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Pilot Week 2019 shows revealed by Network Ten

Publicist and now reality TV star Roxy Jacenko at a Melbourne event on May 15.

Publicist and now reality TV star Roxy Jacenko at a Melbourne event on May 15. Photo: Instagram

Network Ten’s line-up for its second Pilot Week reveals the station has taken a markedly different strategy to its controversial first line-up in 2018.

This year’s Pilot Week experiments include a string of female-led shows. Last year, Ten copped flak from stars and the public with its ‘all-male line-up’ that included a vehicle for shock jock Kyle Sandilands.

Among the women leading this year’s charge are high-profile Sydney publicist Roxy Jacenko and former Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan.

Ten is desperate for a homegrown hit after bombing out with Chris and Julia’s Sunday Night Takeaway and Changing Rooms.

A strategy taken from Ten’s US parent company CBS, Pilot Week sees the network air a series of program pilots. Each show has the chance to be picked up for a full season depending on ratings.

Last year, eight shows were trialled. In 2019 only five Pilot Week shows have been announced.

One of the 2018 Pilot Week shows, Taboo, hosted by comedian Harley Breen, was nominated for a 2019 Logie Award after just one episode, a weird situation he pointed out on Instagram.

Taboo will now return as a fully-fledged show on Ten. Also picked up from last year’s Pilot Week are Kinne Tonight, Sandilands’ Trial By Kyle and Bring Back Saturday Night.

Ten’s chief content officer Beverley McGarvey said the network was “so thrilled with the quality and creativity” of last year’s offerings.

“We can’t wait to see how this year’s projects deliver,” McGarvey said.

“It is clear that more domestic content is what our audiences really crave, and we are working hard to ensure we can provide an innovative and diverse slate of local shows.”

The Pilot Week Line-up

Part Time Privates: Starring Heidi Arena and Nicola Parry, the show is about two primary school mothers who start a home-based private investigation business. The women find themselves “moving between school pick-ups, dance group and lunch orders, to threesomes, insurance fraud and failed relationships,” said Ten.

I Am … Roxy!: ‘PR queen’ Jacenko is the star of this reality offering, which promises an “entertaining and comedic access-all-areas” peek into the “daily madness” of the “PR guru.” What can we count on? “High glamour and outrageous excess,” Ten said.

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Breakfast in Sydney – dinner in China 🇨🇳

A post shared by ROXY JACENKO (@roxyjacenko) on

Catfish Australia: Based on an MTV version, the show traces Donovan and Walkley-nominated documentarian Patrick Abboud as they search for the “truth” about online relationships. Donovan (who was caught up in a 2014 catfishing case) and Abboud will come “to the aid of everyday Aussies who have suspicions about their internet beau,” said Ten.

Sydney’s Crazy Rich Asians: A local reality version springboarding off the global success of 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians movie, the show follows the opulent lives of six characters and their local ‘fixer’ who “waits on their every want and need … no matter the cost,” the network said.

My 80 Year Old Flatmate: Ten calls this “reality TV with heart”. It follows older Australians offering cheap rent to hard-up millennials in exchange for company and domestic help. The generation gap show creates “surprising friendships”, said Ten.

A date for Pilot Week is yet to be announced.

In a big day for the network, Ten also confirmed it has picked up The Masked Singer, reportedly the most successful new show to launch in the US this year.

The format – originally South Korean – pits 12 celebrities wearing identity-hiding costumes and singing live before a studio audience.

Viewers are given clues each week to help guess the singers’ identities. The guessing component of the show has been a viral hit and attracted live broadcast viewers back to TV.

The line-up announcement drew mixed reviews on Twitter.

“Does Channel Ten know about the concept of quality over quantity?” asked one Twitter user.

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