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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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The original Haut Potentiel Intellectuel hit show from France has now arrived in the USA on-demand via Hulu ahead of High Potential’s premiere this September on ABC

by Sports Benches

USA’s version of the HPI TV show High Potential not only has a premiere date earlier this week of Tuesday September 17th at 10pm right after the new season of Dancing With The Stars with more to come weekly across several Tuesdays, but Kaitlin Olson fans (whose actress will lead the show as Morgan Gillery in the same way as Morgane Alvaro in France) and ABC viewers can watch the original HPI show from France right now on-demand via Hulu that was dropped off earlier today for those wondering what High Potential will look like when they will finally arrive on TV later this year due to last year’s labour strikes.

Yes, the original show from France would be probably up to their 4th season by now with the first three seasons being made available to US viewers at this stage as we don’t know how High Potential will turn out on the big ABC. Gotta credit to management though for discovering this show that was hit in France’s TF1 where they want HPI to give themselves a try in America and the ABC management loved it as soon as they saw the idea that followed up with a pilot copy under a star behind the scenes staff under Drew Goddard before it was approved as a series originally for the Fall cycle earlier last year.

In case you don’t know it which is similar to the US plot, it’s just Morgane while she was cleaning at a police station, she discovered she has a knack of solving crimes with an outstanding IQ of 160 – despite being divorced twice with three kids & has run-ins with police along the way when Morgane agreed to work with the station as a consultant. The characters there will have some similarities on what we will see for High Potential very soon – such as Morgane Alvaro (Morgan), Adam Karadec (Just Karadec, don’t know why), Daphne and Elliott (one of Morgan’s three kids but slightly renamed under Elliot with one T).

I just saw the original promo video of HPI from France’s TF1 and yes, I can see the exact same thing what Morgan does in both versions when they were both dancing and cleaning and then got into the habit of solving crimes once a unsolved crime folder was accidentally knocked down the ground that the Police couldn’t do while at dark all done by herself.

You can see how this goes for yourself on Hulu for those living in the USA here as well as Amazon Prime Video in Australia here as High Potential will be on ABC with Hulu on-demand the next day as well as on Disney + Internationally.

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Thoughts on 2023 ABC legal drama pilot Judgement ft. Sarah Shahi finally showed its concept art for its opening titles on IMDB

by Sports Benches

While both current ABC comedy pilots may have finished filming their respective pilot presentations in front of a studio audience over the last week or two, there’s some key concept art for the opening sequence/intro finally being shown into the world of IMDB a day or two ago for one of ABC’s failed drama pilots from early last year called Judgement. It was a legal drama being made by Joey Falco who ran the reboot of Charmed from 2018 with actress Sarah Shahi as the main cast leader of this project in the form of her character Mia Bahari. You can tell by the title sequence of Sarah wondering with her eyes wide open on top of backdrops through the town of Washington DC (fictional setting there as the pilot was filmed in Atlanta, Georgia) as well as a series of wording such as “In the Supreme Court of the United States” & “United States Court of America” before you can finally see such a killer logo towards the end there in the wording called Judgement. That’s all to tell by its cover as the full pilot show access is only limited to cast members and behind the scenes staff involved unfortunately, not even going to a certain studio building would help to watch this pilot in-person either unless you’re really lucky. It’s only appropriate when showing off a piece of work like a part of your resume/CV as if you continue to seek your next opportunity.

It would’ve been a great promo for the public to see as if Judgement did make it into a series order but then the writers and later actors’ strikes have delayed pretty much everything for most of last year from April to October-November. Even if there wasn’t any revolt from people working behind the scenes in the scripted TV business, Judgement wouldn’t be given an advantage anyway when trying to get ahead of others like The Good Lawyer (also eventually being overlooked because the Strikes held them up for far too long). Yes, I understand about the split timelines part but then it’s 100% just about Mia whose professional reputation was on the line after being nominated for a seat in the Supreme Court off the back of her poor personal and love life other than what she did 15 years ago (was last year in fictional terms to its present day 2038).

So having an excellent line-up of cast members featuring team leader Shahi wasn’t bad alongside the key production art where the ABC management gave them some good grades which was largely well received, it’s just the plot when applying it in a pilot presentation from a year-long development script and its planned storyboards was something they didn’t like and therefore, Judgement didn’t make it at the end of the day. Although Judgement was given the chance to being given a lifeline by other networks following its original rejection by ABC but then these lifelines very rarely succeed unlike this one here. It’s not easy to make TV by first writing your story idea via a script, work with them for a year to make changes in the hope of making this script suitable for TV if you’re lucky, then assemble a cast and a location to film for a certain period of time hoping for the best by sending a copy back upstairs before you can finally go all in for the big screen if accepted – that’s life for y’all.

The good news is that the so-called “Pilot Season” most likely a thing of the past where it’s a bit like a knockout contest during February-March ahead of its final selections for the networks to showcase its annual May upfronts but it seems filming pilots where some go and some being eliminated and then archived in a vault or even all go and all not go isn’t changing anytime soon for now except FOX who nearly relies on straight-to-series orders off development scripts. I guess networks would want to double check everything first depending on axed shows and how these pilots would best fit their audience if they do make it as this kind of method have worked best for them across Fall and Mid-Season cycles in recent years.

Other than that, you never know when you will be able to watch an episode of Judgement one day if you’re lucky but 99.9% impossible. Judgement was produced by 20th Television alongside its Disney subsidiary studio ABC Signature and The Detective Agency as you can see it for yourself online at anytime on the pilot’s IMDB page here. And if you’re a huge fan of watching past pilots that never made into TV, I recommend you follow The Media Garage on both YouTube and Patreon. The same goes with JQ’s YouTube Channel here where they had tons of closing credit clips from various unaired TV pilots.

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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 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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Thoughts on The Conners being renewed for the 7th & final season with six episodes & Not Dead Yet just being axed after 2 seasons

by Sports Benches

The last two of the ABC existing sitcom slate has been decided earlier today with The Conners (multi-camera) getting a proper farewell of six episodes for Season 7 later this year in the Fall while Not Dead Yet is no more after 2 seasons and 23 episodes.

With the 2024-25 prime-time schedule set to be released sometime next week, it’s possible that the Extreme Makeover revival will begin at 8pm Wednesdays followed by a Abbott Elementary-The Conners sitcom double after that and then a new show comes in place of A Million Little Things called High Potential (a comedy-crime drama adapted from France about a divorced mother of three who has an outstanding IQ of solving crimes even though she was a cleaner at a local police station).

People can say whatever they want as to why Not Dead Yet doesn’t deserve to be cancelled when they got a good/popular following but then the same goes with every other show and at the end of the day, there’s no point keeping it when the ratings keep on getting low over time. Not Dead Yet would’ve been a perfect lineline for Hulu or any other streaming services but again don’t see that happening unfortunately. It’s been a good run though as wish them all the best and surely we won’t see the last of Gina Rodriguez who will be hosting a brand new game show Lucky 13 in July on ABC with Shaquille O’Neal.

Meanwhile, great to hear that The Conners will get a proper ending at the request of star actress Sara Gilbert whose relationship with ABC has been great after the show recovered really well from the Roseanne Barr controversy regarding her political views that saw the second coming of Roseanne being unexpectedly short-lived. Yes, six episodes might be short but then it’s only going to last for this Fall likewise with Sara’s other show The Talk on CBS which will also end at the same time to make way for another new soap The Gates on Daytime TV from January 2025. We wish them all the best to bring this show home on a brilliant note ahead of the cast and creators next chapters after this.

What does it mean now for the network’s next slate of sitcoms going into the 2nd half of the prime-time TV season?

With Abbott Elementary always getting a full season order since it’s the network’s best sitcom in years, we could see at least one new sitcom coming through the door if not two at the mid-season mark depending on how things go at the pilot presentations next month. Shifting Gears would definitely be given an advantage considering Tim Allen is back onboard alongside 2 Broke Girls star Kat Dennings – no doubt about that. On Forgive & Forget, yes, you got Modern Family alumni Ty Burrell also fronting this project at the same time which is also excellent to hear. But then it’s 50/50 chance where his pilot might not make it when ABC might prefer one new sitcom in Allen to join Abbott and another one would be as to how they are going to fit another half-hour sitcom with no other new 30 minute show to complement on Wednesdays unless they want to throw in a repeat, another new sitcom pilot or a show from Hulu to finish off the prime-time season. These are the only pitfalls that could see Forgive & Forget being denied a series order but again, it’s going to depend on the pilot presentation next month. If that show comes out strong, then I’m sure that will give ABC a headache and not harshly dismiss them alongside Allen’s pilot considering they want to have more cheap multi-camera sitcoms alongside a studio audience.

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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 ABC teaming up 9-1-1’s Ryan Murphy again in a brand new straight-to-series medical drama Dr. Odyssey with Joshua Jackson onboard for late 2024

by Sports Benches

ABC has just made a big call today and it’s going to be a brand new straight-to-series drama show being led by 9-1-1’s Ryan Murphy that will begin later this year alongside High Potential called Dr. Odyssey. If they need a new medical drama to fill in for the soon-to-be-finished The Good Doctor, it’s gotta be at the right place at the right time in none other than this show where 9-1-1 meets The Love Boat on a cruise ship. More details will come at a later date including filming dates with Joshua Jackson playing the main character (definitely Dr. Odyssey who relies on charms to get what he wants) and will also do a bit of behind the scenes work as an executive producer with Murphy under the Disney owned 20th Television studios umbrella.

Great to see 9-1-1 finding its strong ground at ABC after Season 7 began last Thursday, having been with FOX over the first couple of seasons and ABC going for a new medical show with someone (Murphy) who can craft all about medical/first responders stories well is simply excellent timing after a few unsuccessful medical pilots over the past few years such as Triage and The Hurt Unit. I can see this replacing the also soon-to-be-outgoing Station 19 fire drama soon enough and have it sandwiched between 9-1-1 and Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday nights or like for like in place of the Good Doctor on Tuesdays.

Let’s hope since there has been another restructure within the network executives upstairs over the past year, I’m sure they won’t make another reverse cancellation of these straight-to-series orders like it has been in the past & instead give these new ones like Dr. Odyssey a go. Now with two upcoming series order dramas & two new comedy pilots being lined up for Fall in September/October, we have yet to see any involvement from ABC Signature other than the guaranteed High Potential show regarding the choice of these next pilot orders (comedy and/or drama) with the main network but it will come sooner rather than later. For now, congratulations to Ryan Murphy and Joshua Jackson with the new medical drama show Dr. Odyssey.

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