IN A YEAR when Ireland got its second commercial broadcaster, TV3 has announced its Autumn scheduling pledging to cement its position ahead of UTV Ireland.
The Ballymount-based studio says that 55% of its programming will be Irish-made next year, and they’ve revealed what they’ve been working on.
This is what caught our eye:
Vincent Brown Investigates: Gerry Adams
TV3′s top draw recently told everyone that he wants to keep his show for another decade.
Whether that happens or not, Vincent is around for a while yet and he’s got a special three-part documentary about Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams in the works.
TV3 describe the Louth TD as “the most controversial political personality on the island” and promise that the investigation will examine Adams’ role in the conflict and the peace process. T
he show is also set to look at Sinn Féin in a wider context and if they could make “any appreciable difference” to the Irish people.
Gogglebox Ireland
We were promised an Irish version of the phenomenally successful Channel 4 show last year and TV3 say it’s now on the way.
TV3′s blurb says viewers can, “tune in to Mary reviewing last week’s Bake Off, Paddy critique the dress sense of the Xpose girls and Mick wax lyrical on the state of play in the latest episode of Celebrity Big Brother”.
All the shows named above are TV3-based, perhaps understandable given today’s launch, but surely the show will need to access content from other channels for it to be a runner.
The Gogglebox show will run for 12 episodes.
Heart Surgery Live
In what’ll be a pulsating edition to TV3′s schedule, they’re set to broadcast an hour-long programme live from an operating theatre. The show will see one of Ireland’s leading cardiologists (they’d want to be) insert a stent into a patient live on air.
It’s part of TV3′s Heart Week that’ll run a show each day culminating in the live event on Friday.
The focus is partly to celebrate the Irish Heart Foundation which turns 50 next year.
Jobstown – The Edge of Town
Last year, TV3 started their ‘Edge of Town’ series with a documentary about the people of the north Dublin estate of Darndale. The broadcaster itself says the show proved controversial and their latest edition looks like it may be even more so.
The name Jobstown has been all over the news since the water protest that saw the Tánaiste stuck in her car and the subsequent arrests.
TV3 spent year with the residents in the area and say the programme will look at how the people there have struggled with “high unemployment, anti-social behaviour and crime”.
The series is made by Motive Television and runs for four hour-long episodes.
It’s been a while since TV3 jumped headlong into the world of home improvements, a mainstay of RTÉ television for years with the favourites like About The House and Beyong The Hall Door.
More recently, Channel 4 has fed people’s curiosity in looking into other people’s homes.
TV3 are now getting on board with a gameshow twist. House Rules will pit six teams against each other travelling around the country to renovate each other’s homes.
The winning couple will have their mortgage paid off. An Irish prize if ever there was one.
TV3 are also putting together their own in-house documentary series called Disclosure.
Each episode will be an hour long and will feature a range of topics including the murder of Irish student Karen Buckley, Ireland’s homeless crisis and an exploration of the business behind Irish soccer.
TV3′s soap Red Rock is ongoing but, on the drama side of things, one of the more intriguing new shows in Smalltown.
Based on Ireland’s current bout of widespread emigration, the show follows two Irish twenty-something’s who leave Ireland for London
It’s by award winning writer and director Gerard Barrett and the drama will run for three hour-long episodes.
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