Without a trace

Wednesday September 28 at 7.30pm on W

In the Season 6 premiere, Jack and the squad search for a celebrity couple’s Sudanese 2-year-old adopted son, who is kidnapped from his home. The team considers if the abduction is connected to his parents’ celebrity or the boy’s native country. Stars Anthony LaPaglia.

10:30pm – Sunday, December 26 on Channel Nine

As the team searches for a missing high-end Russian matchmaker, the agents find they have no shortage of suspects.

A few weeks after being taken off Nine due to poor ratings, Without a Trace finds a new home on GEM.

Without a Trace will air on GEM on Sunday nights at around 10.50pm or so, after the Sunday movie, from Sun Jan 2, 2011. It takes off from season 5, episode 1.

Without a Trace is one of those shows that seem to pop in and out of the Nine schedule, hardly ever finding a regular timeslot. Hopefully on GEM, it will settle into the late Sunday night timeslot and remain there until episodes run out.

Being on GEM also means Without a Trace will be seen in HD.

Without a Trace on GEM, Sunday night 10.50pm Jan 2, 2011.

10:30pm – Sunday, December 19 on Channel Nine

During the search for a missing psychologist, the team discovers the victim’s brother was imprisoned for serial rape, making them question if this past is connected to the disappearance. Meanwhile, Martin’s relationship with Kim (recurring guest star Vanessa Marcil) heats up. Recurring guest star Adam Kaufman appears as Brian Donovan.

10:30pm – Sunday, December 12 on Channel Nine

The team searches for a missing trial consultant and tries to narrow down the list of suspects involved with his disappearance. Recurring guest star VANESSA MARCIL (“Las Vegas,” “General Hospital”) appears as Kim Marcus, a juror on a murder trial on which the victim had recently consulted.

Meanwhile, Samantha and Jack adjust to Brian (recurring guest star ADAM KAUFMAN) spending more time with their son, Finn.

10:30pm – Sunday, December 5 on Channel Nine

The team searches for a mother and her infant son who disappear after attending a self-defence class.

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

Nine have released details that fill in all the blanks for their programming for the first week of summer, the week commencing Sunday November 28.

Repeats of the Mentalist move to Sunday night, The Middle moves from GO back to Nine, and new series for summer include Chase and Better With You – both new US titles for season 2010/11. Returning are new episodes of Without a Trace and Cold Case.

Here’s the summary:

Sunday Nov 28
6.30 The Enforcers – new
7.00 Hot Pursuit – new
7.30 Best of 60 Minutes
8.30 The Mentalist
9.30 Chase – new
10.30 Without a Trace – new

Monday Nov 29
7.30 Two and a Half Men
8.00 The Middle – from the start
8.30 Movie: Miss Congeniality
10.45 Embarrassing Bodies

Tuesday Nov 30
7.30 Top Gear
8.40 Richard Hammonds Invisible Worlds – new
9.40 Survivor Nicaragua – new
10.40 Ramsays’ Kitchen Nightmares

Wednesday Dec 1
7.30 Two and a Half Men
8.00 Better With You – new
8.30 Cold Case – new
9.30 Cold Case
10.30 Rescue Special Ops S2E1

Thursday Dec 2
7.30 Top Gear (not the Australian version as orginally planned)
8.30 Warnie – new, new regular time.
9.30 Movie: S.W.A.T

Friday Dec 3
7.30 Movie: Elf
9.30 Movie The Bodyguard – which was only recently on GEM.

Saturday Dec 4
6.30 Australia’s Funniest Home Videos Summer Edition – new
7.30 Celebrity Singing Bee – new
8.30 CSI – This means there will be CSI on Nine as well as CSI: NY and CSI: Miami on GEM on the same night from 9.30. A CSI triple over two channels.
9.30 Movie: Cactus

All repeats unless otherwise specified

New shows:

Chase:
From Emmy Award–winning executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Chase is a lightning-fast-paced drama that drops viewers smack into the middle of a game of cat and mouse as a team of U.S. marshals hunts down America’s most dangerous fugitives. U.S. Marshal Annie Frost and her partner Jimmy Godfrey investigate a case involving a serial killer robbing safes and killing the families who own them.

Better With You:
Hilarious new comedy about the relationships among three couples from the one family. Maddie is distressed to learn her younger sister, Mia is engaged to a guy she’s only known a short while. Stars Joanna Garcia, Jennifer Finnigan, Josh Cooke and Jake Lacy

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn’t “After the Olympics” mean the time when the Olympics have completely finished – closing ceremony and all?

Nine are using “After the Olympics” to promote a number of shows at the moment. 60 Minutes is being advertised as returning after the Olympics, but, it will actually return on Sunday, February 28 at 7.30pm, after Domestic Blitz at 6.30pm.

Given that the closing ceremony of the Olympics is March 1, our time, the night of Feb 28 is not quite “After the Olympics”. Although, one could argue, that it is close enough given that the majority of the competition is over by then anyway.

That, however, cannot be said about Millionaire Wizz kids – a 2 hour show using the same format as the original “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” with school kids answering the questions in an attempt to win a million dollars for their school. Millionaire Wizz kids will air at 7.30pm, Saturday Feb 27, after Australia’s Funniest Home Videos which airs at 6.30pm Saturdays. It is currently being promoted as “After the Olympics”.

On Monday, March 1, Nine will play the closing ceremony of the winter Olympics live during the day, and replay it at night at 10.30pm. At 9.30pm, Monday March 1 on Nine is a new episode of CSI: Miami.

Definitely after the Olympics: Tuesday March 2 at 9.30 at this stage is “TBA”. It is the most likely timeslot for Survivor: Heroes and Villains.

Tuesday March 2, 7.30pm is a new ep of Top Gear. At 8.30, is a previously aired ep.

Wednesday March 3, sees new Cold Case at 9.30 and new Without a Trace at 10.30pm. Thursday March 4 at 9.30 will be a Mentalist repeat, following Adults Only 20-1 (why is it still on?) at 8.30pm. 10.30 maybe CSI: NY, but not sure on that one yet.

UPDATED: The TBA for Sunday Feb 28, 8.30pm is the telemovie “Wicked Love” – the story of Maria Korp, played by Rebecca Gibney.

10:35pm – Wednesday, November 25 on Channel Nine

The team searches for two women, neighbours, who were abducted in broad daylight. The case takes a surprising turn when the agents discover the identity of the abductor.