5-O Not ‘Til ’15 But Sons Due Soon

Hawaii Five-O fans will have to wait until at least next year to see new episodes on TV3 but the network is looking to fast-track two of its most popular US dramas, Sons of Anarchy and The Blacklist.

The irony for Five-O fans is TV3 is holding back the ’60s crime reboot until it can find the right stablemate to relaunch it in peak-hour.

The four-year-old series has had a chequered scheduling history, with TV3 experimenting with several primetime slots before seemingly writing it off for late-night (as it did with The Good Wife).

But this year it made a surprise 9.30 comeback on Sundays after The Blacklist, where it steadily rebuilt its audience.

However, Five-O became a casualty of more scheduling changes, when TV3 reverted to Sunday night movies and relocated it to Tuesdays, on the second half of a double-bill with another new drama, Crisis, which tanked immediately.

“Hawaii Five-O is a solid performer and we consider it a primetime series,” TV3 programming boss Mark Caulton told ScreenScribe.tv.

“It wasn’t getting the best lead-in from Crisis, and of course, replacing Crisis with a two-hour  movie slot meant taking Hawaii Five-O out of the Tuesday night schedule.

“Hawaii Five-O is likely to be back in 2015.”

The good news is TV3 will maintain its commitment to primetime drama next year, despite coming unstuck with Crisis and restructuring its Fox and NBC Universal deals to take fewer series, which cost it dramas like Homeland, Sleepy Hollow, Bones, Chicago Fire and its spin-off Chicago PD.

“We look at every show on its merits,” Caulton says. “Dramas still feature among our best performing shows.

“The Blacklist and NCIS franchise in particular are big shows for us. We envisage a similar amount of drama in our 2015 schedule as we have had in 2014.”

Wouldn’t fast tracking US dramas, as TV3 did with Homeland, boost their NZ viewership?

“It depends on the show,” Caulton says. “We will be fast-tracking Sons of Anarchy and will look at the merits of other dramas as well. Blacklist is an obvious one.”

Anarchy is perfect for fast-tracking because the next season will be the final, and therefore ripe to capitalise on its six-year history, and its 13 episodes will fit neatly into TV3’s fourth-quarter build-up to Christmas.

Blacklist is more problematic because NBC split the first season in two and presumably will do so again.

But this is a strategy NZ networks prefer not to emulate — they would rather run a season without interruption and by starting them in late summer, they have continuity of supply and an arsenal of new-season big guns.

Increasingly, however, they run the risk of buzzed-about series like Blacklist having their storylines spoiled online and fans opting to download the latest episodes.

As for 2015’s new dramas, TV3 has commissioned what should be a sure-fire local hit after stumbling with Harry and The Blue Rose, the Outrageous Fortune prequel, West Side Story (although only six rather than 13 episodes have been commissioned, with $4.8 million in funding from NZ On Air).

Caulton also expects to benefit from the new slate of NBC Universal dramas he previewed at the LA Screenings in May.

“This year was a strong year for dramas at the Screenings, more so than comedies,” he says.

“Batman origin series Gotham from Warner Brothers was impressive and NBC had a very strong year for drama generally.

“Among NBC’s stronger shows were action-drama Odyssey, State of Affairs starring Katherine Heigl as a top CIA analyst, and a refreshingly likeable relationship drama Satisfaction, all of which should work well in this market.

“Also keep an eye out for the reboot of mid-2000s hit series Heroes also from NBC, Heroes: Reborn, which will launch in early 2015.”