Seven Upfront 2020: TV guide to each major program coming next year

• Matt, Gary & Manu after the games; Big Brother – new house, new rules

PLATE OF ORIGIN

In 2020, food superstars Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan join Manu Feildel for PLATE OF ORIGIN. Launching with the power of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, this international cooking competition will be on a scale that Australia has never seen before; reaching not just every corner of this country but also overseas. Showcasing teams of diverse cultural backgrounds who are passionate about their unique cuisine, this worldwide food fight will pit cuisine against cuisine, plate against plate, cook against cook. Which cuisine will reign supreme? This is the Olympics of cooking with a truly global flavour. Let the flames begin.

PLATE OF ORIGIN is a Seven Studios production.

BIG BROTHER

Twenty years ago, nine people entered a purpose-built house to be watched 24/7 by Big Brother and it changed TV forever! Life inside the house was fascinating, unpredictable, uplifting, confronting, shocking, surprising, hilarious and above all else, entertaining. In 2020, the world’s greatest reality show returns to shake things up. But if you think you know BIG BROTHER, then think again. This time, everything has changed. The thrilling new era of BIG BROTHER begins with a dynamic new house full of incredible surprises, new rules designed to create show stopping twists and a new generation of unique and ambitious housemates determined to outstay each other no matter what Big Brother throws at them. The only question is, when BIG BROTHER returns… are you ready to play?

BIG BROTHER is an Endemol Shine Australia production for Channel Seven.

MY KITCHEN RULES: THE RIVALS

Chef vs Chef, Fans vs Faves, House vs House – this is MY KITCHEN RULES: THE RIVALS. In an MKR first, five former favourite teams go head-to-head with five new teams in the fiercest competition yet. Each group of teams will be living together in separate houses and they’ve all got something to prove – especially their group mentors, Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge. Through a series of cooking challenges in House Manu or House Colin, the two chefs try to bring the best out of their teams while Pete Evans serves as the impartial judge. As the competition progresses, the rivalry heats up in and out of the kitchen, while friendships are formed and a hint of romance adds some extra spice. Ultimately, one team will be crowned MKR champion – will it be a fan or fave? You’ve never seen an MKR like this!

MY KITCHEN RULES: THE RIVALS is a Seven Studios production.

HOUSE RULES: HIGH STAKES

On HOUSE RULES in 2020, the stakes have never been higher with new judges, new hosts and “next level” surprises which push the teams harder than ever – and it all comes together 33 stories high. Eight new teams will have to prove their worth in the toughest challenge in the show’s history – the transformation of a high-rise penthouse on the Gold Coast. With more to gain but even more to lose, teams will be desperate to succeed as they attempt to please two brand new judges who have their own sky-high expectations. Joining superstar judge Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen will be interior design entrepreneur Kylie Clarke and prolific Aussie home builder Saul Myers. Meanwhile, new host and former HOUSE RULES judge Jamie Durie will be joined by acclaimed presenter and sports journalist Abbey Gelmi who’ll make sure contestants maintain a winning edge. HOUSE RULES: HIGH STAKES is a game changer, but teams will still have to entrust the keys to their biggest asset, their own homes, to their competitors for mind- boggling transformations.

HOUSE RULES: HIGH STAKES is a Seven Studios production.

MEGA MINI GOLF

Based on the hole-in-one hit format on America’s ABC Network, MEGA MINI GOLF is an extreme miniature golf competition set on a larger-than-life obstacle golf course. Aussie mini-golf lovers of all ages and backgrounds will have the chance to tee off on the most epic course ever devised in this country, competing head-to-head on supersized holes. They’ll face out-of-this-world challenges as their putting and physical skills are put to the test while they attempt to complete the course and reach the daunting final hole.

MEGA MINI GOLF is a Eureka Production for Channel Seven based on a Eureka/Disney/Unanimous format.

SAS: WHO DARES WINS

Fourteen brave Aussie celebrities are about to embark on the toughest test of their lives – attempting to overcome the intensive SAS selection process. Over two weeks, an elite group of ex-Special Forces soldiers, led by Chief Instructor Ant Middleton, will put these stars through an extraordinary series of physical and psychological tests, each from the real SAS selection process.

Cut off from the outside world at a secret base in a foreign country, they will eat, sleep and train together in spectacular and punishing terrain with no allowances made for their celebrity status. As they progress through the gruelling course, they’ll be forced to confront surprising truths about themselves to discover their real character. Some will reach breaking point and withdraw. Which recruits will tough it out to the end?

SAS: WHO DARES WINS is produced by Screentime, a Banijay Group company, based on a Minnow Films format, for Channel Seven.

FARMER WANTS A WIFE

It’s created more happily-ever-afters than any other dating show, with nine marriages and 19 babies in Australia (with another on the way) and 147 marriages and 280 babies worldwide. Now, Australia’s most successful love show is back with a new crop of single farmers who are ready to find their soulmate.

FARMER WANTS A WIFE is a Fremantle and Eureka co-production for Channel Seven.

POOCH PERFECT

“Edward Scissorhands meets Dance Moms meets Survivor” – that’s how host Rebel Wilson describes her new competition dog styling series POOCH PERFECT. Aussie dog lovers and fur-parents will go mutts over the epic transformations as 10 professional dog stylists take their clippers to beloved pooches of every shape, size and breed in this pawsome competition. A panel of the industry’s top judges will critique their work to determine the ultimate winner of the $100,000 grand prize.

POOCH PERFECT is a Seven Studios production.

AUSTRALIA’S GOT TALENT: THE CHAMPIONS

The battle to be crowned ultimate champion is here as the best of Aussie talent take on the world in an incredible, showstopping showdown.

AGT and AUSTRALIA’S GOT TALENT: THE CHAMPIONS will bring together the most talented, memorable, wackiest and all-round fan favourite acts from past seasons of  some of the most popular acts from the Got Talent franchises around the world on the one stage. This super-charged celebration of creativity and talent will deliver the most spectacular competition ever seen in Australia.

AUSTRALIA’S GOT TALENT: THE CHAMPIONS is a Fremantle production for Channel Seven.

THE ALL NEW MONTY: GUYS AND GALS

The Real Full Monty and The All New Monty: Ladies Night are the No. 1 and No. 2 new shows of the past two years. Now, these feelgood formats come together for one monster special event series. Shane Jacobson, Todd McKenney and Georgie Parker will bring together male and female celebrities for THE ALL NEW MONTY: GUYS AND GALS with Home and Away actress Sam Frost and Better Homes and Gardens presenter Adam Dovile the first two stars confirmed to take part. Who else will dare to bare all for a good cause?

THE ALL NEW MONTY: GUYS AND GALS is a Seven Studios production.

MATES ON A MISSION

Mates Shane Jacobson, Todd McKenney, Kris Smith and Brian “BT” Taylor travel the world to take on insane challenges in this inspirational travel comedy series. This fearless, funny and unique band of brothers are no strangers to each other or to getting out of their comfort zones after taking it all off for THE REAL FULL MONTY. Now, they’ll go to any length, on any land, to shine a light on mental health issues and encourage blokes out there not to bottle up, but to open up.

MATES ON A MISSION is a Seven Studios production.

RFDS

Acclaimed actress and award-winning singer Justine Clarke (Tangle, Rake, The Time Of Our Lives), Logie Award-winning star of stage and screen, Rob Collins (The Wrong Girl, Glitch, Cleverman) and Logie Award-winning actor Stephen Peacocke (Home and Away, Wanted) lead the cast of RFDS (working title), a gripping new action-drama on a grand scale, based in Australia’s red heart, where the modern-day heroes of the Royal Flying Doctor Service navigate private lives as turbulent and profound as the heart stopping emergencies they attend. Based on remarkable real-life stories and filmed on location in and around Broken Hill, this series will capture the beauty and brutality of Australia’s vast centre where the doctors, nurses, pilots and support staff of the RFDS negotiate the unique challenges of emergency retrievals across some of the most inhospitable places in the country. It’s also a story about community and people coming together to laugh, to cry and to triumph, in spite of the huge obstacles they face.

Rob Collins

Rob Collins

RFDS is an Endemol Shine Australia production for the Seven Network. Major production investment from Seven Network in association with Screen Australia. Financed with support from Screen NSW through the Made In NSW Fun and the Regional Filming Fund.

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

From master creator Bevan Lee (A Place to Call Home, Packed to the Rafters, All Saints, Winners & Losers) comes this bold, seductive, glamorous new thriller featuring a world class ensemble cast led by British actress Hermione Norris (Cold Feet, Spooks, Luther). Norris stars as Cate Walford, whose harsh, vicious, business tycoon husband, Phillip (Philip Quast, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Hacksaw Ridge) fights to dominate his family as he faces his mortality. Through a shocking twist of fate, their dark and murky world collides with the seemingly disparate and disconnected, warm and loving world of widow Sophia Grey (Sara Wiseman, A Place to Call Home) and her footy star son and musical daughter. Destructive secrets are soon unearthed proving nothing is quite as it first might appear. Aaron Jeffery (Wentworth), Dominic Allburn (A Place to Call Home), Blazey Best (A Place to Call Home), Marny Kennedy (Janet King) and up-and-coming actors Tom Dalzell, Melanie Jarnson, Megan Smart, Alex Cubis and Elijah Williams also star.

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS is a Seven Studios production.

FALCONIO: AN OUTBACK MURDER

From the heart of the Australian outback comes the inside story of a terrifying murder that shocked the world. FALCONIO: AN OUTBACK MURDER (working title) is a blockbuster True Crime series that investigates the 2001 disappearance of British backpacker Peter Falconio in outback Australia. In one of the most detailed re-investigations of the Falconio case ever mounted, this four-part series dives into the details and the dramas that have surrounded this extraordinary case from day one. It will deliver the powerful first-hand accounts of many people impacted by this event and will use new and exclusive access to the original defence case documents to re-examine the evidence put forward at the trial of the man convicted of Falconio’s murder – Bradley John Murdoch.

FALCONIO: AN OUTBACK MURDER is produced by CJZ for Channel Seven.

WIFE SWAP

In this dramatic and emotional series, two wives with opposing parenting styles swap lives in a bold, new social experiment. Morals and social behaviours are tested as the wives and their families are thrown into each other’s world. In one episode, a cashed-up mum of privately schooled children, swaps lives with a dole-receiving, hippy mum of eight un-schooled kids who live a nomadic lifestyle on a bus. In another, a clinical, vlogging mum who lives her entire life online and in front of the camera, swaps lives with a rural farmhand mum who lives off the land, completely off the grid.

WIFE SWAP is a Screentime, a Banijay Group company, production for Channel Seven.

GOLD DIGGER

Starring Emmy winner Julia Ormond (Mad Men, Legends of the Fall, Temple Grandin, Sabrina) and Ben Barnes (Westworld, Chronicles of Narnia, The Punisher), GOLD DIGGER is a contemporary, relationship thriller filled with unexpected twists and turns. The story focuses on a wealthy woman who falls in love with a much younger man and the impact this has on her already damaged family. Mother first, wife second, woman last – 60-year-old Julia (Ormond) has spent her whole life putting the needs of others before her own. Then she meets Benjamin (Barnes), a 30-something copywriter with a shrouded history. As the drama unfolds, the consequences of their relationship are explored, as devastating secrets from the past tear the family’s fragile bonds further apart. Has Julia finally found the happiness she’s always deserved? Or is the complex and enigmatic Benjamin really the gold digger her family think he is?

GOLD DIGGER is produced by Mainstreet Pictures for BBC One.

RECKONING

Filmed in Sydney and set in California, this psychological thriller explores the darkest corners of the male psyche through the eyes of two fathers, one of whom is a serial-killer. Homicide Detective Mike Serrato (Aden Young, Rectify, The Disappearance) and high school Guidance Counsellor Leo Doyle (Sam Trammell, True Blood, This Is Us), try to do what’s best for the people they love and the families they protect. But as both struggle to suppress their inner demons, the murder of a local teenager sets them on a course of mutual destruction that will emanate through every facet of their quiet, suburban community. Australia’s Simone Kessell (The Crossing, Terra Nova) and Laura Gordon (Winners & Losers, Hunters) also star.

RECKONING is produced by Playmaker Media, in association with Sony Pictures Television.

ONE LANE BRIDGE

ONE LANE BRIDGE is a character-focused crime drama with a dark, supernatural edge. The series stars Dominic Ona-Ariki (Jonah, Shortland Street) as Ariki Davis, an ambitious young Cook Island Māori Detective who, during a murder investigation at Queenstown’s infamous One Lane Bridge, inadvertently reawakens a spiritual gift that endangers the case, his career and his life. The cast also includes Sara Wiseman (A Place to Call Home, Between Two Worlds), Joel Tobeck (Tangle), Peter McCauley (The Brokenwood Mysteries), Ryan O’Kane (Shortland Street), Dean O’Gorman (The Bad Seed), Jared Turner (The Secret Daughter), Michelle Langstone (800 words) and Alison Bruce (Ablaze).

ONE LANE BRIDGE is produced by Great Southern Television.

FILTHY RICH

Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominee Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City) stars in this southern Gothic family drama in which wealth, power and religion collide – with outrageously soapy results. When the patriarch of a mega-rich Southern family, famed for creating a wildly successful Christian television network, dies in a plane crash, his wife and family are stunned to learn that he fathered three illegitimate children, all of whom are written into his will, threatening their family name and fortune. With monumental twists and turns, FILTHY RICH presents a world in which everyone has an ulterior motive – and no one is going down without a fight.

FILTHY RICH is produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Imagine Television.

9-1-1: LONE STAR

High-octane drama 9-1-1 expands its reach to the city of Austin, Texas with its first-ever spin-off. From 9-1- 1 co-creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear comes 9-1-1: LONE STAR, featuring Rob Lowe (Parks and Recreation, The West Wing, Brothers & Sisters) as a sophisticated New York cop who, along with his son, relocates to Austin where he must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving problems in his own life. Liv Tyler (The Leftovers, Harlots) also stars.

9-1-1: LONE STAR is produced by 20th Century Fox Television.

MISS SCARLET AND THE DUKE

Set in the same 1880s London society that gave rise to Jack the Ripper, this British detective drama features a fearless, independent heroine played by Kate Phillips (Peaky Blinders, The Crown). With her inquisitive mind, Miss Scarlet has always been more interested in running her late father’s detective agency than behaving like a proper lady. But nothing has prepared her for the dangers she is about to face as a woman in the murder investigation trade.

MISS SCARLET AND THE DUKE is produced by Element 8 Entertainment.

BILLY CONNOLLY’S GREAT AMERICAN TRAIL

From prolific British writer Rachael New comes this fresh crime drama

 about the first ever female detective in 19th century London.

BILLY CONNOLLY’S GREAT AMERICAN TRAIL sees legendary comedian Billy Connolly telling the incredible story of the Scottish people in America. Starting in New York and finishing in Nashville, Tennessee, Billy heads far off the beaten track into the places you’ve heard of but have rarely seen. As he follows the migratory trail of the Scots, he discovers the extraordinary places and people that make today’s America, with its diverse heritage of immigration. This is a series bursting at the seams with music, football, gangsters, whales, real life moonshiners – all tied up together in this incredible story of the land of the free, as seen through the eyes of one of the world’s most loved comedians.

BILLY CONNOLLY’S GREAT AMERICAN TRAIL is produced by Wonder, a Banijay Group Company.

REGULAR OLD BOGAN (7mate)

Australia’s answer to South Park, REGULAR OLD BOGAN is an adult animated comedy series with a big heart and even bigger balls. This love letter to Australia revolves around the adventures of the Stubbs family – dad Gavin Stubbs, a stubborn and misinformed tradesman; overbearing mum Wendy, a primary school teacher; Toby, their often bullied, hypersensitive teenage son; and Mary Sue, their foul-mouthed, six-year-old daughter. The Stubbs are a typical family from the suburbs, but this isn’t a family drama – it’s an adventure show. In each episode, they encounter outrageous situations like fighting terrorists, facing Death Row in a Balinese prison or getting lost in the outback when they’d much rather be at home firing up the barbie and talking about the latest specials at Aldi.

REGULAR OLD BOGAN is produced by Stepmates Studios for 7mate.

DESERT COLLECTORS S2 (exclusive to 7mate)

Join the Desert Collectors Nigel and Norm as they travel Australia’s spectacular outback, steeped in history and heritage, in search of unique treasures and meeting the people who spend their lives collecting them.

DESERT COLLECTORS is a Desert Collectors Australia production, in association with Blizzard Road Productions, for 7mate.

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