Russell Baillie: We killed summer

First, given the weather over Labour Weekend, sorry for our cover last week. It looked all summery and outdoorsy - blue skies, barbecues, surfboards - and it jinxed things.

And declaring in the cover story that the weekend marked "the official marker summer is finally on its way" obviously just pushed things over the edge. It would appear spring has been postponed until God changes his mind. Or Bono turns up next month.

Anyway, can we just pass the buck and say it wasn't just us suffering premature declaration of summer? It's been on TV too. Strike that - summer has been declared by what's not been on TV. Like anything decent at a decent hour.

Yes, one day you're wondering what primetime wonders to delete off the MySky then daylight saving comes along and ... you're poking about the schedules with waning enthusiasm, looking out the window at the evening rain, then wondering if these "book" things you keep hearing about are much fun.

Shows that you thought would carry you through to nearer the end of the year are cut down in their prime - The Sopranos is left hanging mid-series by TVNZ. Then TV3's 24 is booted off its Friday-night slot - surely the perfect night of the week to watch somebody else having a bad day at work and occasionally left no option but to torture their workmates - to late on Saturday sometime after the evening movie has finished.

Even the traditionally highbrow 8.30pm slot on TV1's Sunday night has become a movie slot. TV2's got them three nights a week now too, while TV3 figures - correctly no doubt because it's a fine show - that repeats of House on Friday nights will do better than 24, which you really need to watch from the start.

But this series of 24 - yes 12 or so hours in - was just getting good. Well, last Saturday's show ended with the first really big explosion we've had for a while after Jack had learned the hard way that you sometimes have to torture the ones you love, just in case they're a traitor to national security.

But talking of cruel and unusual punishment, have you seen the TV One schedule of late? On Monday nights its exploitative rubbish The Final 24 - ok it's Discovery Channel so it's well-made exploitative rubbish - about the final 24 hours in the life of expired celebrities like River Phoenix and John Belushi. Do TV1's core audience actually know who River Phoenix or John Belushi were when they were alive?

There's the aforementioned movie takeover of the "masterpiece theatre" slot on Sunday which shoves arts show Frontseat even later. And starting this Saturday at 8.35pm on TV1 is Dancing in the Depot, a British reality series in which six coach drivers learn Irish dancing in under three weeks (I just googled to check it's not a spoof. It's not.).

Funnily enough, it's also the time of the year when the networks are announcing their line-ups for the next year. TV3's already done it. Prime was doing it yesterday.

TVNZ has its next week just as its programming department undergoes a shuffle among those who decide what we watch for those six months of the year when we're supposed to be watching.

There's also been talk of a few local productions being dropped because TVNZ needs the money to buy big overseas shows.

That may mean the end of NZ Idol (personally, I thought this year's NZ Idol meant the end of NZ Idol), as well as Taste New Zealand, Dancing with the Stars and Mucking In. Like, couldn't they combine somehow? Landscaping and Eating Al Fresco with the Stars in Waltz Time?

Let's say it now: Drop Mucking In at your peril, TVNZ. The celebrities can do without dancing lessons but community stalwarts across this fair nation still deserve to have Jim Mora knocking on their doors and bulldozing their overgrown sections. Especially since the honours list isn't what it once was.