Seven adds big-name dramas to its perennial reality recipe

AUSTRALIA’S obsession with biopics has well and truly reached its zenith. Shane Warne is the latest celebrity to get the treatment.

Warnie gets a bio-drama: The Aussie cricketing great is the subject of a new Channel Seven drama in 2017. Picture: Daniel Leal/AFP

SHANE Warne, Roger Rogerson, Olivia Newton-John and Paul Hogan are the big names Channel Seven will bowl up to extend its decade of dominance of Australian TV.

Dramas about the four Aussies, a shedload of reality TV, true crime and live sport are the hard-hitters unveiled by the network at its 2017 slate launch tonight.

Announcing the key elements Seven's 2017 programs, CEO Tim Worner said: “We are unleashing more live events — across sports and our prime time. We are commissioning great Australian dramas. Our track record of success over the past decade provides us with the confidence to expand and build our content and delivery presence across all screens.”

Seven will open 2017 with its proven recipe for ratings wins: heavy promos during its January Australia Open tennis coverage, and its big gun reality cooking show, My Kitchen Rules.

Here’s what Seven’s serving up:

Richard Roxburgh as Roger Rogerson in Blue Murder: Killer Cop. Picture: Channel 7

AUSSIE DRAMA

Seven’s big-name biopics will feature the stories of Olivia Newton-John, Warnie, Paul Hogan and see Richard Roxburgh reprise his role of notorious former detective Roger Rogerson.

Blue Murder: Killer Cop picks up where the original Blue Murder left off, with Rogerson’s expulsion from the NSW police force, and move on to his life imprisonment for murder earlier this year.

Hoges: The Paul Hogan Story will see Josh Lawson playing the man who went from Sydney Harbour Bridge painter to comedian and international superstar. Ryan Corr will play his mate John “Strop” Cornell.

Olivia Newton-John tells the story of the songstress who sold more than 100 million records to become the world's number one recording artist, and starred alongside John Travolta in Grease, as well has her personal struggles in her relationships and with breast cancer.

Warnie will portray the life of the prodigiously talented cricketer who became a walking human headline thanks to his off-field penchant for women, partying, texting and the high life.

Seven’s love affair with Australia’s singing sweetheart Jess Mauboy sees its much-hyped and current number one drama The Secret Daughter back next year. Perennial Seven drama favourite Rebecca Gibney will be back at the helm of another series of crime drama Wanted. And Erik Thomson and co will deliver a new season of 800 Words from across the ditch.

Ryan Corr as John Cornell, Josh Lawson as Paul Hogan and Justine Clarke as Noelene Hogan. Picture: Channel 7

REALITY

The My Kitchen Rules juggernaut is back for season eight. Despite the fact he continues to divide people off-screen with his controversial opinions judge “paleo Pete” Evans remains to MKR viewers and Seven’s taste, and he’s back at the helm with Manu Feildel. They’ve even gone international, heading up the New Zealand version of the show.

Reality renovation continues to rate, which means House Rules is back in 2017.

Seven is also moving to second base with two of its reality romance offerings.

First Dates, the almost painfully-awkward, and therefore painfully-addictive reality romance show which offers fly-on-the wall viewing of strangers in a restaurant has been renewed for a second date, due to air early in the new year.

Seven Year Switch, which debuted to solid ratings and criticism for its premise of splitting apart couples in crisis and making them live with someone else to save their marriage has received a second season.

Another serving: MKR’s Manu Feildel and Pete Evans. Picture: Eugene Hyland

SPORT

Live sport has sealed its spot as one of the last guaranteed winners for free-to-air TV ratings, because fans want to watch it now, not record it or download it for later.

Seven had the Olympics this year, but its biggest goal came at the start of this month, when the AFL grand final kicked the NRL grand final to the kerb with an average audience of 3.039 million metropolitan viewers to the NRL’s 2.647 million.

The AFL grand final was the most-watched show on Australian TV this year.

Next year, Seven will rely on its AFL coverage to attract live audiences, along with the Australian Open which anchors its tennis coverage, and the Sydney Easter and Melbourne Spring racing carnivals leading its horse racing coverage.

The network will continue to expand its digital and live streaming sport options which were amped up ahead of the network’s Olympics coverage this year.

USHER’S NEW GIG

Michael Usher’s secret new gig at Seven is out of the bag. The former 60 Minutes reporter will add Murder Uncovered to his weekend newsreading duties at Seven.

The show is billed as “a breakthrough investigative news series that will blow wide open some of the worst, most infamous cases of unsolved killings and crimes in Australian criminal history”.

First Dates has been given a second date by Channel 7. Picture: Channel 7

AND THEN THERE’S ...

Two new Aussie observational documentaries: Yummy Mummies and The Aussie Property Flippers.

Yummy Mummies, with its premise of stunning mums with “model good looks” whose burgeoning baby bumps see them endlessly comparing each other’s lavish baby showers, photo shoots and push presents seems primed to be can’t look away car-crash TV.

The Aussie Property Flippers follows couples trying to get rich quick buying, renovating and selling homes within a matter of weeks.

From the US comes murder mystery comedy Trial and Error starring 3rd Rock from the Sun’s John Lithgow, and Training Day, the much-hyped drama from Jerry Bruckheimer, which is a reimagining of the film of the same name.

Justin Cornwell as Kyle Craig and Bill Paxton as Frank Rourke in Training Day. Picture: Channel.

GONE:

DANCING WITH THE STARS: A mercy killing after a 12-year run. News that it was axed for good came earlier this week, Seven citing poor ratings as the reason. In its heyday DWTS finales pulled up to two million. In 2015 the finale was watched by just over 800,000 viewers.

Let’s not talk about the failedKiss Bang Love, in which contestants chose dates after snogging several strangers blindfolded. The show was ditched like a bad ex in July after a failed first season.

WHAT THEY DIDN’T SAY

Zumbo’s Just Desserts didn’t feature in the presentation and while a Seven spokesman said “there are many shows that didn’t,” it’s hard to see why it would pursue the short-run experiment of this year, with the Adriano Zumbo-helmed baking competition sinking like a bad souffle. It launched with 1.24 million viewers, dropped to 700,000. He might be a magician in the kitchen, but viewers didn’t fall under Zumbo’s spell, with his delivery panned as wooden, and the show likened to a poor rip-off of MasterChef.

The X Factordidn’t rate a mention, despite the fact that the ‘refreshed’ eighth season of the reality singing showhas just entered its live show phase on Seven. The network may be sitting tight to see if indifferent ratings recover thanks to the live element and the injection of Scary Spice Mel B into the show. This year’s version premiered with 904,000 viewers, the lowest debut ever for the show, and slipped to 752,000 viewers this week.

Originally published as Seven adds big-name dramas to its perennial reality recipe