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Thoughts on Top Gear Australia making its long awaited return yesterday but only on Paramount + with no second free-to-air viewing anytime soon on Network 10

by Sports Benches

It’s been a long time coming since Top Gear was so popular worldwide when you got Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May onboard until the unexpected split nearly 10 years ago after Jeremy’s fracas with a producer saw the series go downhill ever since with multiple hosts like Friends alum Matt LeBlanc, Radio Host Chris Evans and the late Sabine Schmitz who was great at racing cars from Germany – even the final latest trio of former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff, TV personality Paddy McGuiness and Chris Harris didn’t go so well at times as none of them can really emulate the OGs.

We also had a couple of seasons with Top Gear Australia when things also didn’t go so well last time mainly when it was aired on Nine between 2010-12 despite a good start with Series 1 on SBS (who used to hold the distribution rights from the beginning) and now the show is back once more this time with a brand new trio of hosts alongside a brand new network to air these episodes that will is going to be behind a paywall on Network 10’s paid streaming platform Paramount +. You got two well-known hosts and a car enthusiast likewise with the other Top Gear shows worldwide such as Australian Survivor host and actor Jonathan LaPaglia, former Rugby League/NRL player and TV host Beau Ryan and Blair “Moog” Joscelyne.

So no Shane Jacobson (well-known actor) who moved on even though he’s always so passionate about cars as he was from the previous version on Nine last time alongside Ewen Page as well as original host across both networks Steve Pizzati.

All they will do for this instalment is travel around the world to take on some fun and difficult challenges alongside some in-studio segments at Cockatoo Island such as reviewing the latest cars & have The Stig test it out on an undisclosed race track while there will be a celebrity guest segment stopping by each episode with an interview including taking part behind the wheel (Subaru BRZ much like Toyota GT86 in the UK one) in a pre-taped lap from the same circuit. The Australian revival was originally announced at the Network 10 upfronts late last year as part of this year’s Paramount + Australian offerings with 4-5 months of filming as the premiere already launched yesterday with more weekly episodes to come in the next coming weeks.

And according to Mediaweek.com not long before the premiere, it seems we won’t have the chance to see it on Network 10 at all with no second window viewing at a later date unlike NCIS Sydney who finally made their way to free-to-air here a few days ago from its original November 2023 premiere on Paramount + worldwide and CBS in the USA. I guess it’s a show that is going to have a small following amongst car enthusiasts who love to see the best new stash of stuff on the planet rather than take it on a wider audience where most people might not be interested that much at the end of the day but understandable.

Top Gear Australia has been there, done that and unfortunately crashed and burnt when it was previously on Nine while they were they had the rights to air the original UK series a decade ago. And speaking of the UK version whose status is on hold for the time being after a series of Freddie Flintoff’s crash-prone accidents in recent years while hosting the show, Paramount + also now holds the Australian rights off Stan and you can view these latest episodes right now alongside the Australian revival.

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Entertainment

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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Thoughts on Ty Burrell’s new comedy project Forgive & Forget moving onto the pilot stage at ABC after it began developing in early 2023

by Sports Benches

Last week, one star name has returned to ABC in Tim Allen (The Santa Clause, Home Improvement, Last Man Standing & Toy Story) who will be playing Matt for a new comedy pilot being considered for the 2024-25 TV season called Shifting Gears. His new project will be about a widow and a father running a restoration car shop while also undergoing his own personal matter once his daughter and her kids move into his home. Now the network has made a 2nd comedy pilot order today and Forgive and Forget will be up for contention with Modern Family alumni Ty Burrell leading the way as Hank who unexpectedly has dementia and wants to reconnect these memories again with his adult son Hank, having first started this project just over a year ago. Don’t forget both Allen and Burrell will also play a part in their respective new projects beyond acting as executive producers behind the scenes and both of the new comedy pilots will be under 20th Television with no new ABC Signature linked projects just yet. I’m sure there will be a couple more comedy pilots to consider before filming begins and then be assessed soon enough. However, it remains to be seen which brand new drama pilot will be up next in the hope of impressing the ABC executives & join the long-awaited High Potential in September-October over the next few weeks through April-May.

Looking at Forgive and Forget, like the idea of someone – who would have to getting used to living with the condition – wants to make the most of his new memories in the hope of being forgiven & forget what happened prior to his diagnosis as if he hasn’t done anything before & unable to recall anything from a long time ago since there’s no cure. If the show goes forward, it hopes to inspire others & raise awareness for those currently living with the disease as well as spreading the word to prevent it & add further medical research. The final decision will will depend on The Conners (Season 6 now with the possibility of bowing out but maybe 1 more) and Not Dead Yet (currently season 2 but too early to tell right now) also at the same time while Abbott Elementary has been their No.1 comedy show for a few years now and will be back for another season. But ABC likes to pick quality than quantity since two of the 2023 comedy pilot candidates Keeping It Together (another US attempt of the UK Motherland show) & Public Defenders unfortunately didn’t pass the screening test that wouldn’t benefit much with the wider audience & they would also have a huge focus on unscripted content/reality TV going forward post-2023 Writers & Actors strikes. Other than that, it’s great to see Burrell back after a great run as Phil on Modern Family (2009-2020).

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Thoughts on ABC Network’s axing of comedy show Home Economics after Season 3 & High Potential being moved to Fall next year

by Sports Benches

First few days post-strike for writers to get back to work and the first thing ABC has done is not renewing comedy show Home Economics after three seasons on the air. It’s no surprise considering ABC wants quality rather than quantity of comedy content led by Abbott Elementary, having chosen not to put any of these new shows onboard for the next cycle (which was usually meant to be this Fall but now has changed after what happened over 5 months ago due to the strikes).

So it might have taken that long but Home Economics has probably reached its plateau before the announcement today as the seasons goes by. That means, we will expect to see new season episodes of The Conners, Abbott Elementary & Not Dead Yet for sometime next year before we wait & see what happens in the next cycle window.

Then moving onto the drama side of things and they still have yet to make decisions whether or not if The Rookie: Feds will get a 2nd season as well as giving The Good Lawyer spin-off show of The Good Doctor a full-season order after airing the backdoor pilot earlier in March this year. Meanwhile, ABC has set a premiere date of the American High Intellectual Potential crime comedy drama to Fall next year rather than rushing up at the wrong time during Spring or Summer. 

I’m pretty sure they’re definitely not going to do an Avalon here when they first made a straight to series order early last year for the initial 2023 mid-season window, then it was moved to Fall of this year because of Will Trent & The Company You Keep and eventually by November last year, they reversed that decision & chose not proceed Avalon into a series order following a screen test of the pilot. I also don’t think any other network would rescue a passed pilot which is rare as well.

But we could see Season 7 of 9-1-1 alongside all other existing drama shows that is returning a few months earlier than that since it was previously aired on FOX for a few years (although they kept 9-1-1 Lone Star) prior to making the move here. 

I guess it’s still too early to tell since the actors strike isn’t done yet with hope of seeing light at the end of the tunnel early next week. Well, obviously the comedy side is correct timing for the network to make as said above not long after the writers strike was finally over with Home Economics being given the chop. Now I’m not sure what ABC has said in more detail about The Rookie: Feds, so hard to tell considering they still got the main show after a few years on the air since 2018.

On the other hand, The Good Lawyer is something they liked after the screen test came back really well off the back from the backdoor pilot episode as it would be a perfect lead-in for the main show at 8 or 9pm Mondays. If the strike didn’t happen at all, then it would’ve been on the air by now. Other networks have already their plans set when it comes to the next available scripted programming cycle, but this one is a bit unusual and if the actors strike doesn’t end anytime soon; ABC would have no choice but to put that Good Lawyer idea into the bin. This is the one to keep a close eye on that would hopefully boost their Monday programming block’s performance with the audience & its storylines/content.

For now, we wish that crew the best of luck as you can go watch all three seasons of Home Economics only on Stan here in Australia as well as Hulu in the US.

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