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Lots to process on what has been a huge month of October 2024 in Port Charles where we saw a couple of surprises that affects families the most, plus one widely-expected exit off the back of a controversial casting decision as we know it back in late August (two months ago).

First of all, it’s sad to see Kelly Monaco and her character Sam McCall go after 21 years on this set that goes way back to 2003 when Kelly came over from GH’s past spin-off show Port Charles via her previous role of Livvie Locke. Her character recently underwent surgery for Lulu who was seen as a viable donor with Lulu desperately needed a new liver in order to keep her alive following that floating rib explosion back in late 2020. For Lulu, she will be fine after being put in a coma over the last few years upon her successful liver transplant with Alexa Havins set to begin her shift any minute from now; but not for Sam unfortunately due to a heart attack/cardiac arrest following the surgery. Yes, it’s still sad but hoping Kelly will be back on our screens soonest whether it’s back on GH, another soap or even elsewhere on prime-time TV.

Who’s up next? Robert and Holly? With a new long-lost child they’ve had together in Sasha? Yes, that’s true in more ways than one when Holly recently turned up at the Quartermaine Mansion, with Sasha being so furious at her newly-discovered mom considering Holly abandoned her from the moment she was born while being tricked to believe her long-lost dad was dead at the time. The news also meant the unfortunate couple demise of Sasha and Cody as a couple together since they’re now revealed to be first cousins – more on Cody later. But for now, we finally know who Sasha’s parents are via the Scorpios.

Speaking of Cody, he finally revealed to the world earlier this week at a bar while drunk on what a horrible human being Drew Cain is, when Drew kissed his nephew’s (Michael) wife Willow not once but twice during early July while in a relationship with Willow’s long-lost mom Nina. Didn’t see that coming there but it’s hard to say this time around though since Michael & Willow are married with two little kids together in Wiley & Amelia.

Plus, Sidwell is still on the run when someone like Lucky should’ve ended him while escaping from his compound cell in Africa alongside Jason & Anna. But Sidwell’s portrayer Carlo Rota (foodie lover) hasn’t been doing the scenes in Port Charles just yet, so looks like he’ll stick around a bit longer (recurring basis) before his character will eventually meet his fate most likely from Sonny & Jason to protect Holly. 

Liz always still here everyday at the Hospital as head nurse while competition is still up for grabs from men to win over her hearts. Also, Heather Webber is free as a bird now from Pentonville jail at the grounds of her medical condition, even though she killed a few people two years ago with a hook. 

But the good news though is that she’ll move and stay far, far away from Port Charles as she’s off to Sedona in California with her son Steven – going to miss Alley Mills though who has been on our Aussie screens for many years via Bold and the Beautiful as Pamela Douglas much like Lois’s Rena Sofer as Quinn. And also going further West, Violet also moved there too in Seattle to reunite with her dad Finn who just finished his 90-day rehab, as good to hear that Finn has now picked up a new medical job. Now that won’t change anything to bring Michael Easton back on-set but maybe Violet as we wish them all well.

That’s all I can think of over the last few weeks from Port Charles on top of GH coming back to our Aussie shores lately that will begin on January 1, 2025 thanks to Network 10 who will be airing the episodes online. For now, roll on November with so much to play for over the next few weeks ahead of the final month in December 2024.

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A few weeks after ABC announced their first recent in-development project beginning with the next year-long cycle for comedy named Sisters-In-Law, they’ve picked up another one earlier today from the husband & wife duo of Dan Gregor and Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex Girlfriend star on The CW) – it’s Do You Want Kids? 

They will both be writing and executive producing together with Bloom also set to be the leading cast member herself. Not only that they were fortunate enough to have 20th Television onboard who just merged with ABC Signature a few weeks ago under the one roof as one of their own studio members Steve Levitan will help them oversee this next exciting project.

This plot is about a married couple who in one universe has a baby while the other does not have a baby. According to Dan via Twitter now X post today, he and his wife is writing this next TV comedy project together about their young daughter & how will this impact their lives – which is what we’re about to see should “Do You Want Kids?” be developed into a pilot and maybe a series run at some point. 

So pretty much this is loosely based on themselves & thejr current lives as young parents alongside their child of one.

Interesting and what’s also interesting is that it will be under a single-camera format — despite ABC’s desire to have more new half-hour shots that is more affordable in front of a studio audience, which is the multi-camera stuff as if you’re staging theatre for TV.

First of all, don’t see Abbott Elementary on the axe at all when they’ve been the network’s strong sitcom performer since its inception back in December 2021. If and when the show does end, Quinta Brunson will be the first person to make this announcement. Although if ABC wishes to make one more room for single-camera content on top of Abbott, then it wouldn’t be a bad idea though if they really want to fill up their Wednesday comedy slate like it was in the past.

They haven’t had any brand new comedy shows since Not Dead Yet (also a single-can sitcom & now gone after two seasons) made their debut earlier last year and then the strikes happened up until October 2023, with Tim Allen’s brand new multi-camera sitcom Shifting Gears set to begin its full season filming not too long from now that is expected to arrive on the air by February 2025.

For now, fingers crossed if “Do You Want Kids?” will make it into pilot around the same time that could hopefully be given an extended run for the next Fall or even mid-season block either late next year or early 2026.

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I didn’t know this day would come for General Hospital to air in Australia again and finally they will thanks to Network 10 who will be bringing the episodes to us online on-demand starting on Wednesday January 1st 2025. 

This is a show I personally enjoyed for years and still doing so today every time it comes out up-to-date online like YouTube and Dailymotion, even though the pictures we see may not have the best quality but still better than nothing though.

Yes, when 2025 arrives on January 1st, 10 will be able to make all other previous Season 62 episodes from early September to end of December 2024 available on demand, with new episodes coming in as they go from the original US broadcast. It remains to be seen though whether or not if the new episodes will be a few days old or same day as the original airings from USA (ABC) and Canada (CityTV).

I’m hoping it’s the latter but considering the show hasn’t aired in quite a long time, so maybe a few days old is where 10 will start with minimal risk & if that goes well at some point, then yes! Definitely same day episodes 100%. We’ll wait and see.

Other than that, I’ve been pushing so hard to have GH finally have it aired legally again in Australia where this show still has a knack of great fun while they have a good representation of Australian actors/actresses, as well as other actors/actresses who went on to become Hollywood and Prime-Time stars. 

But remember, GH is not on the same popularity when it comes to International interest & even Australian viewers on the TV alike too compared to Bold and The Beautiful & The Young and The Restless.

Although I probably like to give a shoutout to Neighbours who is still going strong and when they returned on the air last year also thanks to Amazon, love how they quickly formed a great connection with the US viewers and some of the Neighbours cast/staff even went to the Daytime Emmy awards too – not sure it was June this year or the delayed last year one (December).

I’m pretty sure both the network and the country’s strong history of soaps would be the key reason why they would like to try GH, having been content airing first-run episodes of Y & R and Days on 10 Play from earlier this year after the show’s previous contracts with Foxtel via Sony Television Studios & Corday Productions was expired.

Here’s hoping GH will go well this time on 10 online in Australia with the potential of same-day US episodes in the long run soon enough from the minute they air new episodes in 2025. For now, will still be catching up same-day US episodes online as said earlier above. Although if there’s something I want to look back, then definitely will go to 10 Play – another plus we don’t have unlike Canada’s CityTV & ABC’s Hulu at the moment unless you want to look at certain ship couples’ clips of course!

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We thought this latest Top Gear Australia revival by Network 10’s paid streaming service Paramount + wouldn’t get a second free-to-air window as last said earlier this yea,  but it’s now on the main free-to-air channel after all as just premiered tonight – a months later from its original first-run Paramount + screening (May). It remains to be seen if TGA will be given on-demand access on 10 Play for those who didn’t get to watch this tonight.

The only difference 10 viewers will get on Top Gear Australia is a series of commercial breaks in each episode that goes up to 90 minutes, which is the same length we get from the original UK Top Gear episodes as it was before when these UK episodes last aired on Nine.

Everything else you will see isn’t that much with dedicated motoring redhead like Blair “Moog” Joscelyne reviewing performance-road cars in a similar way Chris Harris does for the UK show. 

Alongside him is a former professional athlete & an entertainer competing in challenges with Moog alongside Beau Ryan and Jonathan LaPaglia much like how the UK last had former England all-round cricketer Andrew Flintoff & comedian/presenter Paddy McGuiness.

Also, the car they use when they bring in celebrity guests to drive around the race track is the Subaru BRZ compact sports car coupe whose identical twin Toyota 86 was last used on the UK show. And lastly, don’t know where that new race track is as it’s not the Camden Airport airfield that the original Top Gear Australia version used on SBS (Season 1 & 2) and later Nine (Seasons 3 & 4) a long time ago. But what we do know that this latest studio building is filmed in Sydney’s Cockatoo Island.

Fingers crossed to see what the ratings will be like on 10 as we don’t know if Top Gear Australia will be back for 2025.  

Yes, the original UK show is currently not on air with Season 34 already cancelled midway through production following Freddie Flintoff’s freak crash two years ago. However, it looks like they had run its course unfortunately as this show no longer has the same popularity they once had before when Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May left back in 2015-16. The show’s website may still live on but time will tell if TGA has unfinished business that would reflect well on Paramount +’s investment via 10. 

In the meantime, October has been living large with these first-run streaming shows now popping up on free-to-air – with Nine currently showing Bali 2002 (two episodes done with Episode 3 to come on Monday) & Ten doing the same with Top Gear Australia (1 done with 7 weeks to go).

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Looks like ABC has made some immediate changes to their Monday and Wednesday prime-time line up with more Monday Night Football simulcasts alongside ESPN & everything else including its previously announced Monday night game show slate (Celebrity Wheel of Fortune – Pat Sajak’s last season as host & Press Your Luck) will be postponed to early 2025.

So does that docuseries Scamanda (based on last year’s podcast), even though it was originally set to premiere next week (Wednesdays 10pm). Instead, viewers will see another ABC News program called What Would You Do? – which is currently a social experiment program where each scenario is done behind a hidden camera with paid actors/actresses.

And last but not least, still no premiere date for new multi-cam sitcom Shifting Gears led by Tim Allen as well as the revival of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Rest assured though that these shows is still expected to turn up at mid-season, so stay tuned over the next 1-2 months before we say goodbye to 2024.

It’s been a bit of a surprise really when ABC had some trouble fitting in their weekly prime-time schedule as of late, particularly a few weeks into the fall cycle right now. Maybe they would want to play it safe by bringing in a another full season of Monday Night Football like they did last year due to the Hollywood strikes when there wasn’t enough scripted programming to air at the time considering its their domain as it once was a long time ago (1970-2005) while management is still trying to figure out which specific content that could be their best bet going into the 2025-26 season.

I guess Grey’s Anatomy or even one of the other Ryan Murphy shows can move there for sure, but then some weeks though is still attached to MNF as ESPN originally agreed with their latest contract extension a few years ago that will go on until at least 2033. So probably Grey’s would be the best fit as if The Good Doctor or other flagship ABC scripted show needs some room to fill late on a Monday night when a brand new 9-1-1 spin-off (not the Lone Star one) will most likely complete a full Thursday line-up alongside 9-1-1 and Doctor Odyssey if ordered into series.

Also on that Scamanda docuseries, again, same bit of surprises after they had their first trailer lately only days before the originally scheduled premiere date. But I guess ABC News have been pretty busy at the same time as well, especially with the US Presidential Election coming up in a few weeks. This is about Amanda Riley faking cancer before she was later caught by police & is currently serving two years out of five-year prison sentence in Jail. 

A lot of ABC News produced content on the main channel usually come out at the mid-season mark anyway, so don’t think Scamanda will suddenly won’t make it into air after all when these true stories deserved to be told to the wider audience.

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It’s been two years since the Bali 2002 mini drama series was originally released on Nine’s paid streaming platform Stan & you can still see the 4 x hour-long episodes right now on-demand. In the meantime, the free-to-air airing has finally just arrived on the Nine Network to finish off the Labor Day public holiday – depending on which state you currently live in tonight – when other countries like ITV in the UK and New Zealand’s TVNZ have already aired this for free early last year.

This plot is based on the events from the actual Bali 2002 bombings that affects not just the locals but also the visiting Aussies who stop by as their biggest holiday hot spot every year where 88 visitors unfortunately lost their lives, 22 years ago. 

Not sure if we will get to see some on-demand content on 9Now after this 1st episode at 10pm but 9pm Mondays would now be the time throughout this month (over the next three weeks) if you wish to follow the whole story from start to finish. They also had a huge cast with the likes of Saskia Archer, Sophia Forrest (the daughter of Andrew Forrest), Claudia Jessie, William Lodder, Rachel Griffiths, Richard Roxburgh and Sean Keenan. 

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Grey’s Anatomy has returned with its 21st season. The longest medical drama in history just breaks ground on another round of medical crisis laced with emotional ruminations, hospital politics, and interpersonal drama. 

The premiere episode is directed by longtime guest player Debbie Allen. We pick up where the last season left off. Our anchor characters, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and Bailey (Chandra Wilson), are out of their jobs at Grey Sloan Memorial after being sacked by Catherine Fox (Debbie Allen) – Mer over her illegal research, Bailey after coming to her intern’s defense. 

With such massive changes in the hospital, the doctors must keep going. The premiere episode sees the usual retinue of dramatic patients: protester falling off the sky into the windshield of a car driven by a minor, an injured radical activist crawling through the vent to evade police. It’s just another day at Grey Sloan Memorial. 

No longer the chief at Grey Sloan, Bailey tries to play it cool and busy herself at her clinic, but she cannot help it when her former residents come calling for aid. Meanwhile, Mer is in legal trouble with Catherine for her unauthorized Alzheimer’s research. Jackson Avery (returning fan favorite Jesse Williams) comes back to mediate the situation, but by now we already know these ladies ain’t gonna make it easy. 

Things take a surprising turn when Meredith finds Catherine collapsed at her office. It turns out that she has a spinal tumor and warns Mer against telling Jackson and Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr).

Soapy drama is always at the center of Grey’s Anatomy. And it continues to deliver exactly that for its loyal audiences. The novelty has worn off a long time ago (probably around the time they got Lexie Grey killed while trapped under an airplane), but the show consistently knows what audiences want from it. As usual, the hot blooded young interns serve up the relationship drama. This season, we have Mika Yasuda (Midori Francis) and Jules Millin (Adelaide Kane)’s budding romance, while Simone Griffith (Alexis Floyd) faces uncertainty as Lucas Adams (Niko Terho) must make the choice between leaving or staying to repeat his first year. These storylines do not have quite the same bite as the heydays of MerDer or the Alex-Izzie-George love triangle, but they remain on brand: push and pull chemistry, denial, misdirection, sexual tension. 

At this point, Grey’s has an established playbook that people will latch on to for as long as possible. The banters remain heated, the music remains stirring, the scenario as loopy but heartwarmingly wrapped as always. It does feel same old, same old, but Grey’s Anatomy is an establishment now – people tune in out of habit. Those yearning for some spice might no longer be satiated, but as long as the formula sticks, it’s a comfort food that people keep coming back to.  

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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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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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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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