Though we’d seen most of it in promo on the network, Channel 9 have now delivered their 2013 schedule and it looks to be pretty rock solid. Of course the return of The Voice and the newly acquired Australia’s Got Talent feature, but then there’s a decent Australian drama cohort too – with both Power Games and Schapelle looking intriguing. Return To Eden??? Really??? From the press release:

In 2012 Channel Nine was first in all key demographics, with more weekly wins and more growth than any other network – and today we announce an exciting line-up for 2013 which will deliver new Australian content across all genres.

NEW ON NINE IN 2013

POWER GAMES: THE PACKER-MURDOCH STORY

From the creators of Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War comes the biggest drama event of 2013 – Power Games: The Packer-Murdoch Story. At a tennis party in 1960, Australia’s most powerful man, Sir Frank Packer, first met the young, ambitious Rupert Murdoch. It was an encounter that would forever change their lives, the future of their country, and the face of the world’s media.

Set in the period 1960-75, Power Games is the story of how the epic ambitions of Rupert Murdoch and the Packer family collided as they battled for control of Australia’s newspaper and television industries. And although they played hard, the rivals had a profound appreciation of each other’s talents, vision and drive.

Through 15 years of political intrigue, raw corporate power and high-rolling luxury, these fierce rivals used every means at their disposal to build their empires – and ultimately came to respect and admire each other as titans on the world media stage.

AUSTRALIA’S GOT TALENT

The world’s greatest talent search has found a new home. Australia’s Got Talent will be on Nine in 2013 with new hosts and judges and exciting talent to bring to the Australian audience. The global success of Got Talent has seen the format top the ratings in Britain, where a massive total of 13.8 million people watched the finale, the USA, New Zealand and scores of other territories around the world.

THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN BAKE OFF

The next global phenomenon is coming to Nine. Shane Jacobson and Anna Gare will host The Great Australian Bake Off, with Dan Lepard and Kerry Vincent joining them as judges in the search to find Australia’s Best Home Baker.

The ultimate kitchen battle is set to erupt when Nine serves up this brand new TV dish in 2013. Ten home baking enthusiasts will be put through a series of gruelling elimination challenges, baking a mouth-watering selection of cakes, pies, tarts, pastries, bread, biscuits and desserts, in the hope of being crowned Australia’s Best Home Baker.

RETURN TO EDEN

Thirty years after the original mini-series captivated Australia comes the remake of Return To Eden, the story of ultimate revenge – a gripping tale of power, wealth and betrayal.

Stephanie Harper is one of Australia’s richest people, a businesswoman with a troubled past and a dysfunctional family life. When she survives a brutal attack on her outback property she goes into hiding in fear of her life. Presumed dead, her family fortune is up for grabs and her teenage children are bereft. As Stephanie recovers from her horrific injuries she hatches an audacious plan to seek revenge on those who have wronged her. And with a second chance at life, she vows to be a better mother and person too.

From producers Hal and Di McElroy (Sea Patrol), Return To Eden is a lavish six-hour mini-series that will have Australians on the edge of their seats.

SCHAPELLE

Not since Lindy Chamberlain has there been a criminal case that has intrigued Australians as much as Schapelle Corby’s.

On October 8, 2004, Corby, a beauty therapist from the Gold Coast, was caught in Bali with a boogie board bag full of marijuana. Her arrest captivated and intrigued a nation. But what really happened on that fateful day? Why did she do it? And who was behind it all?

Schapelle lifts the lid on what went on behind the headlines. It’s a story packed with amazing characters, bizarre twists and intrigue at the highest level. Inspired by the bestseller Sins of the Father by investigative journalist Eamonn Duff, Schapelle will bring to the screen the captivating story behind Schapelle Corby’s ill-fated trip to Bali.

Schapelle is a must-see telemovie in 2013 from FremantleMedia, producers of the critically acclaimed The King, Killing Time and Devil’s Dust.

GALLIPOLI

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing in 2015, the Nine Network will begin production in 2013 on the most ambitious television drama in Australian history: Gallipoli.

Three years in the making and screening over eight hours, Gallipoli will be the definitive dramatisation of the battle that shaped the ANZAC legend.

Gallipoli tells the true story of the military campaign through the men and women who found themselves in the most extreme situations imaginable. It is a saga of bravery and cowardice; triumph and disaster; power and impotence.

Gallipoli follows Aussie diggers as they live and die in the trenches; Turkish soldiers defending their homeland; political and military intrigue in London and Australia; intrepid journalists who reported on and changed the outcome of the war; and the wives and families back in Australia. Most of all, it’s a story of the resilience of the human spirit.

Produced by John Edwards (Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War, Beaconsfield, Paper Giants), Imogen Banks (Puberty Blues, Offspring) and Robert Connolly (produced Balibo and The Boys, directed Underground: The Julian Assange Story and The Slap), directed by Glendyn Ivin (Beaconsfield, Puberty Blues), with scripts by Christopher Lee (Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War; Rush, Police Rescue), Gallipoli will be the must-see television event of 2015.

PARADE’S END

Hailed as one of the greatest masterpieces of 20th century literature, Parade’s End is an epic story of love and betrayal.

The setting moves from the glittering yet shallow world of London high society to the trench-scarred battlefields of France in the First World War. At its heart is the erotically charged triangle between English aristocrat Christopher Tietjens (Benedict Cumberbatch), his beautiful but cruel wife Sylvia (Rebecca Hall) and Valentine Wannop (Australia’s Adelaide Clemens), a young suffragette with whom he falls head over heels in love.

Oscar-winning screen writer Sir Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare In Love, Empire of the Sun) and BAFTA-winning and double Emmy-nominated director Susanna White are bringing this remarkable story to life in an enthralling mini-series.

THE TASTE

The ultimate taste sensation has arrived on Nine, with four superstar chefs, 16 cooks hungry to win – and every delicious morsel tasted blind! This program is all about the taste. One bad bite and the chefs could be sending their favourite cooks home.

Famed culinary experts Ludo Lefebvre and Brian Malarkey will join no-holds-barred chef Anthony Bourdain and British food star Nigella Lawson as mentors on The Taste.

Each of the four culinary superstars – Bourdain, Lawson, Lefebvre and Malarkey – will coach a team of four pro and amateur cooks chosen from a nationwide casting call as they vie to create the best tasting dish. The groups will face team and individual challenges with a variety of culinary themes through several elimination rounds. At the end of each episode the mentors will have to judge the competitors’ dishes blind, with no knowledge of whose creation they are sampling, what they are eating, how it was prepared or who they could be eliminating.

THE FOLLOWING

Golden Globe winner Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy (Rome) star in The Following, a terrifying new thriller series from Kevin Williamson (The Vampire Diaries, Scream). When notorious serial killer Joe Carroll (Purefoy) escapes from death row and embarks on a new killing spree the FBI calls in former agent Ryan Hardy (Bacon), a psychologically scarred veteran who captured Carroll nine years earlier.

ARROW

After being marooned for five years on a remote island, billionaire Oliver Queen goes home with a mysterious agenda and a lethal set of new skills to fight a war on crime in this hard-hitting action series. Reinventing the DC Comics character for a modern-day audience, the Arrow is not a superhero, just a hero, but every bit as dangerous as the criminals he is hunting.

AND RETURNING TO NINE IN 2013

The ratings smash-hit of 2012, The Voice, is back with superstar coaches Seal, Joel Madden and Delta Goodrem in their red chairs again to discover Australia’s next Voice. And who will be the fourth coach of The Voice in 2013?

In 2013, there will be not one but two “Blocktastic” seasons. The Block All-Stars, back in Bondi where it all began 10 years ago, will feature four of The Block’s favourite couples – Phil and Amity (series 1), Mark and Duncan (series 3), Josh and Jenna (series 4) and Dan and Dani (series 5) – competing in an All-Stars version of the home renovation blockbuster.

Hosted by Scott Cam, with Shelley Craft, the four couples get a second chance at the top real estate prize on television when they renovate four heritage-listed Bondi cottages in record time – six weeks.

Then, later in the year, a new full series of The Block premieres with eight couples striving to win in 2013.

The Big Brother juggernaut stormed home on Nine this year, recapturing a whole new generation of Australian viewers. In 2013, Big Brother will be back, hosted by Sonia Kruger, with new housemates, new tricks and new twists, brighter and more entertaining than ever.

In the third series of The Celebrity Apprentice, Mark Bouris returns to the boardroom as celebrities are in for the challenge and out of their comfort zones. In this crazy world anything goes in the name of charity. One by one the celebrities will be fired until one is crowned the celebrity apprentice of 2013.

Following on from their ratings success in 2012, Hamish & Andy will be back on the road, experiencing exotic cultures and no doubt eating weird food in another adventure to an as yet undiscovered part of the globe … well, at least by them.

The next instalment in the Underbelly franchise is Underbelly: Squizzy, set between 1915 and 1927. It tells the epic story of Squizzy Taylor’s relentless quest for power which ultimately created a public persona that made him Australia’s first superstar gangster.

House Husbands is back for a second series in 2013 after capturing viewers’ hearts and TV’s most loveable dads will face their greatest challenges yet. Firass Dirani, Gyton Grantley, Gary Sweet, Rhys Muldoon, Julia Morris and Natalie Saleeba all return.

Australia’s highest rating comedy of 2012, The Big Bang Theory, will also be back in 2013 along with new episodes of Two and a Half Men, 2 Broke Girls, Person of Interest, Anger Management and The Mentalist.

WIDE WORLD OF SPORT

It has been a spectacular year of sport on Nine in 2012 and in 2013 the network will continue its first-class coverage with the NRL, State of Origin, The Ashes, Summer of Cricket, The NRL and AFL Footy Shows, and the Santos Tour Down Under.

NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS

Along the East Coast markets, Nine’s news and current affairs schedule continues to go from strength to strength with Today, A Current Affair, Nine News and 60 Minutes leading their timeslots in 2012.

A LOOK AT NINE IN 2012:

• The leading demographic network in 2012

• GO! – Australia’s leading multi-channel in all key demographics

• More high rating programs across genres than any other network

• The highest rating program of 2012 – The Voice Winner Announced, 3.325 million viewers

• The highest reaching Olympic Games in history – 13.573 million viewers

• The highest rating Comedy – The Big Bang Theory

• The leading Light Entertainment format – The Voice Winner Announced

• The most watched Documentary – The Great Barrier Reef

• The highest rating Lifestyle format – Domestic Blitz: The Block to the Rescue

• The number one Mini-Series – Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War

• The most watched Telemovie – Beaconsfield

• The highest rating Reality program – The Block Winner Announced

• The most watched Sporting Special Event – London 2012 Olympic Games

• The leading Special Event – 2012 TV Week Logie Awards