Move over Daithi and Maura, Martin King and Lucy Kennedy are joining forces for a bit of afternoon telly as TV3 ups the ante for their Autumn Schedule. The pair's new show, Late Lunch Live, is just one of several new commissions for the broadcaster in the coming months.
The daytime schedule has been totally revamped with broadcaster Anton Savage joining the Ireland AM team, alongside Sinead, Mark, Anna, Aidan and Alan. He joins the team for the first hour from 7am, and the show will now run until 10.45. Himself and Lucy aren't the only new additions to the schedule though: Claire Solan (of Tallafornia: The Afterparty and 98FM fame) will be team up with Kennedy and King as a roving reporter on Late Lunch Live.
Fans of Midday need not despair as the show will most definitely be returning, but Sybil Mulcahy will now join forces with Elaine Crowley and yes, there'll be a LIVE studio audience. We knew that HD studio would come in handy one day. It does mean disappointment for fans of The Morning Show though, as the popular daytime programme leaves the air for good. And of course, those Xpose girls will most definitely be back in action.
There's a huge emphasis on homegrown shows in the new schedule, with TV3 committed to going thoroughly Irish with their content. Observational documentary series Midwives goes behind the scenes at The National Maternity Hospital, while Paul Connolly heads off to the USA for Travellers In America: The Secret Society. Amazing Grace sees titular funny man Brendan getting his own one-hour TV special, while Ireland By Night meets the workers who do their daily grind while we're wrapped up in bed. Then there are some tasty delights on offer with The Lazy Chef Simon Lamont, and there's even a chance to get a unique insight into Ireland's Prison Families. Speaking of families, the rather popular ITV series Long Lost Family gets its very own Irish reboot, while Save Your Money brings the Irish viewer a 'new style of consumer show'.
Things get a wee bit more serious as the channel investigates Ireland's Tiger Raids, and tells the tale of some rather deadly women in Ireland's Black Widows. Cant Move? Improve! introduces us to people who are trapped in unsuitable homes thanks to the property slump, while Tales of Irish Castles takes Simon Delaney on a historical journey through the British Isles. We're off to The Park in Killarney to find out what happens over the course of a year in Ireland's oldest, largest and most diverse National Park, before This Island host Dick Warner brings us on a tour of the 32 counties. And we're back on the road and in the veterinary surgery with Animal A&E's Andrea Hayes, while Midweek's Ciara Doherty says feck the Kardashians and experiences life At Home With The Healy Rayes.
Both 24 Hours To Kill and The Holiday Show return, as does Vincent Browne with not one, but two series. We'll still get our nightly dose of political drama on Tonight With Vincent Browne, before joining him and another panel to set about Challenging God. Midweek and The 5.30 are both back in business, but they're joined by a brand new news bulletin at 12:45, while Print And Be Damned and fyi stay put, and some new documentaries roll in.
Sinn Féin: Who Are They? aims to answer it's own question, while The Kennedys' Irish Mafia focuses mainly on the Irish obsession with the American President. Perhaps most interestingly there's a new two parter, which goes by the name GUBU. It takes us back through those "Grotesque, Unbelievable, Bizarre and Unprecedented" events that surrounded Charles Haughey's time as Taoiseach in the early 1980s.
On a lighter note, The Great Irish Bake Off (hosted by Anna Nolan) and Celebrity Apprentice join the line-up, alongside Keith Barry: Brain Hacker, new animation/live-action production Bottler (thank Brendan Grace for that one) audience participation filled dating show Fact or Fancy?, and new game show The Lie. There's a brand new quiz show too, called Pressure Point, and all your old time favourites return. Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway will be back, as will X Factor from both sides of the Atlantic to boot. Dancing On Ice will say goodbye with its final season in January 2014, and I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here also returns.
Graham Norton's BAFTA winning chat show keeps its weekly slot in the TV3 schedule, while there's also time for a new series about the Things We Love And Hate: Ireland's comedians and members of the public will be responsible for dissecting those topics mind you.
For those of you wondering about your favourite soaps, there's no need to panic as both Coronation Street and Emmerdale are staying put. Speaking of drama though, there's good news for everyone, with Law And Order: SVU returning, alongside Dallas, Downton Abbey and new Aussie drama Wentworth. The Champions League and Europa League both stay put in Ballymount's broadcasting schedule, while new adult comedy Newsbag joins old favourites Family Guy, Bob's Burgers, American Dad!, The Big Bang Theory, The Cleveland Show, Modern Family, Conan and of course, Uploaded over on sister channel 3e.
Now, when you're done digesting all that information, why don't you tell us what you make of the new season? Are you raging that there's no more Tallafornia? Devo that we've seen the last of Deception? Don't be afraid to hide your feels, we do love a bit of TV banter.
