TV3 New Season 2009/2010

TV3 today launched their Autumn Schedule in the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin. The latest schedule, which sees the station aim to broadcast over one third of air time with Irish programming, completes the three year plan to create a new roster of programmes for the Irish channel.

David McRedmond CEO of TV3 commented: "We have stuck to our guns through the recession to deliver what we believe is the best schedule on Irish television. This is thanks to 200 of the hardest-working, most creative people in Irish media who, despite redundancies and pay-cuts, are delivering two channels and an online service, 1900 hours of Irish programmes and a growing share of the market."

The upcoming schedule will be anchored by TV3's daily studio output. ‘Ireland AM’ - will be celebrating its tenth birthday, and also included broadcasting will be ‘The Morning Show with Sybil & Martin’; TV3's recently launched personal advice show ‘Midday’, which will adopt an all-female line-up with regular guests such as Amanda Brunker, Fiona Looney, Jules Fallon and Mary O'Rourke joining Colette Fitzpatrick; the ‘News at 5.30’ with anchor Alan Cantwell; ‘Xposé’ (including new presenter Sean Munsanje) and ‘Tonight with Vincent Browne’.

Airing on our screens on TV3 in the coming months will be the second series of the IFTA winning ‘The Apprentice’ followed by the new ‘The Apprentice: You're Fired’ show hosted by Brendan O'Connor in front of a live audience. Also in the lineup is ‘The Forgotten Irish’, a two-part programme on Irish emigrants in London; Donal MacIntyre's new six-part TV3 series ‘Ireland's Crime Capitals’; ‘Laura Windermere's Bag’, a feature-length drama special which is a contemporary take on Oscar Wilde; the Irish ‘Deal or No Deal’, in association with The National Lottery, presented by magician Keith Barry; TV3's first two-part drama series ‘The Guards’; a weekly business show ‘Business Matters’ fronted by Ivan Yates; a major prime time current affairs show ‘Midweek’ hosted by Colette Fitzpatrick and the return of live ‘UEFA Champions League’ with anchor Matt Cooper.

TV3's production unit, launched last year, will produce over 180 hours of peak time programmes, with new series including ‘Nick's Restaurant’ (the opening of Nick Munier's Dublin venue), ‘Healers’ (the world of alternative therapies) and the return of the award-winning ‘Undercover Ireland’ series.

Also included in the line up will be a series of one-off specials such as ‘The Boyzone Story’, ‘The Westlife Story’, ‘Facing Death’ and ‘Surviving the Recession’.

To maintain TV3's ratings, a select number of acquisitions on Irish TV return: family shows such as ‘The X-Factor’, ‘I'm a Celebrity’ and ‘America's Got Talent’; also returning to the line up will be the Irish filmed series ‘The Tudors’, ‘Fringe’, ‘Coronation St’, ‘Emmerdale’ and ‘All Saints’.

New acquisitions to the TV3 schedule are led by the top shows from the 2009 LA Screenings; ‘V’ (a remake of the classic series); ‘Glee’ (part comedy, part drama, part musical) and the highly praised new US comedy ‘Modern Family’.

TV3's Director of Programming, Ben Frow said, "We know what our viewers like - they like well made, intelligent programming - and this year we have produced a schedule that delivers this in abundance across all genres. We are taking risks with comedy, campaigning with our documentaries, experimenting with new ways to make drama and our entertainment shows are bigger than ever. It has been a fantastic year for TV3. I am proud and confident that this schedule signals a new standard for TV3 and reflects even greater things to come."

Only thing in there for me is Fringe as I don't have Sky. Apart from that not much else.

iseegirls wrote: »

It's amazing how people quickly dismiss a show only after it's been named in the autumn schedule. Of course this also happened when they said they were going to produce their own Apprentice - and people slated that before it even aired. Let's just give it a chance when it comes along.

Be interesting though where it's going to fit in the schedule. Only slots at 8 are on Tuesday and Wednesday and then maybe on Sat and Sun - that's if they want to put it out a few times in the week.

iseegirls wrote: »

Collette Fitzpatrick is going to have a busy time of it - Midday at 12, News at 5.30 and Midweek on Wednesday at 9pm.

Although I'd say Alan Cantwell won't be happy with him being dropped from the Midday show in favour of an all female panel.

Nothing said about 3e aswell - so expect more repeats of CSI, Law And Order and Malcolm. Not to mention they're putting XPOSE repeats back at 6.30pm. Didn't they try this already and it they removed it?

icdg wrote: »

The word is that his show will be renamed "Tonight with Vincent Browne" (which was the name of his RTÉ Radio show and indeed his 98FM show before that) and reclassified from news to current affairs in order to get around this. Where that leaves TV3's news output (which will essentially be down to less than 3 hours a week) I don't know.

Personally I don't believe either news or current affairs should be sponsored. It leaves open too much of a possiblity of editorial interference.

Alan Rouge wrote: »

Well Browne's show was more than just a "news" show by the end of it. If there's editor interference then I can't see Browne sticking around. TV3 seem to have gone to great lengths to get Browne on telly again after his dodgy attempts with RTE in the past. On the last show he said when it returned it'd be in a "slightly different format". I wonder would they have a studio audience now that RTE's Q&A is gone ? Any word on what time Browne's show is on at actually ?