BREAKING. Terra Nova cancelled; producer 20th Century Fox TV will try to sell the expensive dino drama to another American TV network.

It's over for Terra Nova shown in South Africa on pay broadcaster M-Net Deadline reports; the show just got cancelled in America and won't continue on the Fox network beyond its already finished first season of 13 episodes which ends on several cliffhangers.

20th Century Fox TV which produces the dino drama will however try to sell a possible 2nd season of Terra Nova to other American TV networks if there are any takers - doubtful given the high production cost of the show which filmed in Australia on expensive and elaborate sets.

Terra Nova starting tonight on M-Net doesn't seem to be too terribly important to the pay broadcaster.

Terra Nova, the new TV drama starting tonight at 20:30 on M-Net doesn't seem to be of any terrible importance to M-Net.

The pay broadcaster acquired the broadcasting rights to the Steven Spielberg produced show about the Shannon family time travelling back millions of years to prehistoric times to join a fresh start for humanity.

M-Net has however not issued any press release about Terra Nova since the acquisition announcement last year. The pay channel didn't issue any specific press release or press pack regarding the show or made a programming advisory about the show that kicks off with 2 hour premiere this evening.

M-Net didn't make available any advance screener episodes of Terra Nova to South African TV critics and writers, making it impossible to review the show. A media enquiry made last week to M-Net asking whether there would be any advance screener of Terra Nova yielded no response.

ALSO READ: Dino-drama as the postcard marketing proposal for M-Net's Terra Nova elicits an ''outayamind?'' tongue-lashing from Dinotopia creator James Gurney.

DINO-DRAMA: Wannabe dino postcards for M-Net's Terra Nova gets an 'outayamind?' tongue-lashing from Dinotopia creator James Gurney.

The highly anticipated Steven Spielberg dinosaur time-travel family drama Terra Nova will start with a special 2 hour double episode premiering on 25 January 2012 at 20:30 on M-Net, and the cheque uhm contentious postcard is proverbially not in the mail.

James Gurney of Gurney Journey has this interesting (and hilarious) and embarrassing tale of Ogilvy Johannesburg allegedly wanting to rip off his idea and use this artist and illustrator who's very well-known for his beautiful Dinotopia illustrations - to help with the marketing campaign for the upcoming dinosaur show in January on M-Net.

In fact, Ogilvy Johannesburg used his illustrations and made a mock-up without his knowledge, and then sent it to him. You have to read it yourself to believe it.

James Gurney published the message he received (read it in full on Gurney Journey) and the mock-up above is the rough layout from Ogilvy Johannesburg he received with it:

''Hi, I'm an art director at Ogilvy Johannesburg. I stumbled across your beautiful illustrations and I would love to use your artwork for a campaign we are working on. I'm working on a campaign for a new show called Terra Nova.

''For the campaign we are using the postcard device the whole "Wish you were here", those postcards you received on holiday from exotic locations, except ours are along the lines of 'Wish you weren't here'.

"There are a few things we still have to work out that's why I would love you to work with us. I have attached a rough layout, I have combined two of your illustrations in this comp. If you have any questions give me a shout."

James Gurney gave them a SHOUT alright. ''WHADDAYA OUTAYAMIND? SURE, I’D BE GLAD TO RIP OFF MY OWN IDEA TO HELP ADVERTISE YOUR DUMB TV SHOW!'' he said and sent them his idea of a TV show (must-read satire which contains young advertising executives no less).


[Editor's note: You cannot just take someone's creative content and (already) use it without their permission - especially not if you're a commercial enterprise. Also, as in this case, if you knew Dinotopia as an art director, you'd know the premise is peaceful co-existence of man an dinosaur - Dinotopia as a ''brand'' would never ''subvert'' itself to be associated with an ''opposite'' idea. An eye-popping lack of research, lack of tact and a lack of knowledge of the sensitivities regarding and governing intellectual property rights.]

BREAKING. M-Net terraforms its schedule: Terra Nova will now debut on 25 January at 20:30 with the original 2 hour premiere episode.

You're reading it here first.

M-Net is terraforming its January schedule: Terra Nova, Steven Spielberg's new dino-drama will start on Wednesday 25 January at 20:30 on M-Net and M-Net HD - and here's the good news: what would have been a one hour premiere has just turned into a full 2 hour premiere similar to how the first two hours were shown in America when the show recently started there late in September.

While M-Net originally only planned a one hour first episode of Terra Nova - effectively ''breaking up'' the premiere launch of the show - M-Net's latest schedule update shows a ''double'' Terra Nova starting debut, which means it will be a 2 hour show.

The first two Terra Nova episodes entitled ''Genesis Part I'' and ''Genesis Part II'' will now follow each other immediately, with the rest of the first season's one hour episodes weekly after that.

Terra Nova revolves around the Shannon family who time travels from 2149 and a dying Earth, back 85 million years into Earth's past to join a new colony of sorts (called Terra Nova). Of course dinosaurs roam in the Cretacious era, the colony and its inhabitants have many secrets, there's another reason why the colony was created in the first place, there's a renegate band of former colonists called ''Sixers'' and the various Shannon family members all have their own problems and issues.

Terra Nova behind the scenes: 'The Heart of Terra Nova' and the first look at a new carnosaur.

Terra Nova, the epic-looking, brand-new, massive TV adventure by Steven Spielberg about a family travelling back in time to a new colony in the past starts tonight in America (M-Net will have it from January 2012).

Because the show starts in America this evening with a two hour premiere, TV Guide has this exclusive new dino-tacular photo or a carnosaur that's one of the first dinosaurs that will be showing up.

There's also this brand-new behind-the-scenes clip below, that I would suggest you watch, Terra Nova: The Heart of Terra Nova, that reveals a bit more about the most expensive TV show yet made.

''Terra Nova is this massive production of adventure and action, and, like, dinosaurs and guns and future and past and all this crazy stuff that you have to absorb, but at the very center of it all there's this, just a simple story of a family trying to stay together,'' says Landon Liboiron who plays son Josh Shannon.

More Terra Nova dino-drama secrets: No Tyrannosaurus Rex! Weird hieroglyphic equations! An evil colony!

More secrets are being revealed about the high-buzz, new Steven Spielberg show Terra Nova that will be starting in America next month and from January on M-Net in South Africa - like the fact that there won't be any Tyrannosaurus Rex dino's showing up.

Although Steven Spielberg used the same paleontologist from the Jurassic Park movies, the deadly dinosaur type won't be seen. But don't despair. Get ready for even more terrifying prehistoric creatures. Fact is, the Shannon family that time travels 85 million years into Earth's past to escape a dying Earth in 2149, are going back to a time even before the feared T. Rex ... to even more ancient dinosaurs! Although friendly leaf eating Brontosaurs exist, even more terrible carnivorous creatures await.

Also awesome: The colony encounters weird carvings of equations in rocks - writings and weird scribbles that present 85 million years ago. Who's making/made these? And how could this exist in a time before the cavemen?

Trading a dystopian future for a utopian past? Guess again. While the Shannon family and humanity escape a future Earth that's dying due to over population and pollution for a pristine past to make a new beginning, everything in the past isn't what it's cracked up to be. The reason? Humanity.

In the past, which is now the present, there exists a splinter colony that broke away. They're called the ''Sixers'' (since they were the Sixth Pilgrimate, or 6th group to have time traveled back). They're militaristic and evil (mmm, Lost's The Others come to mind) and viewers will meet them at the end of the first episode of Terra Nova.

Because they're now in the past it doesn't mean that the Terra Nova colony no longer has ties with the future. Earth's dystopian future is getting worse. That is having a direct impact on the past in the sense that they're sending back more people which the colony can't handle. The events in the future and the dire situation is also having other consequences on the colony because there is a link. So, although Terra Nova is set in prehistoric times after the time traveling takes place, their former present (the future of 2149) is still very much in play.

ALSO READ: Imagine DStv BoxOffice showed the two hour premiere of Terra Nova in October as a special teaser TV event before the show starts in 2012 on M-Net?
ALSO READ: Terra-ific! Some early behind the scenes secrets from TV's biggest new drama and most expensive show ever.

FIRST LOOK! Brand-new poster key art for Steven Spielberg's Terra Nova starting in early 2012 on M-Net.

A brand-new, what we call ''key art'', promotional poster has just been released for Terra Nova.

The new upcoming Steven Spielberg adventure time-traveling drama will be starting next month in America and, as I broke the news in June, will start in early 2012 on M-Net after the pay broadcaster acquired the licensing rights for South Africa.

The new Terra Nova image shows the Shannon family with the dad Jim Shannon (Jason O'Mara) in front and pterodactyls flying overhead. The rest of the Shannon family who time-travels back 85 million years into Earth's prehistoric past is to the right in the back and Commander Nathan Taylor (Stephen Lang) who stands behind Jim with a weapon. One of the heavy terrain vehicles that feature prominently in the first Terra Nova episodes also made the poster.

Just over a week ago I spoke to a high ranking South African TV executive within our television industry, someone who I have a lot of respect for, in an off-the-record conversation, and who saw the 2 hour pilot episode in Los Angeles a few months ago, what the executive's thoughts were of Terra Nova.

I asked the executive about the 3 dinosaurs I've seen in the teaser promo trailer for Terra Nova and whether there's more. The executive told me there's more dinosaurs, but at the stage of Fox showing the episode they were ''not done yet'' [so you see stand-in animation in scenes where the dinosaurs haven't been fully CGI rendered yet].

Of course I asked the executive what the person thinks of Terra Nova. (Science fiction is not the person's most favourite genre.) The executive smiled and told me that after seeing Terra Nova ''it didn't make me think that it's bad and won't make it. It had legs. These days there's so much bad [shows], that if you pass the bar of not being in that category it's already an achievement.'' Translated: Terra Nova seems that it might be dino-mite.

DStv BoxOffice with the exclusive two hour Terra Nova premiere 'preview'? Why doing this would be such a winner for everyone.

If I could wish one thing (a thing that would be so good for the South African TV viewer, good for MultiChoice, good for its new video-on-demand service DStv BoxOffice, good for M-Net, good for everybody) it would be for MultiChoice to make the 2 hour premiere of the upcoming new TV drama Terra Nova available at the end of September or in October as a DStv BoxOffice movie. Even if it's just for a week.

I doubt that it will happen. But it would be such a great thing.

Last month of course I exclusively broke the news RIGHT HERE that M-Net has definitely acquired the rights to Terra Nova and that the new Steven Spielberg drama chronicling a family traveling back in time to prehistoric times to make a new start, will start in January on M-Net. Of course MultiChoice also just launched its new DStv BoxOffice service making a constantly updated selection of 15 movies available for rent at R25 each.

I don't think that MultiChoice has that clout, and for various technical and business and licensing price point and gumption reasons I don't think it can happen or would be something that MultiChoice would give energy to pursue, but it's a nice idea. When i daydream about television, it is things like this that I fantasize about: That South African viewers can get the opportunity to see the next best new thing, while its hot.

Let's play along. Terra Nova starts on 26 September in America as a two hour premiere. It will be on the Fox network and is made by Steven Spielberg. Now, TopTV has proved that with the first season and the upcoming new second season of The Walking Dead, as well as the current Falling Skies (made by Steven Spielberg, gotten to South Africa by ... Fox International Channels) its possible to see television episodes of a show within 48 hours of it being shown in America.

Imagine, imagine, if, as for one of its rolling movies, the new DStv BoxOffice acquired ''Terra Nova 2hr premiere feature'' as a R25 movie, as part of its playlist selection - even if its just for a week - just after the America premiere on 26 September. (And MultiChoice and M-Net has an even better and longer history and relationship with Fox than what TopTV has.)

DStv BoxOffice will win. I will definitely pay R25 to see the 2 hour Terra Nova premiere in high definition in my living room shortly after its American debut when it will be a global pop culture buzz topic around the world. Subscribers will use and sample DStv BoxOffice if they find out that the year's biggest new TV show (dinosaurs! family drama! secrets! amazing special effects!) is available for a very limited time as a special preview sampler movie - one you cannot even get on a DVD yet.

M-Net will win. DStv Premium subscribers who already have M-Net are introduced to the new TV show that's coming and get a delicious want-to-see ''preview''. Of course you're going to tell other people; of course you're going to return when the full first season of 13 episodes start in January on M-Net.

The South African television viewer will win. You get to see and sample the latest television. In that way you're fun won't get spoiled when it's months later and you've accidentally already read about the orange, the feathers, the Six, the mysterious ancient hieroglyphics in a ancient world where even the ape-forebearers of humans should not yet be ... I've said too much already.

I think if MultiChoice and DStv BoxOffice and M-Net are clever, doing this kind of thing will be the brilliant and dynamic forward-thinking thing from a programming point of view to start doing immediately and into the future. Hard work for sure, but work that will pay off for the viewer and for everybody in brand building, habit forming, true cross-promotion, revenue generation and true TV viewer satisfaction.

EXCLUSIVE. M-Net on getting Steven Spielberg's Terra Nova for early 2012: 'We are here to make available brilliant content.'

Exactly a week ago I broke the news exclusively RIGHT HERE that M-Net has officially acquired the broadcasting rights to Steven Spielberg's highly-anticipated upcoming new TV drama Terra Nova that will be starting towards the end of the year in America and on M-Net in early 2012.

Terra Nova is a family drama that follows the Shannon family from 2149 who travels back in time 85 million years to prehistoric Earth, gets stuck there and has to build a new society amidst (dangerous) dinosaurs. Before I revealed the Terra Nova news, I asked the pay broadcaster about the specifics of snagging the biggest new (and most expensive) TV show for a follow-up story, and here is what M-Net says.

How easy or difficult has it been for M-Net to secure the rights to Terra Nova, in essence, how would M-Net describe the acquisition process of this highly buzzed about title?
M-Net: Terra Nova has created an incredible amount of hype with the names, locations and money Fox has incorporated into the production. M-Net is always excited to hear about these fantastic shows. As with any series, M-Net acquisitions goes through a strenuous and rigorous process to secure the rights to bring an international series to M-Net viewers.

When did M-Net decide that Terra Nova was something M-Net wants and is going to pursue?
M-Net is always interested in the best content any studio produces. Factors such as production costs, the excellent cast and the success of Steven Spielberg's previous work on M-Net made it a simple decision to pursue Terra Nova.

Terra Nova was supposed to start in May with its first 2 episodes and were then moved in America to late 2011. What can M-Net share from behind the scenes regarding what happened in the process to get the show?
Fox Broadcasting Company initially planned to show episode one immediately after the American Idol season finale in May as a teaser, with the rest of the series to follow after production was complete. It was however eventually decided that the series would run without any interruption. On that note, M-Net keeps a close eye on all of our international series when it comes to starting dates, as well as any hiatus a series may go on. American audiences are used to the idea of a series going on a break half way through a season, where the South African audience much prefers watching a season uninterrupted. We take measures to pre-empt the studios continuously changing dates, to ensuring our subscribers get an uninterrupted season. Terra Nova is no exception.

Why is M-Net adding this specific show to the line-up?
The Magic! It isn't just a slogan. M-Net fills its slots with the biggest, freshest, most entertaining and ground breaking shows. Terra Nova, with [a production cost of ] $4 million per episode, exotic locations, a unique concept, fantastic cast and brilliant writers, directors and producers, measures highly on our ''entertainment value-meter''.

What's M-Net's hopes for Terra Nova?
Our hope is always that subscribers enjoy every episode. We are here to make available brilliant content. As with every series we want viewers at home to get excited about each twist and turn the story takes, to choose favourite characters, and even check our Facebook and Twitter for inside info. We want M-Netters to get a viewing experience which is personal, as well as an interactive one with other subscribers and the channel itself.

BREAKING. M-Net to officially announce that it's secured the broadcast rights to Terra Nova; will show it from early 2012.

You're reading it here first.

Steven Spielberg. Hot new TV show. Science fiction. Big-budget family drama.

Yes, Fox Entertainment (TopTV 180) has the awesome new Steven Spielberg science fiction family drama Falling Skies starting on 4 July on TopTV, but M-Net is fighting back BIG time and has gone all out to secure the even more awesome new Steven Spielberg science fiction family drama Terra Nova for DStv. (Of course subscribers would be able to see it in all its glorious dyno high definition on M-Net HD.)

I can exclusively break the news that the pay broadcaster has officially secured this epic, high-buzz, new Steven Spielberg show - chronicling a family who travels back in time to prehistoric Earth to start a new society amidst the dinosaurs. I can say Toldja! to what I told you right here in January and today it will be official.

I'm told that M-Net is set to officially announce today (a Tyranno roar will be in order) that it has scooped Terra Nova - the most expensive TV show ever produced (it's filmed on location in Australia) and the biggest and most anticipated TV show for 2011. I can reveal that Terra Nova will start in early 2012 on M-Net, very close after the show's start in America.



The first two episodes of Terra Nova was supposed to start in America in May (which means this Steven Spielberg drama would actually have been first, and have preceded the as-wonderful Falling Skies). The producers and the Fox network in America however pushed the starting date back to somewhere around the end of the year, saying the special effects of Terra Nova needs more time.

ALSO READ: Some early behind the scenes set secrets of Terra Nova.
ALSO READ: Brand new images of the year's biggest new upcoming TV show ... Terra Nova.
ALSO READ: In August 2010 I wondered right here what South African broadcaster - M-Net? - would snag the rights to Terra Nova?

TERRA-IFIC! The brand-new (awesome looking!) extended trailer for the most anticipated and most expensive new TV show: Terra Nova.

Besides Steven Spielberg's new TV drama Falling Skies starting on Monday 4 July at 20:15 on Fox Entertainment (TopTV 180) the year's number one most anticipated show is also from Steven Spielberg: Terra Nova.

And now there is a brand-new, almost 3 minute long, teaser trailer about the TV drama in which a family from the future steps through a portal back into Earth's prehistoric past. This second and longer trailer follows on the first shorter one released at the end of last year. Terra Nova will be television's most expensive show ever.

Viewers get to see the future Earth where people wear gas masks (Earth's air is poisonous and the world is dying). While people speed along an elevated train in a futuristic city, family planning billboards implore: ''A family is four''. Clearly the dad has not be vetted to return to the past, tells his family to just run, and then jumps to through the portal.

In the past we see the stirrings of teenage love, a creature attacks an armoured mini-truck with people inside, people race away from a Tyrannosaurus, we see some new dinosaurs, and there's truly breathtaking scenes of the prehistoric world. The ''compound'' has a huge electric fence around it just like Jurassic Park.

ALSO READ: Some early behind the scenes set secrets of Terra Nova.
ALSO READ: Brand-new photos of the new TV drama Terra Nova.
ALSO READ: First TV footage of Terra Nova, the year's most anticipated new TV drama.
ALSO READ: A list of 2011's most anticipated new TV shows and what they're all about.

Terra Nova, the new prehistoric Steven Spielberg show and the ''most ambitious TV series ever produced'' needs more time.

The year's most anticipated new TV show, Terra Nova produced by Steven Spielberg and filmed in Australia about a future family who travels back in time to prehistoric times, will no longer start on 23 May since the production needs more time for the special effects show.

The big-budget prehistoric adventure show would have started with a ''preview'' of the first two episodes on 23 May and then the regular rest of the first full season later in the year in America. That plan has now been scrapped by the American Fox network which will also impact all of the broadcasters around the world who have already signed broadcasting rights for the highly anticipated show or are very interested in it.

Terra Nova's production team says it needs more time to work on the show's elaborate visual effects and that the episodes won't be ready by May. '' Terra Nova is one of the most ambitious television series ever produced,'' says Fox's entertainment president Kevin Reilly in a press statement. ''The cutting-edge visual effects used to create the world of Terra Nova, which is of massive scope and scale, require more time to be realized. This aspect of the series is essential, so we are pushing back the special early preview date to give the visual effects team the time needed for their ground-breaking work.''

ALSO READ: Terra-ific! Some early behind the scenes set secrets of Terra Nova.
ALSO READ: The first photos of Terra Nova.
ALSO READ: The first TV promo of Terra Nova.

FIRST LOOK! First TV footage of the year's most anticipated new TV drama: Terra Nova.

The year's hottest brand-new TV show that will start in May in America - and as I broke the news M-Net already got the rights to it - just unveiled their very first TV promo for it: get ready for a time portal, dinosaurs and a family lost 85 million years in the past in Terra Nova!

Imagine Jurassic Park, meets Avatar, meets Lost and you'll get what this new TV show - already on track to be the most expensive TV show ever and executive produced by Steven Spielberg - is going to be about. There will definitely be a full first season of this drama that will feature many dinosaurs and reveal a new one in every episode (some will have feathers!) and follows a family who goes to the past to help start a new colony (the dystopian Earth of the future is dying).

ALSO READ: Some early behind the scenes set secrets of the upcoming Terra Nova; TV's most expensive TV show ever.
ALSO READ: Brand-new photos of the upcoming new TV drama Terra Nova.
ALSO READ: M-Net's massive coup: snags the rights to the hot Terra Nova.
ALSO READ: The list of 2011's most anticipated new TV shows and what they're all about.

TERRA-IFIC! Some early behind the scenes set secrets of the upcoming Terra Nova; television's most expensive TV show ever.

Fox

The best new TV show for 2011 which I really can't wait for, Steven Spielberg's Terra Nova, yields more tantalising titbits of terra-fic information about this futuristic, yet set back in the past TV show, that is shaping up to be the most expensive TV show ever produced.

The Wall Street Journal spills some interesting facts about the show that will start with two episodes in May in America and had M-Net already snapping up the rights for South Africa. There will definitely be a first full season. Just the first two episodes which will be shown back-to-back in America, already has a production cost of $16 million and after than the production will have a per episode cost of $4 million. It took 15 weeks to build the sets that include a market, hospital and homes. In the 2nd episode there will be a big velociraptor.

Terra Nova reportedly has a production crew of 300 people, the director had to stop production to take a leech off of one of the actresses. Terra Nova started out as an original script entitled ''Gondwana Highway'' after a prehistoric supercontinent. And a flash flood in December almost killed a security guard who was trying to save a power generator.

Each Terra Nova episode will try to introduce a new creature or dinosaur. Paleontologist Jack Horner who consulted on Steven Spielberg's Jurrasic Park is helping to authenticate the dinosaurs, many of whom will appear birdlike and some will have feathers. The first episode will have 3 different types of dinosaurs, including an ominous new dinosaur referred to as ''the slasher''.

Meanwhile Steven Spielberg already doing Terra Nova and Falling Skies is now working on a 3rd new could-be TV series entitled Smash and which will be looking to copy the success of Glee. According to Reuters, Smash that will be produced by Dreamworks TV is an ambitious one hour musical TV series about the mounting of a Broadway musical and is based on an idea by Steven Spielberg himself.

ALSO READ: Just released brand-new set photos of the hot Terra Nova.
ALSO READ: 2011's hottest brand-new upcoming TV shows.
ALSO READ: M-Net grabs what will definitely be 2011's most talked about new show: Steven Spielberg's Terra Nova.

TERRA-IFIC! Just released brand-new photos of the hot new TV show Terra Nova that will go back 85 million years later this year.

Brand-new images were just released of what's sure to be 2011's number one most-buzzed about new TV show, Terra Nova, America's Fox network's most expensive TV show ever produced. (As I broke the news RIGHT HERE, M-Net has already snagged the rights for Terra Nova for South Africa which starts in May in America.)

Terra Nova has Steven Spielberg, Brannon Braga and René Echevarria as executive producers. Terra Nova starts off in 2149 as the Shannon family time travel 85 million years into the past to set up a new colony, but things go wrong and they get trapped in this ''new land of limitless beauty, mystery and terror.''

''These adventurers soon discover that this healthy, vibrant world is not as idyllic as it initially appears. The areas surrounding Terra Nova are teeming with danger – and not just of the man-eating dinosaur variety. The Shannons will come to suspect that not everyone on this mission has the same idea of how to best save mankind; in fact, there may be forces intent on destroying this new world before it even begins.''

Click on READ MORE below to see some more brand new Terra Nova publicity photos.

BREAKING. M-Net's massive coup: Pay broadcaster scoops up the rights to most of 2011's hottest shows from Terra Nova to Game of Thrones.

You're reading it here first.

I have the first big TV news of the year to break and it's really massive. M-Net will be the broadcaster to watch in 2011 if you want the best new international TV shows. I can reveal that M-Net has signed for the broadcasting rights to almost all of the very best, and most highly buzzed about new shows that will be starting in 2011 and which heralds a great start to M-Net's upcoming 25th birthday later this year.

I can break the news right here that M-Net has acquired the rights to what will be the number one want-to-must-see show of 2011, Steven Spielberg's Terra Nova. The pay broadcaster also snagged the broadcasting rights to almost all of the other best upcoming new shows. M-Net has the rights to the fantasy drama Game of Thrones (going to M-Net Series, DStv 110). The exotic new medical drama from Grey's Anatomy creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes set in a South American jungle called Off the Map will also debut this year on M-Net Series. The big one however is Terra Nova which will be on the main M-Net channel (DStv 101) about a family time traveling 85 million years back in time to prehistoric Earth and getting stuck there.

One big buzz show M-Net doesn't have yet is Steven Spielberg's other new drama Falling Skies starring Noah Wyle about an alien invasion on modern-day Earth. But keep in mind that M-Net already has both V as well as The Event of last year, series which are both continuing this year and both of which already deal with the same theme. Also, it just means that M-Net hasn't secured Falling Skies yet as it did the broadcasting rights to all of these other shows already so early in the year, but there is still the possibility.

ALSO READ: Compare what M-Net got - and read more about all of these shows - as you look at my comprehensive list of what will be the (h)IT shows for 2011.

Terra Nova: Which South African broadcaster will snag the rights first to a TV hit that's 85 million years in the making?

Two words. Nope, not Terra Nova.

Steven Spielberg.

The uber producer behind movies like Jurassic Park is the executive producer of what is to be a sure-fire upcoming TV hit. In fact I would go as far as saying that Terra Nova will be next year's biggest new TV show that's currently in development and production. Just watch. It will be interesting to see which South African broadcaster (M-Net?) snags the broadcasting rights to this massive and epic show first.

Terra Nova starts filming in Australia soon and the premise is out of this world: Think the new Lost meets Earth 2 meets Lost in Space meets Otherworld. Imagine the world of Avatar on your TV screen. In 2149 the world is dying. Earth is overpopulated, overdeveloped and overpolluted. With no way of reversing the damage. Scientists create a time machine and a portal to prehistoric Earth. Yes. Similar to an episode of what Professor Amadeus Sharp did in The Bionic Six. The plan is for families to ''relocate'' to the past, 85 million years ago, as a second chance for civilization and mankind. The Shannon family steps through. . . Then the trouble starts, and its not because of the dangerous dinosaurs and other prehistoric threats.

''Terra Nova will be one of the most visually stimulating and dramatically grand series to air on television,” said Kevin Reilly, president of entertainment of America's Fox network in a press release. Fox is already planning to make event television of Terra Nova and there will be at least 13 episodes of this incredible-sounding family adventure drama.