30pm from Dec 5
Been singing the wrong words for too long? “I’m your penis – I’m your fire – sure desire”. Its back to help us all out on karaoke night. See who gets their lyrics right for a chance of winning a million dollars.

Merlin – Saturdays 7.30pm from Dec 5.
The first series played out from episode 1. Catch up and see what everyone was talking about ear;ier this year – or just see it again before Ten airs season 2 in 2010.

And that is not all.

Other shows coming to Ten over summer include Stargate Universe – the Sci Fi channels’ highest ever rating show and a New Years Eve special hosted by Shaun Macallef.

The 7pm Project continues through summer while Neighbours has its season finale on Friday December 4 at 6.30pm.

Thursday August 6 7.30pm

Gone are the days when the little woman would fill her calender with baking, cleaning and attending Tupperware parties. Now her Blackberry is likely to be filled with work, ignoring your needs, and attending sex toy parties. Right?

Well, in this Rules of Engagement finale Audrey happily attends Jennifer’s toy party, which leads Jeff to believe she’s grown bored of him in the bedroom. Naturally this alpha male decides it’s time he took charge and add a little spice to their sex life himself.

Meanwhile Russell pretends to be married in order to have sex with a beautiful young woman. Hilarity ensues.

Thursday July 30 7.30pm

When Jennifer and Russell decide to teach Adam a lesson in responsibility, the joke is on them when Adam has the last laugh.

Meanwhile when Jeff runs into some extra cash, Audrey convinces him that they should live the good life for a night, living it up for a day has some pretty expensive price tags as penny-pinching Jeff learns the hard way.

Thursday July 23 7.30pm

When Audrey (Megyn Price) invites her and Jeff’s (Patrick Warburton) recently divorced out of luck friend Steve (Guest Star: Tony Hale) to stay with them for a few days, Audrey thinks she may have become Steve’s newest rebound.

Meanwhile, Russell’s (David Spade) love em’ and leave em’ antics have finally caught up with him when his newest fling Tina’s (Guest Star: Alexis Krause) overprotective brothers manage to track Russell down and make him follow through with his never ending empty promises.

Thursday July 9 7.30pm

Russell’s having a lunch date with a shrink. She pins down a problem he has within a few short minutes of discussion which opens a big quandary – he wants to nail her, yet she may be the only doctor who could solve all of his emotional problems. Cue Timmy, Russell’s over-achieving PA who is sent to the shrink with all of his problems. As an adolescent he masturbated so chronically his parents had him fitted for sandpaper mittens and he didn’t stop breastfeeding until age 7. Uncovering these problems leaves the shrink a little disturbed and Timmy suffers disturbing side effects.

Jeff has an issue of his own that needs addressing – he can’t cope with people stealing food from his plate and Audrey’s new best friend Jackie is a culprit. A second date the following night at a Mongolian restaurant with a lazy Susan ends in disaster and Audrey loses yet another friend.

Thursday July 2 7.30pm

It’s official – Russell has finally slept with a woman from all 50 states.

Jeff’s jealous because he doesn’t get any at home. He has to jump through hoops for the poultry amount that he does get like letting Audrey buy expensive clothes or jewels, or listening to her flap about her boring job.

Adam should be on Jeff’s side but he claims Jen and he have sex all the time… but not quite the same as how much they had when they first met. But add 10 pounds to his head and he could be Jeff in five years.

Russell proposes a challenge: single guy vs. married guys to see who can get it whenever they want it. The only ground rules? They can’t lie or pay for it.

It’s easier said than done – all three are put through their paces on their worthy mission to get laid by midnight and each man has his ego on the line. Who will win: single, engaged or married?