The TV world's biggest risks of 2013 Kat Stewart and Shaun Micallef in Mr and Mrs Murder. TELEVISION has always been a risky business. Just ask the bosses of Channels 7, Nine and Ten who battle every day to create hit programs. The fact that 16 of the Top 20 regular programs last year were Australian shows that, more often than not, they succeed. Last year The Voice shocked everyone by averaging more than 2 million viewers nationally. Even Nine bosses will admit they didn't see that coming. Not everything works. Ten was smashed by a string of ratings duds including The Shire, Being Lara Bingle, Everybody Dance Now and I Will Survive. "It is a mighty roll of the dice," media analyst Steve Allen says. Switched On looks at the biggest TV risks of 2013 - the ones where reputations are on the line, where networks could cover themselves in glory or hide their heads in shame. Two Series of The Block Does Australia really need two series of The Block in 2013? Channel 9 has decided to double dip into its home renovation franchise. First up is The Block: All Stars based back at Bondi, the show's original home. Later in the year another set of Blockheads will renovate an old 6-storey motel in South Melbourne. When Seven doubled Dancing with the Stars ratings tumbled. I reckon two Blocks could be too much of a good thing. Nine hopes it's not. Changes to Today Tonight What the heck is going on with Today Tonight? First Channel 7 announced that its current affairs show is going state-based. Then it signed former Ten news presenter Helen Kapalos to host the Sydney and Melbourne editions. Now we hear that Seven has changes its mind and will roll TT into a one hour news and public affairs bulletin in those cities. Sharyn Ghidella is still earmarked to host a stand-alone TT in Brisbane. Talk about confusing. Rival A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw must be smiling. Mr & Mrs Murder The Yanks and the Brits are great at making light-hearted murder mystery series - think NCIS and New Tricks. Now it is time for the Aussies to have a crack. Shaun Micallef and Kat Stewart play crime cleaners and amateur sleuths Charlie and Nicola Buchanan. Can the writers successfully mix a satisfying whodunit with witty banter? This feels like a brave risk for Channel Ten - one that could be inspired or crash and burn. Nine poaches Australia's Got Talent Australia's Got Talent cost too much (upwards of $20 million) and wasn't rating well enough. Those are the reasons Channel 7 decided to jettison the talent show last year. Nine swooped, promising to re-vitalise AGT with a Voice-style makeover. Former host Grant Denyer and judges Dannii Minogue, Kyle Sandilands and Brian McFadden are gone. Nine is yet to announce replacements. AGT has a proven track record but are its glory days behind it? When a show costs this much to produce, it needs to rate big. House Rules Channel 10"s stab at a home renovation show, The Renovators, still gives me nightmares. Ten tried to replicate the success of The Block with a MasterChef-style knock-off, and failed miserably. That hasn't stopped Seven from trying to nail a hit. The makers of My Kitchen Rules reckon they have a novel twist - teams swap keys to each other's homes. Like The Block and The Renovators, House Rules will screen multiple nights - which means it needs to quickly hammer the opposition or risk getting torn down. Elementary v Sherlock Forget the Kardashians. 2013 is the year of Sherlock Holmes. Benedict Cumberbatch will return for a third series of the BBC's Sherlock, to screen on Channel 9. Jonny Lee Miller stars as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Dr. Joan Watson in Elementary - an American re-imagining set in present-day New York - on Channel Ten. Both are quality programs but that doesn't guarantee ratings success. Nine and Ten executives will be looking for clues. MasterChef: The Professionals v My Kitchen Rules Ten program chief Beverly McGarvey knew she was taking a mighty risk when she decided to put MasterChef: The Professionals in the 7.30pm time slot. That put it on a collision course with My Kitchen Rules. Professionals, with Marco Pierre White, launched to more than 1 million viewers on January 20, but it got roasted as soon as MKR entered the fray. Seven's cooking show is averaging more than 1.6 million viewers nationally. Professionals has slumped to less than 800,000. Seven knows revenge is a dish best served cold. New Spicks and Specks At first glance, the ABC's decision to resurrect Spicks and Specks looks like a no-brainer. The music quiz show was a ratings smash for seven seasons. It only ended because Adam Hills, Myf Warhurst and Alan Brough wanted to move on to other projects. Replacement Randling, with Andrew Denton, was a dog. The trouble is that any new version of Spicks - with a different host and team captains - has to live up to the original. That could prove mighty difficult. I'm worried the new Spicks will be redundant - sort of like the Ashton Kutcher version of Charlie Sheen's Two and a Half Men. Last Resort Channel 7 has pounded viewers with on-air promotions for Last Resort. If you believe the ads, this tale about Marcus Chaplain (Andre Brauer) the rogue captain of a nuclear submarine, is an action blockbuster. Well no. In the USA, Last Resort was canned after 13 episodes. It never went to a full season. Can Seven turn Last Resort into a ratings smash in Australia or will it quickly take a dive. Ten grabs back American Idol Channel 10 used to screen American Idol but then it sold it off to Foxtel. Now Ten has grabbed it back to capitalise on the popularity of Keith Urban after his judging stint on The Voice. American Idol is nastier than The Voice and Urban is caught in the crossfire between bitchy new judges Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey. Oh yes, and somewhere in there are some contestants. Early ratings have been soft (under 600,000 viewers nationally). Ten is hoping figures will surge when Idol goes from auditions to live shows. The Great Australian Bake-Off How many cooking shows does Australia need? We've already got My Kitchen Rules and two versions of MasterChef. That hasn't stopped Channel 9 from heating up the oven for The Great Australian Bake-Off. The show, which will premiere after Easter, is hosted by Shane Jacobson and Anna Gare, and features tough love judge Kerry Vincent. Expect lots of pies, cakes and bread. Concentrating on one particular aspect of cooking is a huge risk. I wonder whether Nine will do their dough.