The Defenders

9.30pm Wednesday August 24 on Ten

Seventeen years after disappearing on the eve of his wife’s murder trial, Donnie, an old mate of Nick’s (Jim Belushi), returns to Vegas looking to prove his innocence by relying on new technological tools. But when the case leads to Nick’s past MOB connections, and his life threatened, this case turns personal.

Guest stars Dean Norris (“Breaking Bad”) as Donnie.

French Food Safari, SBS ONE, 7.30pm

In the final episode, Maeve and Guillaume are taken on a tour of one of the top Parisienne kitchens with three-Michelin-starred chef Guy Savoy, who cooks up some of his signature dishes. Then it’s a visit to one of Paris’s most famous wood-fired bread makers, Poilane, whose oven has been creating great sourdough for decades. Finally, there is breakfast in the markets of Lyon with legendary chef Paul Bocuse, who shares his thoughts on the future of French food.

Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour, Seven, 8.30pm

More of a reminder to fans that now it is on Thursday night as well. Tonight, the red cell team travels to Arizona to decipher the message a suspect is sending following two brutal murders.

Pawn Stars, 7mate 8.30pm

Moved to 7mate, after not doing the business on Seven. The authenticity of a Civil War saber is questioned when brought inside the shop for sale. Also arriving is a Fender guitar signed by Chuck Berry, and a National Register dated back to 1916.

The Big C and Weeds, GEM, from 10.40pm

If you missed them a few nights a go, GEM are replaying the two new episodes of The Big C and Weeds tonight.

The Big C: Season 2 opens with Cathy seeking a second opinion about her cancer, which doesn’t sit well with Dr. Todd. Meanwhile, Sean discovers that his sister is battling cancer while he’s dealing with the growing pains of living with a pregnant Rebecca; and Adam is less-than-happy about seeing a therapist.

Weeds: Season 7 opens three years after pot-dealing Nancy Botwin has done a stint in federal prison and has been paroled to New York City. She is placed on probation in a halfway house, but fully looking for an opportunity to fire up her canni-business and reunite with the men in her life.

The Defenders, ONE, 9.30pm.

And for fans of The Defenders, after the show was dumped from Ten’s line up, it now airs on ONE on Thursday nights. Nevada Vs Wayne: Nick decides to defend a personal friend charged with sexual assault. Meanwhile, Pete is stunned and a little bit upset when he is selected for jury duty.

Stargate Universe, ELEVEN, 8.30pm

When Camille and Sgt. Greer use the communications stones to return to Earth, they arrive to learn there is a high state of alert in anticipation of an attack from the Lucian Alliance.

RBT, GO!, 8.00pm

For some reason, RBT has ended up on GO! Was on Nine – look at all the shows on tonight that have gone to digital channels after airing on main channels! Tonight’s count, three – one for Seven with Pawn Stars, Nine for RBT and Ten for The Defenders with these three shows airing on 7mate, GO! and ONE respectively. Talk about musical chairs in programming!

After being pushed out of the Ten schedule in favour for repeats of NCIS, The Defenders will air on ONE from this Thursday night August 18 at 9.30pm.

UPDATED: As a result, Breakout Kings – a show ONE had hyped up as the next Prison Break (yet nowhere near as good) moves to late Friday nights, airing at 11.30pm this Friday August 19 and 11.00pm next Friday August 26. ONE programming for August 19 including UFC falls back an hour to make room for the show.

Just last week here on Throng, we suggested that shows like Burn Notice and The Defenders that have been moved out of Ten’s main channel schedule should move to ONE (or ELEVEN) rather than just having the fans miss out.

Burn Notice comes to ONE on Monday August 29 at 8.30pm (although it is not clear which episode yet – hopefully it takes off from where Ten left it) while The Defenders will air on ONE at 9.30pm Thursday August 18.

Breakout Kings now on Friday nights late night 11.30 this week, 11.00pm next.

While Ten continue to struggle in ratings expect more fine tuning and adjustments between their channels to maximise ratings potential.

We love playing musical programming!

This is the third time in a week I have written here on Throng about shows being bumped and how they show be rescheduled. Both Burn Notice and The Defenders have now moved from Ten to ONE. Breakout Kings and 24 on ONE have moved timeslots to accomdate the extra shows.

Coincidence? I wonder!

Maybe time for you all to submit your wish list of shows that have been taken out of the schedule of Ten, ONE and ELEVEN to see if we can get them re-scheduled somewhere over their network!

Blue Bloods, White Collar, Medium, Smallville and 90210 are just a few that come to mind.

We’ll keep you posted.

More  programming changes from Ten – this time, ONE gets some changes.

From Monday August 29, Burn Notice will air on ONE, at 8.30pm, replacing 24 which moves to Tuesdays at 10.30pm from August 30. No details about whether it is new or repeat episodes.

Burn Notice is made in HD, so there may be a chance the show will air in HD on ONE.

Also new to ONE, is a replay of Can of Worms at 9.30pm Tuesdays from August 30.

Burn Notice last aired on Ten on Friday nights before the network took it off due to poor ratings.

Just earlier this week in the story about The Defenders being bumped, I wrote that Burn Notice should air on ONE.

No rescheduling details for The Defenders yet.

Burn Notice – ONE Mondays 8.30pm from August 29.

While Nine use Big Bang to plug up holes in programming, Ten do it with NCIS.

Repeats of NCIS have aired on Sunday nights, Friday nights, and of course Tuesday nights in both that show’s regular timeslot of 8.30 and the 9.30 timeslot following a new episode.

Now there is another night to add to the list: Wednesday nights.

From next Wednesday, August 17, NCIS repeats will air on Wednesday night at 9.30pm (season 7, episode 12), instead of The Defenders, which is now out of the schedule.

At this stage, remaining episodes of The Defenders remain unscheduled.

Which leads me to this point – now that ONE is general entertainment, why aren’t these shows Ten keep taking off their main channel being played out on One? Burn Notice disappeared without a trace, and now The Defenders. Most of ELEVEN’s shows are ex-Ten shows, so there’s another option.

I realise the network are trying to keep each of their channels as separate brands with their own collection of shows, but not playing episodes at all is unfair to fans.

Maybe Ten will re-schedule for summer, but in years gone by, summer non-ratings is far from immuned from this rescheduling ratings driven madness that Ten especially are notorious for during times of low ratings.

NCIS repeats do OK, but there is only so many times people will watch them, and sooner or later, the ratings will be in decline. Excessive episodes of the same show simply drives down their performance overall. Not to mention the fact that last minute programming changes into unusual timeslots for shows almost always fail.

Seriously, Ten, maintain a stable schedule. There are more amendments like this on Ten at the moment than Nine – who usually have the most unstable schedule.

Who wants to bet that they AGAIN bring forward the launch of Junior Masterchef to help out their ratings? Better start promoting the show then, or risk sub-million ratings for that show as well if they bring it forward too early.

The finale of season three of Masterchef Australia airs on Ten Sunday August 7, 2011.

As Masterchef concludes, Ten’s new reality competition series The Renovators will fill the timeslot voids the cooking show vacates.

On Sunday August 7, Masterchef airs at both 6.30pm and 8.30pm, with The Renovators sandwiched in between at 7.30pm.

Masterchef at 6.30pm sees the final two contestants enter the kitchen for the final food fight. Three epic challenges stand between them and being crowned Australia’s Masterchef for 2011.

On The Renovators at 7.30pm, one team’s head renovator has been eliminated which means there is now a new set of keys up for grabs. To be in the running, contestants must first lay a brick wall, then win another white room challenge.

Then, at 8.30pm, it is Masterchef Australia The Winner Announced. The judges have cast their votes and the 2011 winner of Masterchef Australia will be announced during this one hour final instalment.

Following on, soon after 9.30pm is a 5 minute first look at Ten’s new series, The Class of 2011, which will premiere on Ten in coming weeks.

Then at around 9.40pm is the movie Tropic Thunder.

The rest of the week looks like this:

Monday August 8.
7.30pm The Reonovators
8.30pm Can Of Worms
9.30pm Law and Order: Criminal Intent (new)

Tuesday August 9.
7.30 The Renovators
8.00 Modern Family – NEW episode
8.30 NCIS repeat
9.30pm NCIS: LA repeat

Wednesday August 10.
7.30 The Renovators
8.30 Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation – new episode, new time, season return
9.30 The Defenders continues

Thursday August 11.
7.30 The Renovators
8.00 Modern Family (repeat)
8.30 Law & Order: SVU – new episode
9.30 Law & Order: SVU – repeat

Friday August 12.
7.30 The Renovators: How to (which is basically the Masterclass of The Renovators)
8.30 Law & Order: UK – season premiere
9.30 Law & Order – season return

The Defenders, Ten 9.30pm
In this series James Belushi plays Nick Morelli, alongside Jerry O’Connell as Pete Kaczmarek, they are bold Las Vegas attorneys, who take on some dodgy cases. Tonight Nick and Pete defend a young man facing a murder charge in a case unique to Vegas that requires a slight bending of the rules and ‘by any means necessary’ tactics.

Obama’s War, SBS TWO 8.30pm
Tens of thousands of fresh American troops are now on the move in Afghanistan, led by a new commander and armed with a counterinsurgency plan that builds on the lessons of Iraq. But can US forces succeed in a land long known as the ‘graveyard of empires’? Journalist Martin Smith travels across Afghanistan and Pakistan to see firsthand how the president’s new strategy is taking shape

Wild Things, 7mate 9.30pm
In south Florida, a high school counselor is accused of rape by a manipulative rich girl and her trailer trash classmate. The cop on the case begins to suspect a conspiracy and dives into an elaborate and devious web of greed and betrayal to find the truth. Starring Denise Richards, Kevin Bacon and Matt Dillon.

Nikita, 10.30pm GO!
Alex informs Nikita that Division is sending her on her first mission to kill the leader of a crime syndicate. Alex is uneasy about taking someone’s life but is reassured by Nikita who insists on helping her with the kill order. Inside Division, Jayden attempts to reveal Alex as the mole but Thom steps in and a shocking accident changes the course of actions.

On Sunday May 29, Masterchef is another 90 minute episode with as the contestants face one of the most daunting challenges ever – cooking for 450 hungry gold miners in the heart of Western Australia.

Hawaii Five-O moves back to 9pm, and at 10pm on Ten (and ONE) is live Formula One.

Monday May 30 and Tuesday May 31 programming remains as normal.

Then on Wednesday, following Glee at 9.30pm is the premiere of the new series The Defenders.

With an eclectic client list and a desire to hit their own jackpot, Nick Morelli and Pete Kaczmarek are your local go-to guys if you need a defense attorney in Las Vegas!

Starring: James (Jim) Belushi, Jerry O’connell, Jurnee Smollett, Tanya Fischer, Teddy Sears

On Thursday June 2, is the explosive season finale of The Good Wife at 8.30pm.

TEN’s new crop of US shows launching in 2011 have already proven to be massive hits abroad with Hawaii 5-0, The Defenders, Raising Hope and Blue Bloods all announced as full season pick-ups.

Stemming from long term output deals with CBS International and Twentieth Century Fox, these four shows represent 78 hours of additional content, further deepening our current strong offering to market for 2011.

David Mott, chief programming officer TEN said, “I’m thrilled but not surprised. For the past two years we have arguably had the strongest programs to come out of the US as part of our output deals, most recently Modern Family, The Good Wife, NCIS: Los Angeles and Glee. This year is the same.”

“Hawaii 5-0, The Defenders, Raising Hope and Blue Bloods have all struck a chord with the US and they should, they represent good drama and big entertainment. Their inclusion in our 2011 schedule complements our existing proven performers, both from the US and domestically.”

“Not to mention Australia’s own Alex O’Loughlin as lead in Hawaii 5-0, is sure to strike a special chord here at home.”

Tune in, over the coming months for big entertainment on TEN.