The Rundown: Channel 10’s switch to save The Bachelor; red hot MAFS in the can for 2023

After a run of reality TV outs, Channel 10 is quarantining The Bachelor in a desperate effort to break viewer malaise.

The move to dump the reality flop The Challenge to the outer edges of Network Ten’s broadcast options would seem to be as much about saving The Bachelors as it is about banishing a show that got a serious cold shoulder from viewers.

The Challenge was flicked off to a Monday night timeslot on 10Shake after a double episode on November 28 drew just 96,000 (episode 1) and then 72,000 (episode 2) overnight metro viewers.

As The Challenge disappeared, new glossy promos for The Bachelors started running on Ten, with the revamped romance series set to launch on January 9, 2023.

Channel 10 is pulling out all the stops to save The Bachelor from getting the cold shoulder.

The booting, necessary because of the dire ratings, also looks like an attempt to quarantine The Bachelors from the viewer malaise that has beset 10’s most recent reality offerings.

The Real Love Boat, a dating show set on a cruise liner, looked great and had a terrific host in Darren McMullen, but the audience did not go along for the ride.

The Challenge, made up of a cast who had appeared on other reality shows such as The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise, Big Brother, Survivor, MAFS and I’m A Celebrity, would maybe have worked better with more time given to the flare-ups and friction between contestants than their efforts on the obstacle or activity courses.

Then there was The Traitors, which badly failed to fire.

Some reality free air between now and January would be desirable for The Bachelors as the wider 10 audience would seem to be exhausted by the constant offerings in that space.

I'm a Celebrity has been bumped until later in the year to make way for The Bachelor.

Audiences don’t pick and stick these days. Viewers are flooded with choice thanks to streaming platforms and most don’t sit on a favoured network and watch whatever is put in front of them.

They move quickly if a show doesn’t grab their attention in that crucial first episode.

Ten is no doubt hoping The Bachelors, with its new location, three suitors and some catty drama, will bring fans back to the franchise when it kicks off next month. It needs hype as viewers fell away in Jimmy Nicholson’s season in 2021 and the total audience whittled further for Brooke Blurton’s season of The Bachelorette, also in 2021.

The network will also be betting on the show being a point of difference for viewers who don’t want to watch sport in summer on other free-to-air channels.

Ten is due a hit and it can’t afford the disinterest that has blighted The Real Love Boat, The Traitors and The Challenge to hangover into January and give The Bachelors the brush off.

Search for Aussie FBoys

FBoy Island is coming with the hilariously named dating show now searching for cast.

And they are not just looking for any old lovelorn locals for the Australian version of the wild matchmaking series.

The type of women, who will be the leads on the show, being searched for in the “nationwide” hunt need to be “confident, beautiful, and charismatic”.

“Are you an empowered woman who has it all, besides love?

“It’s up to you to separate the nice guys from the players!”

As for the guys, the search is on for a mix of nice guys and fboys.

“Are you a nice guy looking for love who’s ready to prove that nice guys don’t finish last?,” the casting call out read.

“Or a self-proclaimed “player” looking to play the ladies and compete for a massive cash prize?”

Casting notes show the reality program will film for four weeks between February and March next year and the cast must be fully vaccinated for Covid-19 prior to commencement of production.

The casting is being conducted by Warner Bros with FBoy Island to be seen on Binge.

Blaze set for new Block season

Despite the yearly moan from anti-Blockers about the judges on the hit show, their sometimes controversial opinions about rooms and their passion for cushions and lamps, one thing is certain, Shaynna Blaze is going nowhere.

Blaze will be back on the 2023 season of the renovation drama which is set in Charming Street, Hampton East. Work has already started to prepare the houses for filming which is expected to get under way in early March.

Shaynna Blaze is locked in for Black season 2023.

Asked if she was sticking with the show for the new season, Blaze was effusive.

“Absolutely. I do it because I love it and I do it because I get so excited to see what the next challenge is going to be and so excited to see what these people can do in 12 weeks, because it is superhuman,” she said.

“We don’t know what they have done during the week and that is purposeful so that we don’t have a formed opinion before we walk in the door and that is so important.”

Blaze is currently on air on Channel 9 with her own show Country Home Rescue which sees her restoring and renovating a country house and turning it into her family home.

Warnie wraps

Filming finishes this week on the Shane Warne telemovie, Warnie.

The two-part dramatisation of the late, great spin king’s life has been shooting around Melbourne in recent weeks.

Port Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Brunswick Cricket Club, the State Library Victoria, the Pit Lane Building at Albert Park and Rippon Lea Estate were all used as locations where moments of Warne’s life were recreated.

Filming on the Shane Warne telemovie will wrap this week. Picture: Media Mode

Warne is being played by Alex Williams, who is best known for his role as Julian Assange in Underground: The Julian Assange Story.

Marny Kennedy, who has appeared in Janet King and Between Two Worlds, is playing Simone Warne while model Shanti Kali is portraying the sultry British model/actor Elizabeth Hurley.

Warne passed away suddenly in Thailand in March, aged 52.

MAFS in the can for 2023

The explosive new season of Married At First Sight, with its brides and grooms, cheaters, love rats, drama queens and mean girls, has finished filming, and if rumours from the set are anything to go by the show will be red hot with romance and heartbreak.

It would not be MAFS if there wasn’t a cheating scandal, and word is the cast have not let viewers down in that department.

The couples are yet to film the always explosive reunion episode.

While MAFS’s more dysfunctional contestants tend to dominate the narrative of the show — often positioning it as a bin fire of wannabes keen to gather social media followers — it has been surprisingly successful at playing matchmaker.

Jules Robinson and Cameron Merchant from the 2019 season are married and have a son, Oliver, Bryce Ruthven and Melissa Rawson from the 2021 season are engaged and have twin boys, and Michael Brunelli and Martha Kalifatidis from the 2019 are engaged and are expecting their first child.

The 2023 season of MAFS will kick off on Channel 9 in February after the Australian Open.