Seven has unveiled its slate for 2025 with a bunch of its reliable hits returning, plus a couple of new shows announced. These include dating show Stranded on Honeymoon Island, adults only comedy from Jim Jefferies And Friends, and a wildlife travel series Once in a Lifetime, featuring the network’s beloved vet, Dr Chris Brown.
The ‘biggest night’ in Australian TV – the TV WEEK Logie Awards – will again grace Seven in 2025, along with other special events including Melbourne’s Good Friday Appeal and Sydney’s Carols In The Domain.
Seven’s representatives confirmed it has had a strong year in ratings and streaming platform growth, and this week’s UpFront announcements were keen to point out that this contradicts the narrative that Australian broadcast TV is dead. The shows, news and events that do well on TV favour mass audience tune-ins and social conversations – an increasingly foreign landscape to those of us who only use streamers for drama.
Australian Drama on Seven
Home and Away, Australia’s most watched drama series and the biggest show on 7Plus, will head back to Summer Bay for a 37th soapy season in 2025.
RFDS, the award-winning flying doctor series will also return to Seven for a highly anticipate third season that was shot in South Australia this time. The returning cast includes Rob Collins, Stephen Peacocke and Justine Clarke.
ScreenHub: RFDS Season 3 starts production in South Australia
Entertainment on Seven
The 25 local entertainment shows to screen on Seven next year include new seasons of Farmer Wants a Wife, Australian Idol, My Kitchen Rules, The Voice, First Dates and the return of ‘the most successful new entertainment show in recent years’, the Australian version of logic and common sense game show, The 1% Club.
Dancing With The Stars will also return, hosted again by Chris Brown and Sonia Kruger, and a new batch of contestants including, most surprisingly, the 62-year-old comedian Shaun Micallef, better known for hilarious awkward clowning than graceful movement.
Musical special events lined up for Seven in 2025 have a heavy Barnesy component. Working Class Man (the story of Jimmy Barnes) is a documentary based on the singer’s bestselling autobiography and ‘telling his story with his trademark honesty and insight’. There will also be Cold Chisel Live: 50th Anniversary Tour.
More musical nostalgia is coming to Seven with Live It Up: The Mental As Anything Story, ‘a hilarious and moving documentary about one of Australia’s most-loved bands that travels from the sticky carpets of Sydney pubs to the shiny stage of Top of the Pops.’
Another documentary announced is a new series of The Rise and Fall of Kings Cross, spanning 150 years of ‘a place where heaven and hell collide’. Kings Cross is the internationally notorious neighbourhood ‘that for generations as mixed fine art and great entertainment with rampant debauchery’ and the show is a mix of footage, recreations and stories.
ScreenHub: Best 5 new shows to stream this week
Some of the new shows: what Seven says
Stranded on Honeymoon Island
‘A unique social experiment, Stranded on Honeymoon Island puts adventure, survival and, above all, isolation at the heart of this quest for love. But will the experience lead to love or loathing? The couples are matched by experts following a speed dating event, but they don’t know which partner has been chosen for them until they see them at the intimate commitment ceremony. Immediately after committing themselves to each other, they are dramatically abandoned on their own deserted tropical islands for the adventure of a lifetime.’
Once In A Lifetime
‘…beloved vet Dr Chris Brown, embarks on global wildlife journeys, joined by entertaining Australian personalities (including Mick Molloy, Amanda Keller, Kate Ritchie and Matt Preston) as his untrained and unqualified veterinary assistants. Together, they help iconic animals while navigating unpredictable and often humorous situations. From saving endangered species to facing wild dangers, these duos experience the raw beauty of nature.’
Jim Jefferies and Friends
‘In 2025, the host of Seven’s smash hit The 1% Club steps into his own stand-up show, Jim Jefferies And Friends. Featuring comedy legends Dave Hughes, Jimeoin, Arj Barker, Tommy Little, Nikki Osborne, Mel Buttle, Felicity Ward and many more, this strictly adults only affair will see Jim in rip-snorting form as master of ceremonies.’
News, sport and entertainment – rating high
Across the first six months of 2024, Seven had a total TV commercial share of 40.9% in all people (compared to Nine Network’s 39.1% share and Network Ten’s 20%).
The network’s pillar content is its news, sport and reliable middle Australia entertainment. It has Australia’s most watched 6pm news and breakfast shows and sport offerings includes the cricket, AFL, supercars and horse racing.
In the announcement for 2025, Group Managing Director, Television, Angus Ross, said: ‘Australian production is at the heart of everything we do. We spend more than $700 million across our three content pillars of news, sport and entertainment to deliver mass audience and reach every single day of the year.’
Ross said: ‘From AFL and Cricket to Supercars and Horse Racing, we are Australia’s home of sport, delivering the biggest and most engaged sport audiences across Seven and 7plus Sport all year round.
‘Our news and current affairs content – led by 7NEWS, Sunrise, 7NEWS Spotlight, The Nightly and 7NEWS.com.au – keeps all of Australia informed, while 7plus goes from strength to strength with its deep library and exclusive content.’
Seven West Media Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Howard, said: ‘Our streaming audience continues to grow at a rapid rate. 7plus is set to soar from late November with cricket and again in March with AFL, both available on a free streamer for the first time.’
7Plus, the network’s free streaming service, has grown more than 30% in 2024 and is the market leader in free video on demand and FAST channels.