Hot new TV shows in 2011

2011 will go back – way back – to bring viewers great television this year.

Approximately 85 million years or so. Here's a rundown of the hot and brand new television offerings starting in 2011 that everyone will be talking about.

Terra Nova
The biggest new show of 2011 is coming to television around May and it's going to be spectacular. Cross Lost with Lost in Space with Avatar with The Swiss Family Robinson and Jurassic Park, throw in Steven Spielberg, add a lush jungle remote locale in Australia where it's being filmed to resemble prehistoric Earth 85 million years ago, and you've got Terra Nova. More good news is that I've found out that M-Net has already snapped up the broadcasting rights, so South African viewers will definitely see it!

In 2149 the Earth is dying. Scientists have found a way to send people back into the far past to create a colony without changing the future where mankind is to start again. The Shannon family travels back in time but then gets stuck there with dangerous creatures in an unknown world.

Landmark
Precious little information is emanating about M-Net's brand new weekday soapie set on a game farm that will start on 4 April at 18:00 on the pay broadcaster, but I do know that the working title is called Landmark. Connie Ferguson who left her role as Karabo in Generations on SABC 1, her real-life husband Shona Ferguson, as well as the former Isidingo soap star and Top Billing presenter Tumisho Masha are going to shine in the cast. 

Falling Skies
Mr Spielberg is one busy man. Besides two movies coming out this year, Steven Spielberg's actually working on two TV shows as well. Besides Terra Nova, he's also the executive producer on Falling Skies starting this year. No word yet on which TV channel has it, but since The Walking Dead went to FX on TopTV, I would guess Falling Skies could probably show up there in 2011 as well. Falling Skies with ER doc Noah Wyle is a cross between The Walking Dead, Independence Day and V.

Alien invaders conquer Earth and in modern day America, turned into a post apocalyptic wasteland, professor Tom Mason, an expert in military studies tries to lead a band of survivors while trying to find his family.

Game of Thrones
One of the executive producers has called this new epic-looking fantasy show that will start in April in America ''The Sopranos set in Middle-Earth''. I already know that the M-Net Series channel on DStv has grabbed this show for its schedule. Game of Thrones is based on George R.R. Martin's novels about this mystique-filled, ancient Lord of the Rings-type empire filled with magic, good and evil and all sorts of characters. ''Winter is coming...'' is the tag line.

3Talk with Noeleen
Not technically a new show but from later this year this seven-year-old local weekday talk show on SABC 3 with Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu will look brand new! SABC 3 and the producers are going to completely revamp the show that will probably debut its new look from April. 3Talk with Noeleen will become much more interactive using social media. Noeleen will go on location and leave the studio and they're also looking at adding a live studio audience which 3Talk's never had before.

Off the Map
It's not a Grey's Anatomy spin-off in the sense that Private Practice was, but it kinda is. Grey's executive producer Shonda Rhimes is behind a new drama series called Off the Map. It's about doctors. In the jungle. In South America. Some are running away from things, some are there for other reasons, but they're all hot (and not because of jungle humidity), the scenery is breathtaking and I can tell you that M-Net Series has already snapped up this ensemble drama show for later in the year.

Other awesome-looking new shows coming in 2011 include The Cape (no South African broadcaster yet) about a dad and policeman in the fictional city of Palm City who becomes a superhero when he gets a super cape.

Camelot is a new drama show with Joseph Fiennes as the wizard Merlin that's currently being shot in Ireland. ''It's the story of Camelot that has never been told before,'' say the producers. No South African broadcaster has snapped it up as yet.

Then there's also Fairly Legal starting this year and also waiting for a South African broadcaster to take it. Sarah Shahi is slightly kooky lawyer Kate Reed (although not Ally McBeal-level kooky) who decides to help people sort out their differences before they go to court. In the wirlwind of her existence is her ex-boyfriend as well as her crazy male assistant. MacGuyver star Richard Dean Anderson is also going to show up after a while as a mysterious man with links to her dead father.

Which of these are you most looking forward to? Let us know!