‘Addictive and glamorous’ Bondi gets the Made In Chelsea treatment

Made In Chelsea is the latest British expat set to call Bondi Beach home, with Channel Seven announcing a homemade version of the hit UK reality program will hit our shores as part of their 2024 slate.

The reality series Made in Bondi will be a co-commission between Seven and Channel 4 in the UK and will “follow the lives and loves of Sydney’s young, social elite”.

Promising “a front-row seat to jaw-dropping parties, breathtaking fashion and sizzling romances,” Made In Bondi will be the latest in a long line of overseas reality formats being trialled in Australia.

Made In Chelsea, but in Bondi? Seven is rolling the dice on a home made version of the hit UK reality show.

While recent attempts to launch fly-on-the-wall reality programs have seen mixed results (Byron Baes, The Real Housewives of Sydney and Below Deck Down Under), Seven is banking on the legacy of the Made In franchise to capture audiences.

According to Seven’s chief content officer, entertainment programming, Angus Ross, “Made in Chelsea is a true phenomenon of the reality TV genre and with an amazing cast of Sydney locals – Made in Bondi will be an addictive, glamorous and wild ride that will have viewers hooked from the first minute.”

Made In Bondi leads a reality-heavy programming slate for Seven in 2024 that sees a suite of new formats, alongside returning favourites including, The Voice, Farmer Wants A Wife, Big Brother, SAS and My Kitchen Rules. Australian Idol will also return with Kyle Sandilands and Amy Shark back as judges, but Marcia Hines is set to replace Meghan Trainor and Harry Connick Junior.

Away from reality, Seven is ramping up its sports offerings across AFL and cricket. As previously reported, from September 2024, Seven will have not just the broadcast rights but also the digital rights to the AFL games that air on the network.

Seven will expand its AFL offerings with more matches to be shown on digital platform, 7Plus.Credit: Getty Images

This means, for the first time, Australians will be able to see their team play on Seven and 7plus for free with no paywall in sight, though Foxtel and Kayo will retain the live rights for a number of fixtures.

Meanwhile, Seven’s digital rights to cricket start in October 2024, with Test matches, Women’s Internationals, BBL and WBBL running on 7plus for the first time.

Somers in 2004 with Dancing With The Stars co-host Sonia Kruger. Somers will not be returning to the series in 2024.

Dancing With The Stars is also set to shimmy its way back onto screens next year, minus long-running host Daryl Somers.

Somers was last seen on the network during his wobbly presentation of this year’s Gold Logie award to his Dancing With The Stars co-host, Sonia Kruger, but will be replaced by Dr Chris Brown, who rejoins the network in 2024.

Somers confirmed the news on the Hey, Hey It’s Saturday Facebook page late on Sunday night, writing, “I am happy to hand the Mirror Ball over to Chris and wish him all the very best.”

Brown will be busy during his highly publicised return to Seven, with the Bondi Vet also hosting Seven’s new series, Dream Home, a Block-style renovation competition that sees contestants transform six suburban homes.

Brown is also the host of Once In A Lifetime, an animal adventure series featuring Brown and a collection of famous friends travelling the world in pursuit of the ultimate animal encounter.

The good doctor will see you now. Chris Brown will be everywhere on Seven in 2024, with the Bondi Vet set to host three programs for the network.

Also coming to Seven in 2024 is Stranded on Honeymoon Island, billed as “the year’s biggest and most radical dating experiment.” The Endemol Shine series dumps freshly matched couples on an island in wedding attire to see if they can find true love - and survive.

Ultimately, Seven will be hoping that true crime does indeed pay, with the network ordering a slate of programs tapping into our appetite for true crime content. Australia’s Most Dangerous Prisoners takes audiences behind the walls of our country’s high-security jails to meet the men and women who ended up there while The Hunters, hosted by investigative crime journalist Adam Shand and Steve van Aperen, reinvestigates cold cases that have stumped police.

Seven has gone big on true crime, including this documentary series on convicted fraudster Hamish McLaren.

Seven will also look to leverage our fascination with scammers by commissioning King Con: The Life and Crimes Of Hamish McLaren. Hamish McLaren is one of the most successful con men of all time. Throughout his 30-year career, he scammed unsuspecting girlfriends, high-profile businessmen, acquaintances, and his best friends out of more than $60 million.

McLaren’s story was the subject of a popular 2019 podcast by The Australian, Who the Hell is Hamish? and will now find its way to the screen.

Seven has also commissioned the original documentary The Wave, which revisits the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed at least 225,000 people.

But while there is an abundance of tent pole reality programming, Seven’s slate was noticeably light on local drama commissions. Stephen Peacocke’s RFDS will receive a third season, and Home & Away returns for another year, but the network did not commission any new original local dramas.

The TV WEEK Logie awards will also return to Seven and 7Plus in 2024.

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