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Bumped: McLeod’s Daughters

McLeod's final season just got another downgrade by Nine.

Once iconic melodrama McLeod’s Daughters has gotten another downgrade from Nine. Previously airing double eps 8:30 Saturdays, it just got pushed back to 9:30 effective immediately.

It’s a disappointing commitment to fans who waited patiently for the show to return in summer. In double eps late on a Saturday night in December, it’s hard to find a poorer prime time slot.

At 8:30pm Nine adds US import Wife Swap USA.

With such abysmal support for the final season it beggars the question -why did Nine make the eighth season in the first place? Otherwise, don’t tell anybody it’s your swansong and they might keep the faith?

17 Responses

  1. This is a pretty sad end to a great Australian drama of the last decade, Airing 30+ episodes a year and collecting a large viewership.

    The final season looks just like that, final. It is such a stark contrast to last year when it was still reaching a million viewers. If nine only had a 10 week run to sign off the series at it usual time it would have got the series out of the way correctly.

    When is the finale going to be scheduled? 4am on New Years Day?

  2. WTF happened last night?

    Check the cricket at before 9pm and it was still on, expecting to see the movie (which was still listed in the onscreen guide BTW) then at about 9.15 McLoed’s had already started so we missed the first part, this is not going to help the rating!

    I should just go out and buy the DVDs!

  3. 9’s programming schedule is appaling. Two of this family’s favourite shows MD and Survivor ( too late to watch- what a joke!!!!) given ridiculous time slots.
    MD a real family show everyone enjoyed. Why are you killing the final season this way Channel 9???????

  4. Uh David – isn’t cricket on that night? Wouldn’t that have pushed back Wife Swap and McLeods Daughter’s anyway – or is Wife Swap getting an additional hour? (If so yay – best Saturday show on TV!)

  5. Nine is my favourite channel but this consistent disrespect of viewers has gone too far.

    Why did they not screen the final season in its Wednesday 7.30 slot during Summer – where it would’ve gotten the 800/900 it was getting during ratings.

    Secondly – do they expect any more on a Saturday when the majority of people watching TV – elderly people and kids are mainly glued to the ABC?

    And why change it anyway during summer when ratings don’t count?

    This is ridiculous – they are just driving viewers away from FTA and making the stations image even worse.

    A show that gave the network so much, such an iconic brand, should be given a decent send off – Channel 7 at least kept Blue Heelers on Saturdays despite poor ratings and aired the final episode on the high rating Sunday Nights – a slot that such an iconic show deserved. I highly doubt this will be the case with Mcleod’s.

  6. Another programming change by one of the commercial networks. Along with the countless changes by Ten and Seven already this summer, Nine has continued the farce by bumping McLeod’s Daughters back by an hour. McLeod’s Daughters was once the darling of Nine – it was, at one point, their only Australian-produced drama and it has won numerous logie awards. First Nine delay the airing of the final season of this show, which, whilst incredibly irritating for long-time viewers of MD, at least allowed them to view the final episodes during the summer. Now Nine bumps the show back into a less than pleasing timeslot. Great way to re-pay the series that once was the burning light in Nine’s otherwise abysmal Australian production line-up.

    David, maybe you could answer this question – if the summer period on television is non-ratings, then why do all the (mainly commercial) networks feel the need to alter their summer line-up and summer programming? Surely it would be better to appease viewers who have been dissatisfied with the constant schedule changes throughout the year to at least keep solid programming throughout the summer than worry about ratings in a non-ratings period? Maybe it has to do with committments to advertisers who purchase advertising timeslots in particular times based on the numbers that a television network pulls? Not sure, but I’m hoping you have the answer David.

    Thanks for a great year of TV Tonight David – I’ve been a long time reader of your blog and can honestly say that your blog is now a must read for me.

  7. In reference to the comment “You didn’t exatly (sic) see Seven treating Blue Heelers like this in its final season?!!”…Well you kind of did. From memory they shunted it away to Saturday nights up against The Bill.

  8. Just who is running Channel 9 ?
    Mr. Magoo maybe !!
    Wife swap USA is trashy tv and once you have watched one ep, you know exact formula for each other one. Husband and wife think they know best, get dose of reality, get told off by other husband/wife, apologise..then just to make it truly wholesome Americana.. See the light ! Yuck
    McLeods deserve better – should be Monday or Tuesday night 7-30 and promoted heavily.

  9. 9 would be better off cutting their losses. This show is completely dead, but that was their own doing by erratic programming. The f**kwits could have atleast tried it in it’s 7.30 Wednesday timeslot.

  10. This is disgusting, disgracful. I offcially hate the Nine Network forever more for their treatment of this show!!

    McLeod’s means so much to so many people around the world and Nine just shoving the show in a terrible timeslot after prolonging showing the final series for over a year is an outrage.

    I am very angry at the Nine Network for their disrespectful attitude toward the veiwers.

    You didn’t exatly see Seven treating Blue Heelers like this in its final season?!!

    I hope Nine know that their awful treatment of this show has made me want to stop watching their channel all together!

  11. I can’t stand the show, but a family member who’s adored it for years told me last weekend that this season is, well, pretty crap.

    Perhaps that’s true, or perhaps its long absence has made it seem that way. Either way, not good.

    But pulling a first-run local drama on a Saturday night for “Wife Swap USA”… it’s official, everyone. The lights are out at Nine, and there’s nobody home. Someone bring the poor fools their medication before they hurt someone.

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