The Ten Network today announced it’s 2011 lineup, following an event today in Perth. There were a couple of aspects of the announcement that were of interest.
Confirmation was given that, in WA, the current 5pm News host, Narelda Jacobs, would also front the new local 6:30pm News. Presumably, this will be the same across other markets. As a point of interest, (Wikipedia reports) Narelda Jacobs is the first Aboriginal and openly lesbian newsreader in Western Australia. That’s astoundingly progressive and completely rad.
US series to launch in 2011 include Hawaii 5-0, Blue Bloods, The Defenders, Raising Hope, and Mixed Signals. Of these, Hawaii 5-0 and Blue Bloods are the two to really keep your eye on. Hawaii 5-0 looks like it’ll be a lot of fun, while Blue Bloods is from some former producers of The Sopranos. Advance buzz on Blue Bloods hasn’t been great, but I’m hoping to be happily surprised.
Australian TV networks are in a difficult place in that the Australian TV ratings season runs from Feb-Nov each year, while in the US their season is from Sept-May. What this means is that even when a local network does fast track a series, they can’t run it during the off-ratings season. The cost of purchase against lost revenue is simply too great. As such the networks have the choice to either break up the season at a mid-point and piss off viewers, or wait until the start of the next rationgs season and give the shows a clean-run.
Ten have opted to take the latter approach with their new US series. I see this as a little risky as I’m certain that a few of the titles mentioned will find cancellation rather quickly. The Defenders (starring Jerry O’Connell and the lesser Belushi, James) surely can’t last more than a couple of weeks. Will the shows still be in production by the time the 2011 season kicks off? If they are cancelled quickly, at least now Ten has the digital multi-channel Eleven to schedule the shows.
Speaking of Eleven, Ten have confirmed first-run episodes of Futurama, The Cleveland Show, Supernatural, Stargate, Dexter, Smallville, The Office, Nurse Jackie and 90210. They’ve also committed to the idea that once a show makes its premiere on Eleven, it will stay on Eleven. This is an obvious strike against Nine who have allowed for some bleeding between the Nine and Go! channels.
Ten have also announced a bigger online hub, offering more purpose-built content and interactivity. It will be interesting to see if they extend their online content to include content made available through their partnership with CBS.
Despite the occasional success and, obviously, Masterchef, Ten have floundered a little. With a strong suite of digital multi-channels and the potential of their early evening lineup, Ten are in a very interesting position going in to 2011.
I have a feeling that the defenders will hang around for years annoying tv purists endlessly.
“They’ve also committed to the idea that once a show makes its premiere on Eleven, it will stay on Eleven”
It may stay on Eleven but will it run the whole series or cut them short like every other time? I mean eureka, swingtown, saving grace and friday night lights never went anywhere but ten but they weren’t shown at normal times or regularly.
Nine should bleed community from go to nine.
When will sports soup be back?
I thought Stan Grant was an aboriginal news reader or is the ladiy’s sexuality the point?
She is WA’s first indigenous newsreader. Or so says Wikipedia. Not including national broadcasts.
I think its a fact that skirts by on several technicalities.
Ten really needs to lifts it’s game particularly when it comes to series continuity. Smallville, Stargate Universe, Supernatural, Dexter all were either relegated to stupid time slots, suffered from stop-start episode screenings or were just dropped when they started to get interesting. All we’ve got left now is that heap of steaming ‘current affairs’ called the 7pm project and a never-ending stream of reality shows in place of anything worth watching. If it wasn’t for the Simpsons, NCIS (Simpsons and NCIS rerun how many times now?) or good news week (not too bad) they wouldn’t have a viewing audience. And don’t get me started on their One channel (the one HD channel they have, dedicated to sport for crying out loud).
They really deserve the poor ratings they’ve gotten, and I’d be curious if they can actually muster up something interesting on any of their channels between 7pm and 8:30pm on a weeknight.
Narelda’s awesome! By the way @heathdon: about Stan Grant, he wasn’t a newsreader in Oz, he wasn’t in WA and, as far as I know, he’s not a lesbian.
SBS World News host
Sept 2007 – Dec 2007
Lest We Forget
@fox1
Stan Grant is now a lesbian – I just added that on his wikipedia page.
ah, yes, may their contribution to anchor chemistry never be forgotten.
Another way of looking at Narelda, I have read, is as the first Aboriginal, openly gay newsreader on commercial television. Anyway, she’s lovely! As you can see here: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/photogallery/entertainment/tv-and-radio/channel-ten-program-launch/20100914-15alf.html?selectedImage=6
Do you know when the new eps of Futurama start?
New episodes started in the US on June 24.
Locally, Ch 10 will start screening them with the launch of their new channel Eleven. I believe it will be one of their flagship shows. Eleven is expected to launch at the beginning of 2011. I’d expect mid-January.
I’ve been watching The Defenders since it started, and it’s pretty good. A nice change from the completely serious lawyer shows we’re flooded with. Have you actually watched it or you’re just making a stupid assumption it’ll be cancelled after two weeks based on the actors?
When the article was written, the show was still yet to air in the US, so no, I hadn’t watched it.
It’s now a couple of months later and I still haven’t watched it. And yes, it’s because it’s two leads are absolutely awful (I present as evidence everything they have ever done professionally until now). That said, I’ll give it a watch sometime this week and get back to you.
“Advance buzz on Blue Bloods hasn’t been great, but I’m hoping to be happily surprised.”?
I have seen episodes of Blue Bloods and it is definitely a great show. The entire cast is fantastic – when you have a show starring Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg, two very talented actors, how can you go wrong?
I recommend Blue Bloods to anyone who loves a good drama. This may seem like another proocedural cop show, but the family element of the show really sets it apart from others.
I hope it does as well as it deserves and I hope 10 doesnt screw up the run of the show like it has done numerous times with good shows in the past….