Seasons greetings to all and welcome to a special festive edition of Tube Talk (the observant amongst you will notice that this edition is neither special nor festive).


Louise: "Please, please let us out of our misery and tell us when the OC will be returning to English screens???"

Neil: Oh dear, you (and several hundred others) clearly lost interest before the end of the column. If you go back it’s there, I promise.


David: "Just wondering whether Living TV will repeat the first series of Grey's Anatomy or whether they will ever show any new episodes?"

Neil: They will repeat it, probably stripped before the second season premiere. No date on either yet, I’m afraid.


Emma: "Are C4 going to show Smallville from when they left off or is it only E4 that gets it now?"

Neil: For now, it's only E4.


Chris Rushworth: “Do you know why abc1 never went 24 hours on freeview?"

Neil: It’s a bandwidth issue – channel space is very scarce on Freeview (C4 just bought an 18-hour channel for £10 million a year). It’ll probably happen eventually, though.


Chris: "Do you have any details of when Sky One plan to show Season 7 of Malcolm in the Middle?"

Neil: New Year's Day.


Dan: "Hey, how’s it going? Anyway after last sunday night's final of Hex on skyone, i was just wondering if there is a series 3 in the pipline and if so any ideas for when it might be back?"

Neil: Well, thanks for asking Dan – can’t really complain. How are you? No decision on Hex, although I suspect it could go either way. Although it has (or rather, had) some acclaim it was the weak link of Sky One’s Sunday schedule in ratings terms.


Max: "Will UK viewers be able to see "American Idol" on ITV2 again during the forthcoming series? If so, when?"

Neil: Yes and as I predicted a couple issues ago, it premieres Friday, January 20 at 8.30pm.


Chris Shaw: "What on earth are the BBC doing with American Dad and Family Guy? Over the next week (11th - 24th December) they're showing an episode every night on BBC2 at a ridiculous time (about midnight to 1am I believe). Did they not get the ratings they wanted on late-night Sundays, and are now trying to get rid of the episodes all at once? If so I'm not surprised; UK terrestrials have to learn that imports are never going to be successful if they are scheduled so badly."

Neil: Yes, it wasn't the best ratings performer. The other reason is that the BBC restricts the number of imported shows it airs in prime so, unless it's a stellar performer, it normally gets shunted to a post 10/11pm slot.


Dawn: "What do you think of Catherine Tate?"

Neil: Very little. Maybe my sense of humour isn't as refined as those of the masses but I really don't see how repeating "am I bovvered?" for ten minutes is funny. Evidently most disagree, however - her recent BBC Two Xmas special pulled in more than 5 million viewers.


That's all for this week - check back next Saturday, New Year's Eve, for a special 'most asked' edition of Tube Talk, where I'll be running down the answers to some of the questions I've been asked relentlessly over the past year.

Meantime, have a great Christmas! (and don't forget Doctor Who, Christmas Day at 7 on BBC One)