New menu for viewers

Thomas Jane stars in Hung on TV One. Photo / Supplied

Viewers tired of television re-runs can look forward to a reprieve.

The free-to-air networks are getting ready to throw their new season shows at audiences, just as they crawl back from the beaches to sweat it out in their lounges.

TV One's Breakfast and Close Up return on January 18 and the network's scandalous new show, Hung, (about a well-endowed man) screens in the last week of January.

Sister station TV2 will mark the new season with Shortland Street on January 18 then, hot on the heels of its release in the States, American Idol screens on Friday, January 22 and Saturday 23. Meanwhile, the British version of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here takes over from the American version in the last week of January.

TV3's new hyped shows Modern Family and the Cliff Curtis high-action drama Trauma start the same week, as do Bones, the new Simpsons, Target, Missing Pieces and a two-hour premiere of House.

TV One favourite Cold Case returns in the last week of January.

Early February is also looking tasty - one of the most exciting new shows is The Good Wife, starring ER's Juliana Margulies, which premieres on TV3.

TV2 screens new seasons of favourites Grey's Anatomy and Lost, and has two big new shows: Flash Forward and the New Zealand version of The Apprentice. On TV One, look out for Nigel Latta's Beyond the Darklands, Mikey Havoc's Are You My Tribe? and the return of cult-favourite Packed to the Rafters.