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2011: The shows they missed

Episodes, The Games, Woodley, Outland, Class of..., Got to Dance -what were the shows that just never arrived?

Every year networks tease us with a number of shows we look forward to seeing, but for some reason some just never reach our screens.

It isn’t always their fault. Scheduling and Programming is a tricky business, subject to so many varying factors -including local production delays, plus output failures in the US.

But here is a list of shows flagged for 2011 that somehow just never arrived.

NINE:
The Weighting Game,
Episodes,
Mr. Sunshine,
The Games: London Calling,
Shameless,
Justified,
Dance Nation,
The Politically Incorrect Parenting Show,
Earth Flight,
Great Barrier Reef,
The Hard Times of RJ Berger,
Hart of Dixie,
Suburgatory,
The Vampire Diaries S3.

Both Episodes and Mr Sunshine were announced in mid 2010 as being fast-tracked comedies. The latter was cancelled after 9 episodes, while the former has gone on to attract Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and in its second season. In August this year a Nine Spokesperson told TV Tonight, “Episodes and Mr Sunshine are still planned for 2011. Stay tuned.”

The Games was subsequently re-set for 2012 in line with the Olympics, but unconfirmed media reports indicate it is now shelved. Dance Nation is also believed to be off the table.

Great Barrier Reef was always set for a 2012 delivery, however Nine flagged it in its 2011 slate at the end of last year. Earth Flight now takes off in 2012.

The Politically Incorrect Parenting Show has now been promised for both 2010 and 2011. An earlier production of Shane Jacobson hosting When I Grow Up has been languishing for around 18 months.

A number of other shows planned for GO! have been on-sold to Foxtel.

SEVEN:
Until recently, Seven has kept its slate under wraps, which makes it less accountable at year’s end. That avoids situations like trumpeting The Marriage Ref as it did after MIPCOM 2009, holding auditions and never actually producing a show. Seven has also pulled the pin on Wild Boys for 2012 which it initially announced at its September programming launch.

ABC:
Woodley,
Outland,
Accused,
Oliver Stone’s the Untold History of the United States,
Attenborough’s Last Journey,
Sporting Nation,

Woodley, Outland, (both of which were filmed around the top of the year) Accused and John Clarke’s Sporting Nation will now all air in 2012.

TEN:
Class of…,
Inside Out,
Don’t Stop Believin’,
Lone Star,
Traffic Light (aka Mixed Signals)

Class of 2011 is now Class of 2012. TEN previously confirmed that Inside Out and Don’t Stop Believin’ were now abandoned.

SBS:
SBS has a pretty good record at delivering on its promises, however, local drama series Dusty, flagged for 2012, is no longer going ahead. Swift & Shift Couriers 2 finally saw the light of day after the exit of former managing director Shaun Brown.

FOXTEL:
Got to Dance Australia,
Cricket Superstar,
Dating In The Dark Australia, season 2,
Tangle, season 3,
The People Speak Australia,
Untitled Alan Jones project,

All of the above are either scheduled or promised for 2012.

30 Responses

  1. There wasn’t any point for Ten to air Lone Star, whose concept should’ve been done for cable TV, as there were only 6 eps made for it. Traffic Light only lasted 1 season of 13 eps which could be shown on Eleven at a graveyard timeslot.

    Shows Ten screwed up were 90210 on Eleven, that we’re 3 seasons behind and that’d need to be shown in double episodes for 6 months to catch up, Army Wives that they must have onsold to Foxtel and still not finishing Friday Night Lights, as they’ve yet to finish showing season 3.

  2. Also a few more series for the ABC:

    ABC2
    Mouk’s World Tour (Listed for 2012 now)
    Mike The Knight (Listed for 2012 now)

    ABC3
    Jolly Rabbit (No updates)
    Little Prince, The (No updates)

    All were previously announced for 2010 or 2011.

  3. @Craig – as a fan of Fringe, I can tell you that Nine have not shown any of S4 on any of their channels. I had to charter a weekly flight over to the US so that I could watch it. Like a lot of people here, I have pretty much given up on Nine altho’ I did manage to watch The Big C in its entirety on GEM. It is no surprise that their list of broken promises is the longest.

    FTA – “failed to arrive”.

  4. I love how you do this list every year David. Nowhere else in Australia highlights the lies network channels feed us every year by promising these shows. Brilliant!

  5. Seriously Vampire diaries is an amazing show and i’m a 23 year old straight man. It constantly delivers tight well paced storylines that tell more in a few episodes than many shows do over a season and a willingness to kill off castmembers keeps the twist value high.

    If you can get past the first few episodes of season 1 which were trying to be more of a teen soapy show it gets amazing real fast.

  6. @Greg – Nine did air all of Camelot, since this is a ‘missed’ shows list it doesn’t matter if it was delayed or moved.

    @WEL – I’m sure Nine has aired all of Fringe or at least started S4.

  7. It is really a shame that Justified has not made it to the screen. We are already starting season 3 here in the US in a few weeks. Season 2 was outstanding, especially Margo Martindale’s emmy winning performance.

  8. Don’t be surprised within a few years there will be No US sitcoms or sport (apart from motor sports) on FTA in Australia, they will all be on Foxtel. Ten (and One) will be just like what the main channel was from 1990-2000 a cheap channel relying on third run ex-Foxtel product. One will be a 100% sport free zone. Eleven will go to 24-hour reruns of old Paramount material. (Go and Gem will also be 24-hour rerun channels) Seven and Nine will be all-Australian made programming (not necessarily quality) on their primary channels. Expect lots of Australian made original and franchise reality and lifestyle product in 2012. Seven, Nine and Ten will bid big bucks for the V8 supercars once Seven’s rights expire at the end of next season.

  9. Love Justified, enjoying Vampire Diaries S3 (though not a kid any more!) and don’t ever watch channel 9.
    Shameless USA version not to my taste.
    Anticipating Hart of Dixie, Suburgatory, Episodes etc on Foxtel.
    FTA is dead or nearly so.

  10. Biggest mistake was Ch 10 abandoning Inside Out. It had the potential to be their first drama hit in almost 2 decades. I guess now we’ll look forward to more of their lame dramas next year.

  11. Episodes and Suburgatory are both great shows. Episodes i don’t think is suited to Nine and definitely not their audience. Nine viewers are idiots and need a laugh track.

    I liked Mr Sunshine so shame it only managed 9 episodes.
    Lone Star was hardly the worst show too yet that only lasted 2 eps.

  12. Once again Nine tops the list. To be fair, ABC’s Woodley and Outland would have gone to air if it weren’t for the last-minute commissioning of shows such as At Home With Julia and The Hamster Wheel.

  13. Good article! Interesting to see the promises of the networks at the start of the year vs what we actually ended up seeing.

    It seems like Ten put all their eggs in one basket with the Renovators, and when that flopped their entire schedule started to fail along with it. Shows like Hawaii Five-O and House that used to rate around 700-800k dropped to 500k in new timeslots, and Junior Masterchef didn’t do half as well as it did last year

    Don’t Stop Believing/Inside Out never stood a chance, particularly after the former got canned after one episode in the UK

  14. David I can’t remember what show MIPCOM is, assuming that’s what the letters stand for..?
    No great rush to air that politically incorrect parenting show.You just see some shows advertised and think “this is drivel, surely execs know this will flop…”

  15. Once again it looks like Nine promised the most but failed to deliver. The really dropped the ball with shows like Episodes, Hart of Dixie, Suburgatory (all great in their own right) and S3 of The Vampire Diaries for the kids. Not to mention Mr Sunshine which given only 9 eps were made is unlikely to even see the light of day on Nine/GO! or GEM. I’m still p*ssed Matthew Perry’s latest show didn’t make it, maybe the Comedy Channel will air the eps made one day?

    Seven had the right idea, promise little and just keep delivering the ratings, and easily winning the year. Still wondering why they haven’t bothered airing The Marriage Ref US yet. Their only slip up appears to be Wild Boys, which just didn’t work so why announce S2 then drop is. Reminds me too much of Always Greener and how it ended.

    It’s a mixed bag for the others with shows either cancelled or rescheduled for 2012. But one things is clear, even with the extra FTA channels we still can’t rely on FTA to deliver all the shows we want.

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