A new year, a new hope...
Although
the summer non-ratings period continues to drag on (and on…
and on…), there’s at least a glimmer of hope on the
horizon for viewers keen to see something (…anything) new
on the box. Australia’s major networks have announced a
few of their acquisitions for 2008, and they’re predictably
quite a mixed bunch.
They range from the prototypical sublime to the
ridiculous – and if past seasons are anything to go by,
the latter will outweigh the former by a large margin. Still,
at least it’s not repeats of shows that first aired more
than a decade ago.
The fly in this whole televisual ointment is the
US writers’ strike, now dragging into its third month. With
writers and the industry locked in seeming stalemate, the US networks
are facing the prospect of not having new material for many of
their marquee shows for the New Year. This is likely to affect
staples like Desperate Housewives and Grey’s
Anatomy; along with scores of others. And with Australian
networks increasingly falling into line with US scheduling, the
prospect of Aussie stations not having their most popular shows
available for the ratings period is looming large.
Still, talks over the writers’ strike are
resuming in the first week of January, so a breakthrough is possible
at any time.
Meanwhile, we’ve compiled a sampling of what
the four major Australian channels have announced for 2008 so
far. We, like the networks, aren’t making any promises about
when they’ll be seen; so this is very much just to whet
the appetite at this stage.
Ten is pinning its new season hopes on a blend of
local productions and international shows; headlined by So
You Think You Can Dance Australia. This is the local version
of the successful US series that has screened on Ten. Natalie
Bassingthwaighte fronts the show, which is essentially Australian
Idol for dancers. No doubt Ten will be hoping to cash in
on the success of Seven’s Dancing with the Stars.
The question is whether viewers were tuning in for the dancing
or the stars. If it was the latter, then this show could really
struggle.
Another local production that frankly doesn’t
read well is Saving Kids. Rather than try to sum it up,
I’ll leave that to Ten’s publicity department: “Australian
Idol 2006 winner, Damien Leith, fronts Ten's newest factual
program, with stories of courage and hope that will melt hearts
and inspire. From the producers of Saving Babies.”
Hmmm… anyone remember Thorpie’s Angels?
Ten’s
big international buy-in is Women's Murder Club. The
crime series is based on the best-selling James Patterson novels,
and stars Law & Order's Angie Harmon and 24's Laura Harris.
The network will also have Rules of Engagement, the new
comedy vehicle for David Spade and Patrick Warburton; Back
to You, the new comedy vehicle for Kelsey Grammer and Patricia
Heaton; and Burn Notice, about a spy who gets ‘fired’
by the CIA and has to fend for himself in a dangerous world.
Lurking in the background is one of Ten’s
chancier moves – Kenny’s World Toilet Tour.
This mockumentary-style show follows Australia's much-loved ‘portaloo
expert’, Kenny (from the movie of the same name), on an
international tour of sanitary conveniences. It would be too easy
to say this show risks being a real stinker but that’s certainly
a real possibility here.
Nine meanwhile is also hoping that local drama will
score with audiences. It’s ‘major event’ program
for early 2008 is Underbelly, a dramatised account of
the Melbourne gangland wars. The 13-part mini-series features
Vince Colosimo in the notional lead role; as well as a virtual
who’s-who of Australian acting in the various other roles.
If this is done right, it could be a real winner.
More worrying is Nine’s decision to revive
one of its more successful shows from the 70s in the form of Young
Doctors. If you’re old enough to remember that show,
you might recall that it ran off the rails badly after a few seasons.
The big question here is whether Nine can revamp the show in the
way Seven’s City Homicide successfully remoulded
the 70s cop show – or whether it will be another Bionic
Woman (yeesh).
Nine’s overseas line up is fronted by Cashmere
Mafia; an American comedy-drama in the Sex and the City
tradition. It follows the lives of four ambitious women trying
to balance their glamorous and demanding careers with their complex
personal lives. Like SATC, it’s set in New York City, but
there’s an Aussie connection with Frances O'Connor and Miranda
Otto starring alongside Lucy Liu and Bonnie Somerville.
After
a terrific 2007, Seven will be looking to consolidate in 2008.
They’ve already begun promos for their US buy-in comedy
Samantha Who? The show stars Christina Applegate as a
woman who wakes from a coma with total amnesia and has to re-discover
her former life. The network will follow that up with Dirty
Sexy Money, a series about a lawyer who’s made an offer
he can’t refuse to take care of a wealthy New York family.
Hang on, wasn’t that scenario lifted from a Seinfeld episode?
Anyway, it stars Six Feet Under’s Peter Krause
as the lawyer, with Donald Sutherland and Jill Clayburgh.
On the local front, Seven presents Packed to
the Rafters, with Rebecca Gibney and Erik Thomson as parents
whose three children have all grown up into exceptionally different
and complex individuals. Following on from Nine’s lead
(or maybe vice versa), Seven will also be reviving its 1980s hit
Gladiators. Will it be any better? I doubt it. There
will also be a strong nature bent to early 08, with The Zoo
and Outback Wildlife Rescue.
And finally, over at the ABC, things are predictably
more subdued. Aunty will however be trotting out East of Everything,
a six-part series with Richard Roxburgh as a travel writer who
rushes home to be by his dying mother's bedside. The mini-series
will also feature Susie Porter, Tom Long and Gia Carides.
Naturally, the ABC will also be doing its best BBC
imitation once again. This year, the Brits will be providing The
Last Enemy, a five-part thriller about an innocent man who
gets caught up in a world of illegal refugees, deadly viruses
and intelligence agencies while investigating the death of his
brother. Hamish Macbeth himself, Robert Carlyle, stars.
In addition, there’s the Jane Austen Fourplay
(oh, you naughty thing), which preents new versions of four of
Jane Austen's great works – Emma, Mansfield
Park, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.
Call me when tea and toast are ready.
Phil James
