Go Wild Over Prime’s Crowded House

Prime will roll out some of its new-season shows in mid-January, with a busy slate of premieres that includes MacGyver, a Doctor Who spin-off and the first series of The Great British Bake Off to screen here in HD.

The MacGyver reboot will air 7.30 Thursdays from January 19, ahead of the series premiere of Bull and the return of Madam Secretary.

The same week Prime will refreshen Fridays with the latest seasons of Scorpion (7.30) and NCIS: New Orleans (8.30), and the premiere of the Doctor Who spin-off, Class (9.30).

Antiques Roadshow will return for its 38th season (7.30 Saturdays from January 14) and The Crowd Goes Wild will resume 7.00 weeknights from January 16.

And premiering Tuesday in the Prime Rocks slot will be Crowded House – Live From The Sydney Opera House, which was recorded in November to mark the 20th anniversary of the band’s farewell concert.

Ahead of the concert Prime will lift the lid on the penultimate season of The Great British Bake Off to star the original team.

According to The Independent, “The new series has an international flavour also, with a Bangladeshi, a West Indian and a Filipino baker represented in the Kitchen, reflecting the international appeal of the show, which has now been licensed to 20 territories with the UK version sold to 196 areas to date.”

Both MacGyver and Bull received full season orders from CBS soon after their debuts because of how they improved the ratings for their respective time slots.

That was despite MacGyver being one of the worst reviewed new shows of the 2016/17 season.

Said The Washington Post of this ’80s action hour update about the ultimate do-it-yourselfer: “Some of us won’t be able to watch MacGyver without feeling like we’re getting a lobotomy with an unwound paper clip; others will be delighted by this energetic, easygoing update.”

Quipped The Hollywood Reporter: “The pilot travels the globe, but doesn’t look like it moved too far off the backlot.”

Courtroom procedural Bull didn’t fare much better. It stars NCIS’ Michael Weatherly as a trial consultant who helps to analyse juries, a character that was loosely based on Dr Phil McGraw’s days as a lawyer before he became a daytime talk show host.

Variety dismissed it as  “totally ridiculous, in concept and execution” while the Boston Globe said the case-a-week format was “filled with legal cliches“.

The pick of the newcomers looks to be Class, which is set in Doctor Who’s Coal Hill Academy.

“We’re certainly in rather more graphic and grown-up territory than the family friendly and fairly unviolent Doctor Who (although slightly less adult than that other spin-off Torchwood),” The Telegraph said of the BBC3 series while The Guardian described it as “a youth-oriented spin-off from a children’s show that grown adults enjoy getting angry about online, and that comes with a built-in warning that its adult themes make it ‘unsuitable for younger viewers’.”