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Entertainment

Looking back at the season 33 premiere of ABC and Disney +’s Dancing With The Stars the other day & what you need to know for those tuning in outside of the USA & Canada

by Sports Benches

Didn’t know the season 33 premiere of Dancing With The Stars unexpectedly appeared as a full show episode on one of the unofficial YouTube channels the other day where everyone including myself were finally able to watch it for those living outside USA & Canada. Gotta say it’s about time having watched several bunch of Australia’s own DWTS before but this US DWTS sets the standard better that is unmatched than any other dancing show. 

It’s been a spectacular start by the way with the likes of USA Rugby 7s women’s star IIona Maher & actor Eric Roberts (sister of Julia Roberts) as one of the contestants alongside professional dance partners Alan Bernstein and Britt Stewart respectively with AFV’s Alfonso Ribiero & Julianne Hough (co-hosts) steering the ship as always. I know Roberts from that 2011 ABC dance drama pilot called Grace which is available to view on YouTube while Maher has won many hearts of including the Rugby world following her team’s bronze medal win at Paris 2024 a few weeks ago over Charlotte Caslick’s Aussie 7s team.

Sure, the performances by Maher and Roberts may not the best they would’ve liked but at least both did their best (Maher 8th & Roberts 13th/last) when many others went on to top the leaderboard. Although next week’s Episode is going to be huge where the bottom two performing couple contestants will have bow out the ballroom that could spice things up as the weeks go by until at least the end of November. 

For those who want to see what the DWTS is like as a full-length episode, go to YouTube while you can before the creator is going to take it down before anyone notices it without getting caught with a strike warning, etc. Here’s hoping ABC Network management can put this up as a full-show episode of each one one day after the original airing is over on their official DWTS YouTube channel like they do for their news department such as Good Morning America, The View and World News Tonight with David Muir,

As someone who has been regularly tuning in to General Hospital on YouTube for a few years now, here’s also hoping ABC can do the same by making this available (same day episodes) to everyone outside US & Canada on their official GH YouTube channel as well – since almost no TV station back in Australia wants it much like a few other original ABC US shows – despite seeing all other US soaps legally available at least through 10 & 10 Play online. Although it seems they’re currently doing this on Facebook but only for the last five minute parts of each episode on weekdays (or Tuesday-Saturday from our end).

And for those who want to get more of DWTS, you can look out for each couple contestants’ dance performances a few times during each mid-week episodes that will come out as individual clips. That’s the only best bet you can do as an overseas DWTS fan/viewer & for those living in US/Canada, you can look back the season premiere episode at anytime on Hulu & Disney + with episode two next Tuesday between 8-10pm ET on ABC & Disney +.

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US’s version of the original hit Haut Potentiel Intellectuel French drama High Potential finally made it to ABC & Hulu last night with more episdoes to come on Tuesday nights

by Sports Benches

The US version of the original French hit crime-comedy drama Haut Potentiel Intellectuel has finally made it on the big ABC last night called High Potential when the series was first ordered 18 months ago and then the writers’ and actors’ strikes have put them on hold until the start of this 2024/25 TV season. But glad to hear the feedback turned out to be really good by their audience with little to no negativity so far across social media that should really translate into their season’s ratings success right from the word go ahead of episode 2 next Tuesday straight after Dancing With the Stars at 10pm ET/PT.

High Potential is led by Kaitlin Olson as Morgan Gillory alongside Daniel Sunjata as Adam Karadec (good to see US’s HPI put his first name on it rather than being just known as Karadec) including Javicia Leslie (Daphne), Judy Reyes (Selena) as well as Garret Dillahunt (Melon) & Taran Killam (Ludo Radovic) – such a strong cast to pull off likewise with the French show.

Some of the setting we saw there for the pilot episode does look like the one we first saw on social media from 18 months ago when ABC was putting them in pilot mode against several other dramas like Judgement, The Hurt Unit & even a Good Doctor spin-off called The Good Lawyer.

Although the pilot filming location was in Vancouver, Canada at the time before US’s HPI relocated its set to LA’s Fox Studios earlier this year since they’re allowed to film more episodes that covers season one (think it’s 10 episodes for fall). 

However, what we do really know is that US needs someone who can be like Morgan the mom of three & an unconventional crime solver from sweeping floors — and yet High Potential didn’t disappoint anyone so far along the way as we shall see how this ends up between now and the end of this year. 

We can also think HPI (first half season) and The Rookie (second half season) are going to be a great match to pass over the baton or even air alongside each other at some point that can power up some crime-solving fun on Tuesday nights if High Potential gets renewed for season 2 & The Rookie gets to stay on for a possible 8th season ahead of the 2025/26 season.

We can even see some comparisons there when it comes to pitting US’s HPI v The Mentalist (CBS) that ran from 2008-15, one of ABC’s former shows in Castle from 2009-16, Sherlock Holmes’s inspired Elementary (CBS) between 2012-19 & don’t forget Bones (FOX) too from 2005-17. All of those shows had great success that ran for a few great years before they ended things at the right time and no doubt High Potential can follow this path without any bad reason at all following their debut on-air pilot episode.

Congrats to the behind the scenes crew like Drew Goddard & its creators on the original HPI show on making this happen that wowed ABC management while it’s great seeing some actors/actresses back on TV after all this time when a few others from other failed pilots that didn’t make it had to move on as you never know what could happen in the TV business. If you want to give US’s HPI a shot then why not head over to Hulu & all you need is a subscription to start watching at any time. Sure the same will apply with Disney + (can’t find a release date there just yet) for those outside the US/Canada.

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Thoughts on ABC looking further into multi-cam comedies with Sisters-In-Law next in line under development earlier today

by Sports Benches

Here’s another new ABC multi-camera comedy proposal they’ve just struck earlier today thanks to a deal with Ellen Kreamer & Sherry Bilsing Graham (who were both part of The New Adventures of Old Christine executive producing crew that ran for five seasons between 2006-10 on CBS) as well as its Disney subsidiary A & E Studios (even though they mainly focus on dramas & it’s their first deal for comedy by the way), which is currently in development called “Sisters-In-Law”.

The plot is about is two sister in laws who initially struggle to get along together, finally get along together but probably at the wrong time when a third sister in-law comes into play. Both Kreamer & Bilsing Graham will be attached as executive producers alongside A & E’s duo of Barry Jossen & Tana Nugent Jamison. Interesting as no surprise there from ABC considering their push into bringing more affordable half-hour comedies that makes sense in front of a studio audience rather than go with single-camera sitcoms like it was for most of the last decade. So far there’s no word whether Sisters In Law will get a pilot presentation, a straight-to-series order or even quietly not proceed at all like we’ve found out with “Pine Valley” the other day (although an All My Children revival isn’t dead after all rumoured to be a TV movie series by Lifetime). 

But fingers crossed to see where this “Sisters-In-Law” project will land within 6-12 months time as per usual year-long development formula that the network is relying on these days rather than being drawn into a yearly Pilot Season competition while we do know Tim Allen’s new sitcom Shifting Gears will definitely be up & running early next year during the mid-season.

And having seen ABC won the rights to this project following stiff competition from their network rivals like CBS & NBC, let’s hope they can treat this well if they do at least want “Sisters-In-Law” to go straight into air and not throw them under the bus like they did to Avalon two years ago (also a previous A & E Studios project involving Jossen and Nugent Jamison under an initial under a straight-to-series order but was later rejected unfortunately after management watched the pilot copy).

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Thoughts on Australian and New Zealand Disney + subscribers now able to watch same-day Grey’s Anatomy episodes ahead of the new Season 21 starting later this month

by Sports Benches

It’s been a long time coming for Grey’s Anatomy fans in Australia when the series was first aired on Seven Network for a number of years back in around 2006-2007 with updated episodes usually several months after the US. Although there wasn’t much hype though over the last decade before they eventually no longer hold any rights of the ABC (USA) flagship prime-time drama as of early 2021. Fortunately, Disney + has picked up the pieces from here where episodes were being a few weeks old in recent seasons and now they will get same-day episodes access as the original US airing including their New Zealand subscribers ahead of Season 21 – which will begin on Thursday 26th September/Friday 27th September here.

Don’t know what time Disney + will drop off these same day Grey’s episode each Friday from this upcoming season (definitely not at the same time as the ABC airing on TV which would be 10pm either side of the US/12pm either side here/2pm either side of NZ), but it’s likely to be around between late afternoon to early evening when the next day on-demand new episodes end up on Hulu as per usual with other ABC scripted prime-time shows.

Sure, times flies so fast with Grey’s over nearly two decades considering the number of high-profile actor/actresses have came here and gone like Patrick Dempsey, Sandra Oh & Katherine Heigl. But it’s still a brilliant and iconic long-running show to watch with Ellen Pompeo still around mainly in a executive producer role alongside some occasional acting as Meredith including Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey and several others like Camilla Luddington (Dr. Jo Wilson), James Pickens Jr. (Richard), Kevin McKidd (Owen) & many more.

So glad to hear that Grey’s Australian fans will be able to catch up the latest from Sloan Grey Memorial Hospital in Seattle & its characters alike without having to wait weeks or even find spoilers online when you can simply wait just hours after the original US airdate/airtime going forward & it’s all yours to watch from home or on the go via Disney +. And wouldn’t it be great if ABC Signature (their studio production) finally updated their on-air ident at the same time of the new Grey’s season premiere with the same ABC on-air logo that was last revamped back in 2021 but they still kept the same branding despite this as we shall find out with ABC’s long-awaited new drama show of High Potential (adapted from France) by mid next week.

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Thoughts on the flagship Wheel of Fortune US Game Show under new host Ryan Seacrest set to air on Network 10 starting next week

by Sports Benches

We didn’t see that coming when the main Wheel of Fortune show will finally be on Network 10 beginning next week just days after Ryan Seacrest officially took over the hot seat at the new Wheel of Fortune host in place of the recently retired Pat Sajak following a long four-decade stint with co-host Vanna White still turning the letters. It’s been a long time coming having not heard much about Wheel in Australia for a long time but seems like the time is right, especially when 10’s parent company Viacom CBS has some rights to the franchise alongside Sony. Although the celebrity version of Wheel was previously shown on air here for some time in the past but that was via one of the Foxtel Pay TV channels in Arena or Fox One. We’ll wait and see if the celebrity will be on 10 also with the hope of seeing a bit more Pat Sajak for one last ride in this 2024-25 TV season.

Don’t forget the local Wheel version has already been announced for a revival nearly a year ago where it will rather be filmed in the UK than in a Melbourne or Sydney studio featuring Australian expatriate contestants but we still don’t know when this will make into air and whether or not if it will go for 30 mins or 1 hour. What we do know is that you can tune in the half-hour main Wheel of Fortune syndicated game show at 2pm weekdays right here on 10 as I’m sure there will be on-demand content on 10 Play if you can’t be there when everyone else is busy & looks like the episodes will be a week-long old. But that’s okay I guess as we’ll see how this turns out and if does turn out to be an success in like a year or two, then maybe they might fast-track it online just like they do with their soaps like Bold and The Beautiful, The Young and The Restless and Days of Our Lives.

By the way, great to see 10 revamping their Daytime line-up with a fun early afternoon delight of game shows from overseas like putting Wheel on at 2 + an hour of Lingo before the 3.30pm Afternoon News bulletin that rivals Nine’s Pointless quiz show and UK’s Tipping Point between 2-4pm. And yes, welcome Ryan Seacrest to the show when it’s going to take some time to fill Pat’s legendary shoes but he’s been there and done that with so many top shows & live specials in the past – good luck!!

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Thoughts on All My Children’s latest revival pitch this time in the form of TV movies

by Sports Benches

The famed All My Children revival pitch has taken another turn this time in the form of a TV movie series that goes from holidays to Christmas themed storylines, having last heard a few years ago when they tried making it into prime-time called Pine Valley. The plot for Pine Valley was about a young journalist coming into town who kept a close eye on family feud with a secret middle ground between the Kane and Santos families that could impact this community.

However, that route was quietly rejected at all without any consideration of a pilot presentation and even a series order past the initial development phase by ABC – especially when they got so many other new scripted shows to consider like High Potential which will finally start next week following the 2023 Hollywood TV Strikes.

Yeah, that was a bit of a no surprise there when it took so long to find out which was disappointing. But even though if Pine Valley did go into pilot, it wouldn’t have worked out anyway considering how the TV business works. Also, it would’ve been a waste of time with the people coming back onboard for that one occasion & then the pilot fails where we may have never possibly seen it on the air, with most failed TV pilots locked up in an undisclosed warehouse storage vault.

Fortunately, ABC’s parent company Disney transferred this AMC revival pitch to one of their cable TV movie channels at Lifetime, who is part of the Disney family when they are currently owned by A & E Networks.

Yes, we still don’t know for sure as this AMC revival has barely made it past the first step so far before they can go get approved for production. But what we do know is that the fictional setting will always be situated in Pine Valley in Pennsylvania as it remains to be seen which characters from the original soap we shall see should this be approved.

So far there’s no writer & producers onboard when this is no longer Pine Valley the prime time pitch but hoping Kelly Ripa & Mark Consuelos can come back once again at least behind the scenes with a bit of on-air cameo since they run a syndicated daytime talk show together called Live with Kelly and Mark!

I also know some soap fans aren’t happy with Cameron Mathison currently playing Drew Cain on General Hospital in recent years who was a big part of AMC a long time ago as Ryan Lavery, but I guess his yearly TV movie commitments is currently tied up with the Great American Family channel for now.

One can hope an AMC revival is coming closer towards the airwaves sooner rather than later albeit on cable TV/streaming with the franchise rights currently under ABC/Disney’s hands once again off Prospect Park since 2016. Let’s hope they can see light at the end of the day since soaps and TV movies have a great connection there when it comes to actors/actresses, etc.

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Thoughts on The Drew Barrymore Show syndicated talk show staying on through season six until at least mid-2026 by CBS

by Sports Benches

The Drew Barrymore Show has just been renewed for season six that will last at least the summer of 2026 by CBS today as season five will begin in two weeks time from now while you can watch her syndicated daytime talk show in the meantime on Network 10 & 10Play on-demand in Australia. Not surprising indeed since she’s so successful bringing her talents from acting to show business and now a talk show host when her own Drew show first began back in September 2020. 

Although Drew did address about her interviewing style today in the way she interviews people up close where she got some criticism as being awkward, but sure she will look to practice physical distance as this is something that is unique or her own rather than copying off one from someone else like Wendy Williams & Sherri Shepherd & the other likes of Daytime TV.

How will her talk show fit in when the upcoming CBS Mornings third hour show is expected to begin late next month? First of all, her show is syndicated under CBS’s control where some will be on CBS owned & operated local TV stations while the rest that isn’t CBS owned & operated local stations can be picked up elsewhere. With that being said, the show airs back-to-back in half-hour weekday episodes as they can either air back-to-back or split the two episodes throughout the day.

As it stands, some CBS owned local markets who don’t air Drew will most likely get the third-hour Mornings show including some other CBS affiliate local TV stations if they choose to do so. Now if you live an area where you can’t watch the third-hour show on TV while Drew is on, then there’s always the CBS News 24/7 streaming channel online. Not sure if the third-hour program will be live Internationally or be delayed throughout the day like NBC and ABC does with their own 3rd hour shows.

So there you have it, Drew is not going anywhere for another 1-2 years for now – even when CBS Mornings third-hour is set to arrive soon and they got a ton of other Daytime shows to air throughout the day.

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Thoughts on Gina Rodriguez set for another ABC gig as a new regular for the upcoming Will Trent season off the back of her stints on Not Dead Yet and Lucky 13

by Sports Benches

Didn’t know Gina Rodriguez is getting yet another ABC gig off the back of her time with the Not Dead Yet sitcom as Nellie which was recently axed over the summer after two seasons. First of all post-NDY, she was the co-host of the brand new Lucky 13 game show alongside Shaquille O’Neal that began last month. 

Now she will be a regular in season 3 of the hit Will Trent drama ahead of its mid-season launch in around January-February that is also on the same network and the same 20th Television production.

She will be playing an Assistant District Attorney lawyer, who is new to Atlanta & may be forced to work with Will to solve gang crimes within the area, named Marion Alba. Interesting to see if he will stick with Angie (Erika Christensen) or go with Marion? We shall see in the new year as Gina will be there for some time in Atlanta just like Erika whom they are both both based in the West Coast over in LA.

Looks like she and Disney are going onto another level now and good for her getting more screen time on ABC both as actress and TV show host. Yeah, life won’t be the same for NDY when they had a great following as it would be great if this would’ve been kept elsewhere even on Hulu. Unfortunately, continuous poor ratings is not something ABC wanted to keep at the end of the day & therefore, they decided to end NDY after season 2.

But life with Gina goes on ABC with more Lucky 13 where they’ll have back-to-back episodes next week.

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Thoughts on CBS Mornings finally launching a third hour show to rival NBC’s Today & ABC’s Good Morning America next month

by Sports Benches

At last but not least, a CBS Mornings 3rd hour program will finally make it on the air by the end of next month when NBC’s Today has been doing this for a long time while ABC’s Good Morning America also had success with their own third hour show but at lunchtime (1pm) for several years now when they first replaced The Chew (a daytime cooking show) back in mid-2018.

This won’t affect CBS Daytime plans regarding their new African-American focused soap opera called The Gates who will still replace the soon-to-be-defunct The Talk show at 2pm weekdays, with their first episode beginning in January 2025 and it will go for an hour of each episode.

Who will be the hosts for that new CBS Mornings 3rd hour show? It’s expected to be one of the CBS Mornings’ main host Tony Dokoupil and Adriana Diaz. We thought Dokoupil would replace the departing Norah O’Donnell for the Evening News job once the US Election is over this November but it looks like CBS will be doing things completely different where they will get a team of anchors onboard from across New York and Washington DC rather than for a like-for-like replacement for Norah. For example, John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois will be co-hosting from New York with Lonnie Quinn providing weather contributions with Face The Nation’s Margaret Brennan playing a key role to Dickerson & DuBois from the nation’s capitol.

So a bit like employing three-person host strategy again from CBS Mornings but on evenings that will last 30 mins between 6.30-7pm as maybe they want to step back when it comes to the added costs of someone fronting the news with Norah wanting to take on a new challenge after a long-time hosting CBS’s Morning and Evening News programs rather than making more original reporting that is worthwhile to viewers nationwide & they would want to go with the latter option.

Also, what would the hour-long CBS Morning 3rd hour show look like? We don’t know for sure but expecting it will just be a quick recap of the news from overnight as if someone’s waking up that late & missing out the main show while adding a bit of a less serious feel from the main “hard news” one as if they’re replacing The Talk whose status is set to end this December.

And where we could tune in? It will be on CBS’s 24/7 News streaming channel which is free-to-view online straight after the two-hour CBS mornings block between 9-10am as well as on selected CBS-owned local TV stations & affiliates.

So it looks like for those CBS affiliate stations that isn’t owned by CBS, you can only view it online to begin with but you never know as it progresses over time like 6-12 months when you got Drew Barrymore’s show and other CBS Daytime programs to tune in throughout the day. I would suggest maybe the first 30 mins of the third-hour can be on CBS and the other 30 mins would be go to all of online and some CBS-owned local stations just like NBC does with their midday news bulletin called NBC News Daily where the main channel gets one hour at 12pm & if their viewers wish to watch the rest, then they can go online between 1 to 4pm. But that will be a long-term thing for CBS to sort out going into early next year for the 2025/26 TV season.

So there you have it, it’s been a long time coming for a CBS third hour morning show to make into air when they first looked at this back in 2012 under Gayle King with a medical-focused program called On Call & didn’t make it past the development stage. But glad it’s happening though as things will get a lot busier in the lead up to the election and the new year in 2025.

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ABC Network News: Thoughts on Tim Allen’s Shifting Gears set for a series order in early 2025 while Ty Burrell’s Forgive & Forget does not as his project won’t be moving forward

by Sports Benches

So there we have it, ABC’s mid-season comedy line-up is all set with three rather than four shows going into early 2025. 

Abbott Elementary continues yet another full season (Currently on Season 4) at the halfway mark while The Conners’ 7th and final season begins at the same time with six episodes to go, and now Tim Allen’s Shifting Gears joins the party as the next new sitcom for ABC since the recently axed Not Dead Yet back in early 2023. In case you missed it, its about Tim’s persona Matt going through a personal restoration of his own on top of his successful restoration car business when his teenage daughter moves in alongside her teenage kids following her divorce on what is going to be a long ride together from here.

That means, Ty Burrell’s Shifting Gears pilot unfortunately didn’t make it into the network’s plans – so no series order from them. Thought they would be up there after a year of in-development alongside someone who is well known for Modern Family before being given a pilot order a few months ago. 

But then things began to go downhill I’m afraid when it comes to the pilot presentation after management got the chance to watch this for an assessment. 

Although some of the bits and pieces were not bad including some crucial tweaks, such as the re-cast of Hank’s son in a bid to appease management. But again, the plot when being added on a video tape copy just couldn’t quite translate what the network wants to offer to their audience for TV. 

It would’ve been great if a sitcom like this be on any one of the TV networks out there to tackle dementia in a positive way had this gone into a series for mid-season.

At the end of the day, it’s ABC’s decision – who doesn’t sound confident on showing a sitcom that would potentially upset some of the audience – about someone having dementia & wanting to make memories while he can that affects the elderly. 

Especially when Forgive and Forget was filmed in front of a studio audience which is something the network wants to do to cut costs going forward. Probably another reason why Burrell’s project didn’t do well when his Modern Family success was via single-camera. Maybe ABC would’ve gave them another chance there instead in a different format, but then they’re less reliant on single-camera comedies & more into drama and reality/unscripted as said with their $$$.

To those who had the chance to watch the pilot, glad you saw it whereas the TV audience may not be able to ever since it’s going to be archived in a warehouse vault. But you never know what’s going to happen since these failed pilot lifelines being picked up by other networks are very rare as 20th Television is not forgiving and forgetting this one just yet.

And on Shifting Gears, we all know having this star power cast alongside a killer script/plot for Tim Allen’s next TV gig was easy enough for ABC to bring them in following their pilot presentation last month. Sure, it’s almost like a straight-to-series as always where their selection process is based on quality than quantity – see High Potential as a reference from early last year based on the hit French police dramedy, while they also had some off-set changes lately likewise with Burrell’s latest pilot. 

But this is a project that’s still highly well regarded just to make sure all systems can go for the network to begin foster a good relationship with the viewers via Allen once again like it was in the past when you look back at Home Improvement and later Last Man Standing.

What will look like as said with their 2025 mid-season schedule, mainly on Wednesdays, is maybe they’ll start with 60-90 mins on reality from 8pm followed by 90 mins of comedy and maybe another half-hour from elsewhere.

That’s the plan going forward as keep an eye out on Shifting Gears over the next few months such as the key art, logo, pictures and the first look promo before they will finally make it on the air early next year. For now, congratulations to Allen with the call-up once again as we look forward to see him return to the Disney family on ABC & 20th Television soon enough.

Note: The Shifting Gears logo above was maybe via a pilot presentation screenshot on IMDB as this may not be the official one being implemented by ABC but we’ll see.

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