TV'S SUMMER FADES

by Michael Bodey

Summer seems to be getting longer but for TV executives, it is shrinking by the day.

A number of TV regulars, including Seven's Ian Ross and Naomi Robson, returned to the screen last night as the networks gear up for what many consider to be Seven's first real opportunity to knock Nine off the No.1 spot.

Despite the official ratings season being still two weeks away, Seven will bring back hits such as Lost on February 2 and Desperate Housewives on February 5 or 6, after the Australian Open.

Even before the ratings stoush begins, all the networks can celebrate a number of surprise hits, many of which will now find slots in the 2006 schedule. Even Nine's expectations for the Twenty20 cricket intern ational were exceeded, with 2.2 million viewers nationally.

Nine is now in negotiations with Cricket Australia to screen a Twenty20 match against England next summer. Fantasy and forensics worked elsewhere.

Ten's Surface and Supernatural had successful launches, the latter boosted by an inventive marketing campaign which included a special phone line superimposed on a character's mobile phone in promos and two mysterious women dressed in white sitting in the front row of cinema sessions. It was one of a number of "transfers" from competitors that worked well for Ten, Futurama ( from Seven) and Smallville (from Nine) also providing solid summer audiences. "It depends on how hard you want them to work," Ten programmer David Mott said. "It made sense for (the other networks) and very good sense to us."

Seven's The Ghost Whisperer, starring Jennifer Love-Hewitt, was the hit of season, averaging 1.26 million viewers.

It will now follow Dancing With The Stars in February.

The ABC will continue with old favourite The Bill after it resuscitated itself by ditching its soapier plotlines.

UK programs such as Waking The Dead and Midsomer Murders worked well for Nine. Another surprise was the ABC's Dynasties series, which even topped one night's viewing in December.

Seven's coverage of the Winter Olympics, from February 11, and the Commonwealth Games on Nine, from March 15, will up-end primetime schedules.

Already a number of big conflicts are shaping up, with Seven's expected US hit Prison Break shaping up against Ten's major success, House, on Wednesday nights.