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First Review: Seven in 2007


However you look at it, 2007 was Seven’s heaven. After nearly 30 years of second fiddle to Nine, Seven was finally, convincingly, The One. Winning 38 of 40 Ratings Weeks has given it the status of Australia’s leading network. It is a Pepsi vs Coke-style win that will resonate in the viewers’ minds for the next decade.

In news, current affairs, breakfast television and prime time Seven leads. It won two key demographics, 18-49 (TEN’s key market) and 25-54, plus overall viewers. Only in the lower-profile daytime bracket is Seven behind –and not by much.

Significantly, it is in local product that Seven has forged its success. Desperate Housewives and Lost are no longer its strongest franchises.

Seven’s light entertainment stable has connected brilliantly with audiences. Border Security, The Force and Medical Emergency were joined by RSPCA Animal Rescue and Surf Patrol. Jamie Durie, let go by Nine, found the gardening genre wasn’t at all fatigued and dug in with Australia’s Best Backyards. Rather feebly, Nine even pitted old eps of Backyard Blitz against Seven, creating a Durie vs Durie showdown.

Seven continues to find fortune with its variety / reality hybrids, Dancing with the Stars, It Takes Two and Australia’s Got Talent, two hosted by Grant Denyer. Despite questions about just how much phone line profit actually wound up with charities, Dancing lured former Today Tonight host Naomi Robson and Nine’s boned Jessica Rowe onto the dancefloor. Frustrated by the format, host Daryl Somers left the ballroom and the network.

Andrew O’Keefe, in danger of becoming ‘Andrew Everywhere’ headed two game shows, plus Weekend Sunrise and a Tonight show pilot which airs on 7HD next year. Two other variety / chat pilots by Naomi Robson and Grant Denyer were turned down, leaving Robson effectively homeless.

Seven replaced her scorned Today Tonight hosting with Anna Coren. Graduating from summer host, it was a seamless transition for Seven, which opted not to re-invent the format. Instead the tabloid stories came thick and fast with a much-publicised attack on Schapelle Corby by a former family friend. As ACA sided with the Corby’s sister, TT went in hard with lie-detectors, surprise meetings in fast-food car parks, and a maligned private investigator who later turned on the show itself. The Corbys have vowed to sue.

Meanwhile TT booted reporter Nicholas Boot for using prop chains in a nursing home, jumped on The Chaser bandwagon with an unhealthy addiction, saw its news boss Peter Meakin appeal his jail time and twice topped viewer complaint lists with ACMA. TT also ran a tough, vindictive campaign against the Hillsong Church’s support for Australian Idol. Suddenly, Naomi didn’t look quite so complicit in all those catastrophes anymore.

More positively, Seven launched The Morning Show to great effect, stealing the thunder from Kerri-Anne and David & Kim. It followed “the cult”, aka Sunrise, which landed in hot water over allegations it tried to shift an Anzac dawn service. PM-in-waiting Kevin Rudd also stepped down from a Sunrise commentary role in the lead up to his November campaign. He is replaced by Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek locking horns with opposition MP Greg Hunt next year. Weekend Sunrise clumsily ran a “Happy Birthday Osama” text across its screen ticker.

One of Seven’s killer strokes in 2007 was AFL. It took a long time to drag Foxtel to the funding party and Seven copped all the flak for the delays, despite TEN being party to the deal.

In News Seven Melbourne made a tactical blunder by exposing AFL players’ medical records. In a race too-close-for-comfort, viewers put a quick stop to their dream run by flocking to Nine. Earlier in the year a Seven crew member was also heard to exclaim, “Oh F**k” over daytime newsreader Rebecca Maddern. She probably thought the same thing.

Where Are They Now? brought back some nostalgic TV reunions for Number 96, The Young Doctors, Hey Dad (oddly, without the ‘Dad’) and Kingswood Country.

Kath and Kim became a centrepiece acquisition for Seven, hijacked from the ABC. Their debut of 2.5m viewers surpassed anything they’d achieved with Aunty and banished 60 Minutes to the good room. Even its repeats beat the opposition. But rumours swirl that the Foxy Ladies will rest in 08.

Seven’s dramas again fired in 2007. Kate Ritchie, the girl we have watched grow up, finally won the Gold Logie for Home and Away, only to announce her retirement. All Saints passed its health check. But despite the network still smarting over the demise of HeadLand (and even Last Man Standing), Seven launched the smooth criminals of City Homicide. Sending back the pilot for re-casting, it very nearly didn’t pass “Go”. With an impressive 14ep output written entirely by John Hugginson and John Banas it finished the year as our most popular Aussie drama, with more on the way.

In international formats, Ugly Betty starred in a blaze of publicity. The melodrama of Grey’s Anatomy sucked everyone in. Desperate Housewives and My Name Is Earl remained strong, but Heroes, Lost and Prison Break all nosedived. Will and Grace and Alias gave their goodbye speeches. Shark didn’t bite. 24 barely ticked. Bionic Woman, ‘fast-tracked’ under a new Seven programming direction disappointed as a lame remake. The new policy was complicated by the American writers’ strike, affecting the amount of fresh episodes going into 2008.

After TEN announced a new high-def channel, an envious Seven matched their press release by the end of the day. It was so keen to air first that it quietly began broadcasting unannounced one Monday night in October. As the network has learned, a few daily hours filled with B grade movies and tired American sitcoms does not a new channel make. By December it penned in reruns of axed lifestyle shows My Restaurant Rules and Room for Improvement -an apt title if ever there was one.

Seven also announced it would introduce TiVo to Australia in 2008. The network lost its C7 courtcase with Foxtel. Accusing Kerry Stokes of being an unreliable witness, the judge said his evidence flied “in the face of incontrovertible facts.” Seven later acquired Engin’s Unwired as part of plans for an aggressive, multi-platform network. It now remains the only network not to broadcast via subscription TV models.

In November, Seven’s new Bingo show also came under fire for offering newspaper bingo cards for a show it had pre-recorded. Viewers subsequently joined in the catchprase, “Nooooo Bingo.” Its host Tim Campbell was also pushed to acknowledge tabloid gossip that he was gay, hoping it doesn’t inhibit his chances of hosting 2008’s Dancing with the Stars.

In 2008 Seven will continue Aussie formats with a new comedy-drama Packed to the Rafters, more factuals (The Zoo, Outback Wildlife Rescue and Bush Doctors), another musical format Clash of the Choirs plus a renewed Gladiators.

Seven finished the year by signing a long-term licensing deal with NBC Universal, for shows including 30 Rock, Heroes, Bionic Woman and Las Vegas and an exclusive deal with Granada International.

As it celebrates a year that monikers its very brand, Seven is floating in cash, ratings, advertisers, formats and audience loyalty. Gotta love that.

ABC in 2007.

Friday: Nine in 2007.

8 Responses

  1. On the whole, the quality of the Seven programming is much better than Channel Nine…I’ve been very satisfied with their offering over many years.

    Yes, Today Tonight is awful, but so is A Current Affair. Even the cross-promotion stemming from both shows has managed to reach new-lows this year. Anyone who was following the Chaser will be aware of how they were keeping score each week.

    Bingo was also a terrible idea too, David summed it up very well for his comment that it came “under fire for offering newspaper bingo cards for a show it had pre-recorded”.

    City Homicide turned out to be quite a reasonable show, made more so by its casting….I’ve been impressed by the performances of Shane Bourne, Aaron Pederson and the like, who bring a certain ‘X-factor’ quality to the show.

    I’m also glad Jamie Durie has found a home on Seven and I very much look forward to any future shows produced by him. How he stays professional but maintains a relaxed persona is a true testament to him, he makes it look much easier than it is.

    I wish Grant Denyer, on the other hand, would feature in fewer shows, preferably none. He has the charismatic qualities of a piece of cardboard. And that’s me being complimenting.

    Home-grown shows such as Border Security and The Force were surprisingly addictive and I hope they continue on into 2008.

    Gladiators though? Unless the show is executed very tightly and has a brilliant host(s), I don’t see it surviving for more than a year. In fact I think I’m already tired of it from just imagining the old show in my head…

  2. I love how Seven have nurtured their stars, with all the crossovers between DWTS, It Takes Two, Sunrise, H&A and AllSaints etc. It has allowed the stars to show other sides of themselves that we might otherwise not have seen. They really do have a strong stabel of Talent.

  3. i luv channel 7!! good on em, they’re a fresh re-vitalised network. i deteste the old fuddy duddys at nine!! and Ten hiring jackie o and kyle to do big brother ‘o brother’ more aussie bogans on TV!!

  4. I couldn’t be happier with Seven. They proved themselves with a fantastic line-up, was mostly loyal to their viewers and deserved what they got. That, and it was nice for pricks at Nine not to be so smug any more.

    Here’s to Seven in 2008!!!

  5. It was a good year for Seven or the evil empire as I like to call them. Thier fall (which won’t be far off) will be fun to watch. I hate the way they try and tie everyhting in with thier crappy shows. Like last night on Today Tonight they tied in a story on air safety with Air Crash Investigations and Lost. Horrible nasty little network not that the other two are much better.

  6. I think an analogy of Roddick(7) and Federer(9) is more apt. Roddick needs to be at 110% and Federer needs to be off his game for him to win. One needs to apply himself completely all the time to have a chance the other usually coasts along on natural talent. Hopefully Federer will win the next match if he applies himself!

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