So You Think You Can Dance

Channel Nine has confirmed singer/dancer Timomatic will be the third judge on its reboot of Australia’s Got Talent.

The signing of Timomatic, whose real name is Tim Omaji, follows deals with former Spice Girl Mel B and Welsh-born comedy icon Dawn French.

Timomatic appeared on Ten’s So You Think You Can Dance in 2009, placing seventh, and then on Seven’s fifth season of Australia’s Got Talent, placing third. Continue reading »

And where to go to avoid the Royal Wedding other than going out, hiring a DVD or watching content from other sources?

While plenty of channels are covering the Royal Wedding there are still a few not affected by it. Not to mention the fact that Friday night football also airs as usual in its respective markets.

Here’s the run-down (free to air only*):

Sport:

Sydney & Brisbane only: NRL on Nine airs from 8.30pm with the Canterbury Bulldogs playing the Brisbane Broncos at 8.30pm and South Sydney Rabbitohs taking on Cronulla Sharks at 10.30pm

AFL: Sydney vs. Carlton play, and it airs on Seven from 7.30pm in Melbourne and Adelaide, 8pm in Perth. Sydney and Brisbane viewers can see the game on 7mate from 7.30pm.

ONE HD: The NBL Grand Final Game 3 airs from 5.30pm eastern with the NZ Breakers against the Cairns Taipans. WWE experience is at 8pm, UFC Jake Sheilds Special at 9pm, then UFC Prime time at 10pm. Based on Sydney times, other time zones check local guides.

Business as usual:

On GO!, its your typical Friday night with a Scooby Doo movie at 6pm, then The Benchwarmers at 7.30pm, followed by Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey from 9.15pm.

ELEVEN has its usual programming for the night with So You Think You Can Dance at 7.30pm, followed by Sex and the City from 9.30pm.

ABC3, SBS ONE and SBS TWO all feature regular Friday night programming, while ABC News 24 shows as regular programming as well, but the news will undoubtably be dominated with the Wedding. Regular programming also remains on 7TWO in NSW and QLD.

And, with the Chaser’s Commentary now pulled, ABC2 will has two hours of The Chasers War on Everything from 8.30pm. The Royale Family at 7.30pm.

Throng TV Spotlight Friday April 29.

*Obviously on Pay TV, those channels not covering the wedding will air what they usually do.

Some changes to ELEVEN on Saturday nights coming up from May 7.

At 7.30pm, the new season of So You Think You Can Dance US continues with the top 11 dancers competing for the title of “America’s Favourite Dancer”.

The Saturday night movies are gone (for now) from May 7 to make way for The Biggest Loser US, at 8.30pm.

Season 7 of the US series of The Biggest Loser is couples – featuring parents and children, sisters, best friends, grandparents, cousins, an engaged couple and former models.

And new 90210 continues after The Biggest Loser at 10.30pm.

So, from May 7, Saturday night on ELEVEN will look like this:

6.30 Everybody Loves Raymond
7.00 Everybody Loves Raymond
7.30 So You Think You Can Dance US
8.30 The Biggest Loser US
10.30 New 90210
11.30 Cheers

Programming Amendments Update, March 31.

1. 7TWO MKR encore

The usual Sunday morning encore for all three episodes of My Kitchen Rules is on 7TWO again this weekend. All three episodes from this week play from 8.30am Sunday April 3.

2. ELEVEN continue with next season of Dance.

ELEVEN will move straight into season 7 of US So You Think You Can Dance. The first episode of season 7 airs 7.30pm Friday April 15, a week after the season 6 finale on April 8.

3. Ellen repeat next Tuesday

The Ellen Degeneres Show next Tuesday April 5, 1pm on Nine, replay 5pm on GEM, will be a repeat. All other days feature new episodes.

4. $#*! My Dad says now officially a GO! show.

GO! will be playing $#*! My Dad says from episode 1, 9pm Mondays from next Monday April 4.

The season two finale of Nurse Jackie airs on ELEVEN Tuesday March 29, at 9.30pm. That is followed by the season finale of Californication at 10.05.

The following Tuesday, April 5, Nurse Jackie on ELEVEN moves straight into season 3.

Game On: Jackie’s relationship with both Kev in and O’Hara is even more strained since their surprise intervention. Meanwhile, Zoey and Lenny make their affair public knowledge.

Monday April 4 is the season finale of Dexter at 9.30pm.

The Getaway: As the noose tightens, Arthur warns Dexter to back of f , but Dexter will do any thing to stop Trinity from eluding him, even if that means putting himself on the wrong side of the law.

Friday April 8, from 7.30pm is the finale of So You Think You Can Dance US. Will be interesting to see what they fill the timeslot with the following week!

In only its second week, Australia’s newest digital multi-channel, ELEVEN, has taken top spot among digital multi-channels with its target audience of 13-29s, capturing a 9.4% per cent prime-time commercial share.

ELEVEN has the top two programs in 13-29 for Week 4 across all digital multi-channels with The All New Simpsons and Futurama (Mon Ep 2).

ELEVEN’s top programs for the week include:

Program Viewers

The All New Simpsons 330,000

Futurama (Mon Ep 2) 318,000

Neighbours 292,000

Supernatural 264,000

So You Think You Can Dance (US) 234,000

Glee’s Harry Shum Jr. and So You Think You Can Dance’s Stephen “tWitch” Boss have paired up in a short film that hit the internet this week.

The talented pair are a part of ‘3 Minutes’, a short film by up and coming American director Ross Ching which is described as an “exciting, non-stop action thriller”.

The film, not surprisingly, is just three minutes in length and also features a cameo from Spartacus: Blood and Sand actress Katrina Law.

Check out the official website here.

So You Think You Can Dance will not air on Ten next year. 2010 being was the reality show’s worst year to date, already putting its future was already on shaky ground.

In its place will be a new entertainment format, inspired by the success of Glee caleed Don’t Stop Believing which is an all-singing, all-dancing format from the UK to be produced by Shine Australia.

The UK series puts group performers in live performance shows competing against each other with viewers voting for the winner. Solo performers also compete, and contestants need to be able to sing and dance. Sounds like a mix between Idol and Dance!

With Australian Idol shelved for 2010, and now So You Think You Can Dance shelved for 2011, Fremantle Media Australia is starting to see its dominance in reality TV slide over to Shine Australia – who will also produce Masterchef from 2011.

Don’t Stop Believing is likely to air in the first quarter of 2011 on Ten, with a contestant calls for auditions soon to be advertised.

Source: TV Tonight

AUSTRALIA on Ten

These Top 4 dancers have battled their way through 10 weeks of fierce competition. They havebeen up against some of our country’s finest dancers and tackled spectacular routines week inand week out. They have survived the judge’s vote and they have won Australia’s votes to findthemselves on this busy stage, now very much in the spotlight.This week there is no elimination so tonight is a showcase of the amazing talent and versatility ofour remaining dancers.Prepare to be dazzled… in fact, prepare to be razzle dazzled.

Next week, from Sunday April 11, ratings season returns to TV. The week is packed with both new shows and returns of favourites as the commercial networks battle it out for ratings supremacy.

The weeks sees the premiere of the third series of Underbelly on Nine, The Pacific on Seven, Hey Hey Its Saturday on Wednesday on Nine and Australia’s Got Talent on Seven. Also in the mix will be The Zoo on Seven focussing on Pathi Harn on Monday the 12^th, new Sea Partol on Nine as well as other regular shows getting back to new episodes after two weeks of repeats or not being on at all.

Over at Ten, they have their big week during the following week with Sunday April 18 seeing the finale of the Biggest Loser and Talkn’ ‘Bout Your Generation, the premiere of season 2 of Masterchef at 7.30pm Monday April 19 and the Finale of So You Think You Can Dance at 8.30pm Wednesday April 21.

Focussing on next week for now – not only do viewers have to contend with so many big name new shows coming onto free to air at once but there are all those programming fine tuning and two hour premieres that go with it as the networks – primarily Nine and Seven at this stage – jostle and tweak with their programming in order to top the ratings for the week.

Underbelly is a two hour premiere on Sunday, April 11. Following Underbelly, at 10.30 V is now been programmed as a replay of the previous week’s episode. New episodes of V return at 9.30 Sunday April 18.

On Tuesday, Australia’s Got Talent will run for 100 minutes, from 7.30 – 9.10. In direct competition, Nine will show a 75 minute Top Gear special which with ads, will also finish around 9.10. That pushes Survivor back to a 9.10 start.

On Wednesday night, April 14, Hey Hey it is Saturday is scheduled to run for two hours from 7.30 to 9.30. If last year is anything to go by, the show could run as much as one hour late – which would be no surprise if it did, as Seven have their premiere of the Pacific airing from 8.30 – 10.40pm on that night. Nine, at this stage have programmed a new episode Big Bang Theory to follow Hey Hey at 9.30 and a repeat of Big Bang at 10.00. Given the likelihood of a Hey Hey overrun, if you are a Big Bang fan, be prepared for the show not to air at all – or at least the programmed new episode to end up starting at 10 or later. Then again, you can catch Big Bang on GO Sundays at 7.30, Thursdays at 8.30 and on Nine Mondays at 8pm – yes – it is almost as regular as Two and a Half Men now!

Possibly lost amongst the hype of all these other shows, is the return of Flashforward on Thursday night at 9.30 on Seven. It too will be a two hour offering. Sea Patrol on Nine at 8.30 Thursday is only one hour.

If you are one of these people who like to give everything a go on TV before deciding what to watch regularly, then your PVR will really get a work out next week – with hours of new programming on offer.

If you don’t have a PVR, it may be tough to decide what to give a go, but keep in mind – both Seven and Nine usually run encores of shows they premiere for the first week or two in an attempt to boost the number of viewers shows are exposed to and thus boost future ratings. Encores usually do not show in TV guides as they hope you will watch them first time round – but already – Nine have scheduled an encore of Underbelly on Tuesday night at 10.10 after Survivor. This may change at the last minute.

If you miss anything, be sure to keep a look out at the electronic guides for Seven, 7TWO, Nine and Go for repeat screenings.

The following week see Ten join in with Masterchef premiering Monday April 19 at 7.30pm. Masterchef will also run for extended time – with both Monday and Tuesdays episodes running for 90 minutes. In 2009, the week that Masterchef started, Biggest Loser and Dance ended was one of only two weeks for the whole year that Ten won in overall ratings. The finale of So You Think You Can Dance on Wednesday will be against Hey Hey’s second episode and The Pacific from 8.30.

If Masterchef, Underbelly, Hey Hey and the Pacific live up to their expectations, it will be a great three way battle for that week (April 18-24) between Ten, Nine and Seven.