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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 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 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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More of Days of Our Lives on 10 Play where brand new episodes will air from Tuesdays-Sundays likewise with Bold & The Beautiful

by Sports Benches

Days of Our Lives has just aired its final episode (back-to-back) yesterday on FOX One after a decade on the air, which is about three episodes old from the original US airing at the moment ahead of the show’s new home in Australia starting Monday on 10 Play. Likewise with the previous Foxtel deal, they will be fast-tracked likewise with fellow Sony/Corday stable and also sister CBS soap The Young and The Restless coming soon next month on top of 10’s long-time mainstay Bold & the Beautiful.

But what’s even better is that they will dump all the previous six month’s episodes there to view for a certain time (nothing lasts forever upon expiry after one month for example) while dropping all new episodes from Tuesdays to Sundays at 9am on 10 Play. So it looks like they will be up to date with the US after all rather than leaving just 3 episodes behind and then pick it up from here going into next week when it was previously on Foxtel alongside Bold whose fast-tracked and same day US episodes on 10 Play have been running Tuesdays-Saturdays at around 7 to 9am for a few years now. I’m sure Y & R should be following the same path soon enough given the flexibility to drop it online at any time instead of trying to fit in on TV when the US TV schedule is completely different to what we have here such as the time zones & the content they show, etc. – with nearly all of daytime soaps are happening in the one place & also free to watch too without having to pay a subscription.

Going back to Days since the 10 Play fast-tracked airings is going to be Tuesdays to Sundays, wondering if the show is getting a bit of an advantage like the Canada broadcast on the cable subscription W Network? Their episodes are a day ahead of the original US airing despite Days is being made in the US for over several decades through NBC from the start until mid-2022 and now Peacock. I guess that’s a Corday/Sony or US-Canada TV station affiliates thing for the benefit of the advertisers who put so much $$$ on TV, so another huge win if that is going to happen here with Y & R joining them (alongside Bold that would finally see both CBS Daytime soaps air on the same Viacom CBS-owned 10) next month on the same agreement.

For now, if you still have a Foxtel and/or Binge subscription – make sure you catch up while you can before the latest episodes expire tomorrow as Y & R will still be around on Fox One a bit longer until the end of this month at 12.45 pm weekdays (still 3 episodes behind the original airing then same day airings on 10 Play from next month). And for those new to 10 Play, all you have to do is sign up for an account with your email address and a recommended strong password and you can go start watching their big library of Daytime soaps at anytime on your devices with new episodes available from 9am for most days.

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Thoughts on Days of Our Lives & The Young and The Restless moving from Foxtel to 10 Play/Network 10 starting soon in June & July

by Sports Benches

We heard big, big news earlier today when it comes to watching soap operas here in Australia as both Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless will now be leaving Foxtel soon after a long 10-15 years to Network 10 starting next month where both of them will be fast-tracked likewise with the previous Foxtel treatment but for free via 10 play’s streaming service.

Days (a long time original NBC Daytime show whose existence lives on now at Peacock Premium) will be first joining up on Monday 3rd June before fellow CBS soap Y & R will finally join the popular Bold and the Beautiful show on the same Viacom CBS owned 10 staple from Monday July 1. If I recall, 10 Play has same day Bold episodes that runs from Tuesday-Saturday mornings as the 4.30pm half-hour daily timeslot (the one that is edited and doesn’t run the same US episodes that is a few weeks old) on TV isn’t going anywhere anytime soon despite the ongoing parent ownership uncertainty with management.

So not sure if Days and Y & R will follow suit when the soon-to-be-finished Foxtel fast-tracked agreement is currently three days behind the original airing since the episodes first come out on a Pay TV channel like Fox One but hoping the first-run episodes on 10Play would allow them to be the same page as the US airing like they do with Bold thanks to their flexible scheduling so fans can tune in at anytime, anywhere they like during the day. If not, at least a couple of episodes behind would better than nothing with Bold already very popular here & everywhere than the two – so probably understandable.

Yes, both shows will end up on 10 at some point as don’t know when and if that happens, maybe the episodes they put in on TV will be a similar arrangement to Bold. But where they’re gonna put it on their daytime schedule? Most likely during the mornings since Studio 10 is now gone with The Drew Barrymore Show (a syndicated daytime talk show also attached to CBS) also coming onboard Monday week (June 3rd) at 11am before the midday news bulletin. I guess 10 wants to provide viewers a fresh alternative look to own their offering in the mid-mornings from 9am-12pm so they can watch all the other soaps and Drew’s show instead of Nine’s Today Extra & Seven’s The Morning Show rather than attempt another new morning program.

It also looks like since 10 is so committed to soaps here is that they would give CBS’s next new Daytime soap The Gates a chance that will begin in January next year in place of the outgoing The Talk that is going to be a refreshing departure from 10’s weekday line-up as the current talk show episodes (a few days old from the US) air at 7am. Surely that wouldn’t be an issue even though it’s an hour-long show that is going to be built around a rich African-American family, with first-run viewings would be online on 10 Play and then TV-run episodes would come as second viewings a few months later after that (probably at either lunch time after the midday news or 2.30pm as a lead-in to the 3.30pm news which is so far, so good.)

All in all, great seeing 10 make this deal happen with Sony Pictures Television who holds the International rights to Bold and Days since they’re both Ken Corday created properties even though Y & R has been on CBS all along for over 50 years from Day 1 back in 1973 where the Aussie airings were first held by Nine for many decades until 2007. Speaking of Nine, they did come back to airing Y & R and Days a few years ago but only as a second airing to Foxtel whose episodes are 6-18 months behind on 9Gem. This current agreement will continue a bit longer until they can no longer air the episodes being contracted by 10 going into 2025 with Y & R first up not long before the end of the year and same goes to Days next up a year later. So not bad while it lasted but it’s about time these soaps get a first-run go for free on top of Bold on 10 Play soon enough & can’t wait for the Y & R-Bold future crossovers that is gonna be great to see across the same network next time around.

Who knows? Days already has a good Australian following over the years despite ranking last with Peacock saving them from danger two years ago while Y & R has always been the best-ranked soap as well for a very long time. And what does it mean for General Hospital who continues to pick a whole lot of Daytime Emmy nominations every year? Well, it seems they won’t be back on Australian TV or streaming services legally anytime soon since ABC is owned by Disney that has been on the air for 61 years, doesn’t have a good connection with a free-to-air network here other than Disney + (their own paid streaming service) & also doesn’t have an International following beyond the US & Canada. But the good news is that you can still watch the show that is up to date with the US online on YouTube and Dailymotion, even though the quality ain’t the best but it’s still better than nothing including the last five minutes clips in each of the show’s episodes via the show’s official Facebook page.

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Thoughts on The Talk wrapping up at the end of 2024 after 15 years on the air by CBS

by Sports Benches

Well, CBS just made the announcement today that they will remove a chat show from their daytime line-up called The Talk going into next year. They first went on air back in mid-2010 in place of one of the channel’s former soaps As The World Turns, having enjoyed a great run of 14 seasons right now with the final 15th shortened season coming up to close it out between September-December 2024. Seems like it’s right time, although I think they should’ve bowed out a year or two ago but then the show gave a couple of guys a chance to step in full-time amongst a female-led panel after Sharon Osborne was fired. So what does that mean going forward? It seems they won’t make a CBS Mornings third hour and compete against ABC’s GMA 3 and NBC News Now during the middle of the day. However, they will most likely give another new soap a go that is centred around a rich African-American family called The Gates. Credit to CBS on fulfilling Michele Van Jean’s dream of running her own soap if this happens as it will be interesting to see who will be coming over soon enough from CBS’s other soaps like Bold & The Beautiful & Young and The Restless as well as ABC’s General Hospital & Peacock’s Days of Our Lives.

And with regards to the Australian showing here once The Talk will be taken off the air, I guess it won’t be much of a great loss from Network 10 who normally puts them on the air so early in the morning with a few days behind the original US airing which doesn’t gain much of an audience as another cheap-filler program will do to replace them at the 7 to 8am timeslot. I know CBS Studios is involved with The Gates when it comes to the production as we’ll wait and see if the show will be distributed internationally but don’t think an hour-long soap would be worth the risk since the popular B & B is 30 mins long as a decent lead-in to their 5pm news bulletin and Neighbours came back to life a few months ago thanks to Amazon Freevee.

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Thoughts on the possibility of The Talk being replaced by another new soap (The Gates) at CBS Daytime

by Sports Benches

We saw that coming last week when a new soap is in the works around a rich African-American family at CBS Daytime called The Gates. Now we know that this goes ahead, the episodes would go for an hour long at 2pm weekdays in place of The Talk.

The Young & The Restless and even Bold & The Beautiful isn’t going anywhere despite Bold being renewed a few years less than Y & R who remains the best performing soap on the air. When it comes to game shows, The Price is Right has been running for several decades since 1972 & it’s something CBS wants keep on running while Let’s Make a Deal won’t be axed whose ratings is good & game shows like TPIR doesn’t produce a lot of $$$ – they can both continue like Bold and Y & R unless things go south.

Now The Talk is a daytime talk show rivalling ABC’s The View where you can currently catch it at 7-8am weekdays here on Network 10 & anytime on 10 Play as the episodes are only a few days behind the US. The panel has been an all-female panel for the majority until Sharon Osborne was fired three years ago & they since got two full-time male panelists onboard months after her dismissal with Jerry O’Connell & Akbar Gbajabiamila.  Ratings wise, they are currently the lowest on their current line-up & is also ranked 3rd on overall daytime talk shows. But again, the show had another new face behind the scenes recently in the hope of turning things around named Rob Crabbe from the now finished The Late Late Show with James Corden. And yet, there’s no news yet if The Talk will be back for the 15th season later this year where we should find out in the next few months.

If this show comes back again, then sounds good as Crabbe still needs more time to make The Talk working again. But it also doesn’t generate much interest amongst Australians where Network 10 has been airing them way early in the morning from 5-6am, then 6-7am and now 7-8 am rather than during the day – which unfortunately didn’t work a long time ago. So it wouldn’t be a surprise if The Talk will be axed soon enough so CBS can give another soap (The Gates) the chance to fill its shoes and dominate the 2pm timeslot, while 10 can have another low budget or repeat time filler content that isn’t part of the CBS staple at the same time since they aren’t able to compete with Seven and Nine in the mornings.

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2024 Super Bowl 58 review, Kansas City Chiefs win once again by 3 points v 49ers before CBS’s new drama Tracker accidentally made its quick cameo on Australian TV

by Sports Benches

Yesterday’s Super Bowl 58 was so unreal to watch where the Sam Francisco 49ers & Kansas City Chiefs have gone side-by-side right from the start to the very end through overtime at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. It was quiet for a bit over the first quarter by both teams before the 49ers got away with their first scoring touches off the boot & the big score while the Chiefs took a little longer to finally get themselves going before they earned a lifeline with not long left on the clock in the fourth quarter. So that leaves one last round to fight on the run home in extra time but still one team will have to take home the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the World Championship. At the end of the day, the winning belongs to the Chiefs once again thanks to a championship-winning setup by Patrick Mahomes to Mecole Hardman, who caught that golden pass in the end for the touchdown by just 3 points with 3 secs to go on the overtime clock. The final score was 22-25.

As said, great start by the 49ers but a few hit and misses later on gave a great opportunity for the Chiefs to catch up whilst leading. Unfortunately, that became their tipping point at overtime where the game was eventually won by the Chiefs & it’s a bitter pill to swallow when being second best. Not a bad season though where they made all the way to the main event which is never easy as it will be exactly three decades now since the 49ers last won a World Championship. Meanwhile, congratulations to the Chiefs on what has been an incredible performance from behind after they came back to haunt the 49ers so late it was enough to take home the trophy. It was a final that was never going to be so easy as it was up to them to stop the 49ers in their tracks and they did so to bring back another huge of silverware in front of their fans and hometown too. Looks like the Chiefs are setting the benchmark now, having won three World Championships in the last five years after a long drought & shortcomings that goes way back to Super Bowl IV (1969). Speaking of the Chiefs, let’s see if a Super Rugby in Waikato, New Zealand, will win at last this season that will begin next Friday. They dominated the round robin part almost undefeated until they fell short in the Final at home (FMG Stadium) by the still unbeatable Crusaders team yet again.

And finally straight after the Super Bowl coverage on TV here, Seven have accidentally showed a bit of CBS’s new drama show called Tracker (based on The Never Game novel by Jeffrey Deaver) for 10 seconds before they quickly moved on to their normal programming for the rest of the day. Not sure if they have the rights to that show since 20th Television handles the International Distribution as would love to see a simulcast or even same day airing of first-run US shows here.  It won’t be possible unfortunately due to the time difference worldwide where we all work during the day while some sleep at the same, so don’t think it will make a difference. Not even in a million years that we will get to watch a live simulcast TV drama or comedy ever that can shared by everyone worldwide from its original country of origin other than just the US and Canada legally unlike news, special events and sports coverage. Plus, reality TV shows lead the way these days which isn’t expensive to produce and have it on the air. For now, bring on Super Rugby again soon starting next Friday while a few more scripted shows have returned with more on the way in the next few weeks to resume & finish off this unusual prime-time TV season.

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After the actors’ strike was finally over, CBS replaced The Late Late Show last week with a revival of @midnight while ABC just binned both The Rookie: Feds & The Good Lawyer

by Sports Benches

Glad that the actor’s strike is finally over after 118 days between July and this week as well as six months when it comes to the strikes as a whole that affected the writers from around April until the end of September. All late night and some daytime talk shows are up and running again, as well as seeing CBS finally replace The Late Late Show franchise last week for the 12.37am timeslot with a new version of @midnight called After Midnight after James Corden left also in April this year to return back to the UK where it might not be another talk show, but this time it’s going to be a panel game show that will target a young audience alongside a young comedian at the helm named Taylor Tomlinson based on the up-to-date events off the internet.

Now ABC today has finally made their decisions regarding the last two shows that have been hanging in the balance for months, such a possible Season 2 of the Rookie: Feds & a potential spin-off on The Good Lawyer following its backdoor pilot episode of the flagship The Good Doctor medical drama show back in March this year. Unfortunately, neither of them will be going forward since it’s almost the end of this year thanks to both strikes along with the end of comedy sitcom Home Economics who won’t be getting a 4th season not long after the writers’ strike has over. That means, the only new show from this year’s pilot intake that got a series order other than rescuing 9-1-1 from FOX was High Potential, a comedy-crime police drama adopted from France whose plot involving a mother of three who has extraordinary ability to solve crimes, will still go ahead but has since been pushed back to a year from now in order to get their returning scripted shows back on the air first ASAP through March 2024. If it wasn’t for the writer’s & actors’ strikes, A full season of The Good Lawyer would’ve been on the air by now last month or early March next year if both strikes did end sooner before October which sadly took a month longer than anticipated. Plus, while fans did enjoy watching the Rookie spin-off show (The Rookie: Feds) with sound ratings, they can only focus on the main show moving forward as there is no room for Season 2 with also unfortunate thanks from the strike.

While there is nothing ABC can do about this no matter how disappointed the usual TV fan is feeling at the moment, all they can now is honour their existing strike-proof commitments between now and February before all of their existing scripted programming can come back in life. Then we’ll wait and see which next batch of in-development projects will be up for a pilot screening come mid-2024 as I expect they will choose quality over quantity when it comes to picking up series orders. So scripted programming is here to stay but their library shelf won’t fill in that much since The Golden Bachelor for the elderly and the return of Dancing With the Stars on free-to-air (this time on Tuesday nights) has been their main headline acts since this prime-time TV season. Although I still haven’t heard much detail or official confirmation about the return of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition since June/July, but as it stands, it looks like The Home Edit duo of Clea Shearer & Joanna Teplin will be hosting the show rather than Ty Pennington who hosted the original version on this network between 2004-2012.

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