Ten has revealed it’s 2015 programming slate for 2015 and there’s a lot of interesting stuff coming.
Among the highlights are eight new local productions, two highly-anticipated new international programs, the biggest line-up of motorsport on television and returning seasons of local and overseas hits
Network Ten Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hamish McLennan, said: “Over the past year, our focus on people 25 to 54 and Event TV, including premium live sport, has delivered what we promised: audience growth and greater consistency for viewers and advertisers.
“Next year, we will give Australians more of the shows they love from Network Ten – including MasterChef Australia, Family Feud, The Project, The Bachelor Australia and the KFC T20 Big Bash League – as well as new, exciting content in all genres.
“So far in 2014, we have increased our audience in 31 of the 63 half-hour blocks that make up prime time. Our aim in 2015 is simple: to build on that momentum and deliver even greater growth and consistency.”
Network Ten Chief Programming Officer, Beverley McGarvey, said: “In 2015, our viewers’ favourite franchises will be back, bigger and better than before. “We are also adding new, proven and thoroughly researched shows that are guaranteed to get Australia talking, including I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, Shark Tank, Gogglebox, The Bachelorette Australia and a new, multi-night entertainment show we will announce in the new year.
“From Big Bash at the top of the year right through to proven successes such as The Bachelor Australia towards the end of the year – plus our ‘always on’ early evening line-up of TEN Eyewitness News, Family Feud and The Project – Network Ten is firmly focused on delivering consistency, growth, innovation and great entertainment in 2015,” she said.
NEW LOCAL CONTENT
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
Hosted by Julia Morris (Full Frontal, Good News Week, House Husbands, Celebrity
Apprentice) and Chris Brown (The Living Room, Bondi Vet), I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! will take 10 big-name celebrities and drop them in the middle of the South African jungle. The Australian version of the top-rating entertainment show in the UK will be a big, noisy and highly interactive television event over five nights a week. Produced by ITV Studios Australia, I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! will run across television, online and social media, backed by a massive marketing campaign.
Shark Tank
Australians’ love of inventions and innovation will be more than satisfied by Shark Tank, a compelling and entertaining series for the whole family. Hosted by Sarah Harris (Studio 10) and produced by Shine Australia, the local version of the smash hit US series will feature big, crazy, practical and hilarious products and ideas presented to multi-millionaire “sharks”. If the sharks – Janine Allis (Boost Juice), Andrew Banks (Talent2), Steve Baxter (entrepreneur, investor, internet pioneer), John McGrath (McGrath Estate Agents) and Naomi Simson (Red Balloon) – like the idea, they will invest their own money to bring it to market.
Gogglebox
Australians love watching television. Now they can watch other Australians who love watching television thanks to Gogglebox, a unique, funny and often moving series jointly commissioned by Foxtel and Network Ten. Gogglebox is a television and social media smash in the UK, where its audience is rapidly growing. The Australian Gogglebox will be produced by Shine Australia and will debut in February.
The Bachelorette
In just two years, The Bachelor Australia has become a television, online and social media phenomenon. After the sensational aftermath of this year’s series, fans took to social media calling for a local version of The Bachelorette. Next year, their calls will be answered, as some of the country’s most eligible bachelors compete for the heart of just one girl.
Mary: The Making Of A Princess
She was a Tasmanian-born real estate agent living in Sydney. He was a Danish Crown Prince visiting Australia. They met in a pub and fell in love. Less than four years later, Mary Donaldson became Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark. Produced by FremantleMedia, this special television event will be filmed in Australia and Denmark.
The Peter Brock Story
He was a hero to generations of Australians, winning the Bathurst 1000 nine times and dominating motorsport for more than two decades. But the King of the Mountain was also a complex person, plagued by self-doubt. The Peter Brock Story, which will be produced by Shine Australia, tells the story of a unique Australian in a high-octane drama event.
Neighbours: 30 Years
It is the longest-running drama series in Australian television history and in March 2015, Neighbours will reach another milestone: its 30th birthday. To mark the occasion, TEN will broadcast a special celebration featuring interviews with many of the stars reflecting on their time on the show, favourite anecdotes and what Neighbours has meant to their careers, including Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Guy Pearce.
The First ANZACs
Next year is a landmark year for all Australians, as we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign in World War I. The First ANZACs is a unique series of mini documentaries that will bring to life the diaries and letters from these Australian heroes and heroines. The all-star cast includes Kat Stewart, Peter Phelps, Matt Day, Rodger Corser, Rob Carlton, Brooke Satchwell, Shane Jacobson and many more.
Baby Circle
TEN’s top-rating day time line-up will welcome a new addition in 2015, when Baby Circle goes to air. Created for the parents of newborns to tweens, Baby Circle will offer parents and expectant parents advice, support, information and entertainment. It will be every parent’s perfect day time companion.
RETURNING LOCAL CONTENT
Australia’s fastest growing reality series in 2014, MasterChef Australia, returns next year with a new group of contestants competing for the title of Australia’s best amateur cook. George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston are back, along with some of the best chefs from Australia and around the world and some of the most extraordinary food ever seen in this much-loved series.
In less than six months, Family Feud has become Australia’s favourite television game show and given Network Ten its biggest audience at 6pm to 6.30pm weekdays since 2009. Hosted by Grant Denyer, Family Feud will be bigger and better in 2015, bringing more laughs to 6pm weekdays.
The Project returns in 2015 with Carrie Bickmore, Peter Helliar and a strong line-up of cohosts and guests.
After capturing the attention of Australia during 2014 – and sending social media and women’s magazines into a frenzy – the third season of The Bachelor Australia will launch in 2015 with a new collection of bachelorettes and a brand new bachelor. Also returning is TBL Families, one of the most successful versions of one of Australia’s most popular reality television formats.
After steadily building its fan base during 2014, the innovative news and current affairs panel show Have You Been Paying Attention? will be back next year. Amanda Keller, Chris Brown, Barry Du Bois and Miguel Maestre will ensure Friday nights are fun, informative and entertaining with a new season of The Living Room, one of TEN’s fastest growing series in 2014.
Wonderland returns with more drama, more romance and exciting new cast members. One of the most successful new Australian series of 2014, Gold Coast Cops, will be back on the beat in 2015, and Bondi Vet and Bondi Rescue will return for new seasons.
Network Ten’s exclusive broadcast partnership with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival continues in 2015 with three special television events: Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala, Melbourne International Comedy Festival Super Show and Melbourne International Comedy Festival Great Debate.
NEW AND RETURNING OVERSEAS CONTENT
CSI: Cyber
One of the most keenly anticipated “mid-season” shows of the 2014-15 television season in the US, CSI: Cyber stars Emmy Award winner Patricia Arquette (Medium) as the head of Cyber Crime Division of the FBI, a unit at the forefront of solving illegal activities that start in the mind, live online, and play out in the real world. Arquette is joined by television favourites James Van Der Beek, Peter MacNicol and Luke Perry.
The Odd Couple
The classic Neil Simon sitcom The Odd Couple returns in 2015. Matthew Perry (Friends, The Whole Nine Yards, 17 Again), who developed and is executive-producing the new series,stars as messy sports writer Oscar Madison, who takes in his friend – neat-freak photographer Felix Unger, played by Thomas Lennon (The State, Reno 911!) – after his wife kicks him out.
Returning
The three biggest hits of the new US television season – NCIS: New Orleans, Madam Secretary and Scorpion – all launched strongly on TEN in recent months and will be back in 2015 with all-new episodes.
Also returning in 2015 are new seasons of TEN’s international hits, including Modern
Family, NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Law & Order: SVU, Elementary and The Good Wife, plus more shows from British legends Jamie Oliver, Sir David Attenborough and Graham Norton.
SPORT
The KFC T20 Big Bash League returns to Network Ten on December 18 this year. With more games in prime time, a tighter, more action-packed season and a hosting and commentary team that includes Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Damien Fleming, Mark Waugh, Sir Viv Richards, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff, Mel McLaughlin, Mark Howard and Roz Kelly, it will be the biggest and best season yet.
V8 Supercars come home to Network Ten in 2015, cementing its standing as the home of event motorsport television.
From the Clipsal 500 Adelaide in February to the Sydney 500 in December, Network Ten will bring viewers the six biggest V8 Supercars events, live and free, including the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. All other V8 Supercars races will feature in special highlights programs.
With V8 Supercars, Formula One (including the Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne), MotoGP and the magazine show RPM, Network Ten will deliver motorsport in a dependable timeslot for 10 months of the year. Host Matt White will lead the Network Ten motorsport team, along with Mark Webber, Alan Jones, Greg Rust, Daryl Beattie and many V8 Supercars drivers.
Network Ten’s 2015 line-up of premium live sport also includes all Wallabies Rugby Championship matches, the Australian Swimming Championships and the BHP Billiton Aquatic Super Series.
ELEVEN AND ONE
A celebration of Neighbours’ 30th birthday will be one of the key events on ELEVEN in 2015 and will be marked by a series of special episodes featuring some of the biggest names from the record-breaking series’ past.
ELEVEN’s line-up of distinctive and youthful content will also include The Loop – which posted significant growth during 2014 – Bondi Ink, from the highly successful US television franchise Ink, and new US series such as Empire, The Strain and Tattoos After Dark.
All of ELEVEN’s favourites will return next year, including The Simpsons, Glee, American Idol, Supernatural, American Horror Story, Dexter and Sleepy Hollow.
In 2015, ONE will offer viewers premium sport, scripted and reality programming such as Formula One, MotoGP, COPS, Last Man Standing, White Collar, Sons Of Anarchy, Gang Related, Robson’s Extreme Fishing, Sir David Attenborough specials and a new block of content from FX Networks in the US.