Simpsons

All the reality competitions are finishing up, final new episodes for shows are being called season finals whether they are mid season or not and the program guides for free to air channels are transforming into completely new and different schedules to what we have been used to for the last few months.

It is time for summer TV – starting Sunday November 28, 2010 – the time of year when the commercial free to air networks deliver more repeats than ever before, and give us more of those shows that simply don’t cut it during the main ratings season as well as a swag of New Zealand factuals (channel Seven mainly) that will help keep their local content quota up over summer.

Officially, the summer months do not count towards winning or losing the ratings but – ratings are still measured during summer, and networks will still adjust schedules to improve their chances of doing better in the ratings – afterall – summer or not – ratings is money for them.

Ten are easing us into summer with Neighbours and Rush continuing for a few weeks yet and a new episode of Glee remaining to be played on Monday Nov 29, before repeats air the week later. They also have All New Simpsons on Tuesday nights – new Simpsons no longer rates well enough to be on Ten during the main part of the year.

Nine have new episodes of Without a Trace and Cold Case as well as new shows Chase and Better With You. The best of 60 Minutes contains stories you would have already seen throughout the year while Two and a Half Men continues to be spread throughout the schedule of Nine and GO! Also on both channels, you can catch repeats of Top Gear on four nights.

Seven bring us new episodes of Border Patrol, Coast Watch, Animal Squad, ICU, Medical Emergency and Under the Hammer. They’ll be showing the US version of Minute to Win It followed by I Shouldn’t Be Alive. The Amazing Race continues, while new NCB drama Outlaw premieres on Monday night.

As for ABC1 and SBS ONE, you wouldn’t really notice that much of a difference as they move into summer TV. Australian drama Rake continues on ABC1, SBS premieres the new series of Who Do You Think You Are while quiz show Letters and Numbers continues at 6pm weeknights into December. ABC1 will be airing the Doctor Who Christmas special on December 26, hours after they see it in the UK.

To digital channels, and GO has re-shuffled parts of its schedule but it’s highest rating show The Big Bang Theory will not be seen on GO in summer. There is one episode on Nine in Tue Dec 7. Pretty Little Liars premieres Mon Nov 29, while new episodes of The Vampire Diaries return from Mon Dec 6.

GEM has a few subtle changes – one of which is that there will now be no movies on Monday nights because Nine is showing movies on Monday nights.

7TWO have transformed Sunday night completely with a line up no too different to their very successful Friday night lifestyle line up. 7mate’s programming remains much the same in summer, only difference is those new episodes of Family Guy and American Dad will be repeats while Gene Simmons moves into two nights a week instead of just the one. Stargate fans – look out for three hours of Stargate Atlantis on Thursday nights.

ONE HD will start showing a movie on Sunday nights while the rest of the week the channel is grouping roughly into themed nights.

Watch out for the launch of Ten’s new channel Eleven on January 11, 2011. Programming information should become available around Christmas time.

Meanwhile – Pay TV is premiering numerous new shows and series in December as part of their (Foxtel’s) 100 days of summer promotion.. Pay TV’s shares increase during free to air non ratings periods – a fact they now capitalise on to woo viewers over during summer.

As always during summer, there is plenty of cricket on Nine with the Ashes, the one day series and a few Twenty/20’s thrown in while Seven will have the Australian Open Tennis in January – which will also be seen on Fox Sports this time as well.

Carols in The Domain will air on Seven on Saturday Dec 18, while Melbourne’s traditional carols night will air Friday Dec 24 on Nine.

Ratings season for 2011 resume Sunday February 6, 2011.

Following are the links to programming and information for most channels for the first week of summer.

Seven

7TWO

7mate

Nine

GO!

GEM

Ten

ONE HD

Foxtel’s 100 Days of Summer

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.