First quarter broken promises

By David Knox on March 24, 2009 / Filed Under Programming 31

ninequarterThere is just one week to go before we move into the second quarter of 2009.

Late last year, the Nine Network told its advertisers that a raft of new shows would air in the first quarter of 2009. But a number of the titles on the list still remain unaired.

Gathering dust on the Nine shelves, and promised for the first quarter, are:

Sea Patrol
Crusoe
Local Heroes
For Richer for Poorer
What’s Good For You

Who Do You Think You Are? (US)
When I Grow Up
Without a Trace

This mirrors a similar list at the end of 2007 which promised undelivered shows for 2008 including The Young Doctors, Toasted and Roasted, The Irwin Family’s Australia Zoo, Jingles and more.

Nine also appears to have changed hosts for the return of What’s Good For You, originally promised to be Dr Andrew Rochford (The Waiting Room). This week it was announced Lyndsey Rodrigues would front the show.

And while we’re on the subject of looming deadlines, on February 26th David Leckie promised Seven would reveal its plans for multi-channelling “withing the coming month.”

Nine yesterday indicated it would launch an entertainment channel later in the year.

Hopefully Seven will live up to its word by the end of Thursday.

31 Comments »

  1. Josh May 3, 2009 at 1:12 am -

    hahaa ok david, (get an interview with lisa or saski, haah), thanks for the info though

  2. David Knox May 3, 2009 at 1:05 am -

    At this stage it doesn’t mean anything. We’ll see!

  3. Josh May 3, 2009 at 1:03 am -

    ok, so does that mean theres a feature interview coming up for one of the stars of the show :p

  4. David Knox May 3, 2009 at 1:01 am -

    Depends… not everything is sent in advance… and even of those that are, I don’t always do a review. For instance, I’d be unlikely to do a feature interview plus a review.

  5. Josh May 3, 2009 at 12:45 am -

    Airdate for Seapatrol 3: Red Gold, is the 18th of May 2009, monday, im guessing 8.30pm in the Underbelly timeslot – which we all pretty much knew it would slot into

    Cant wait for this season – david do you get to preview the first episode and write a review before may 18?
    cause i think you did lats season for sea patrol 2: The Coup..

  6. Reality Raver April 6, 2009 at 8:16 pm -

    Where is Survivor Gabon and Superstars of Dance? Neither have been screened. I suspect Superstars of Dance won’t be shown ever. Why it was not shown when it was on in the US is beyond me. They could have got a good audience in the non-ratings period and carried them into the rating period. But now they have spent money on a show that is in the archives.

    Apparently Survivor Gabon has been a beauty.

  7. David Knox March 27, 2009 at 11:21 am -

    Quick update.. seems Dr. Andrew Rochford is indeed host of WGFY with Rodrigues one of several presenters.

  8. Teddy Bär March 24, 2009 at 6:56 pm -

    If they advertise it they are making a promise.

    I prefer to think that they have broken a promise and not deceived us with half truths by having some/most/all the programs start just before Q2.

    The only reason I could understand this behaviour is incompetence by making promises for programs that you have not secured the rights to.

    Either way, this is very poor form and I am sure they will be telling their stock holders that Piracy is the reason, not utter contempt shown to the viewer.

  9. Kirsten March 24, 2009 at 5:15 pm -

    They shouldn’t make promises they can’t keep. I (and I know several other SP fans) will be very dissapointed if the shows opening date is toyed around with again. as are many dates for a lot of shows, 9 should pick a time and stick to it. If you’re going to change your mind don’t tell everyone your first decision build up all the excitment and go ‘oh hang on I don’t want that let’s change it.’, you’re just going to end up with a lot of un happy viewers and people not even bothering to watch 9 anymore with all this unreliability.

  10. nick March 24, 2009 at 5:13 pm -

    Nine proposed a lot of shows for their first quarter, they couldn’t have possibly fit it all in. Only lose slots i can think of is 8:30 tuesdays, instead of double 2.5 men. More than half of those shows will be axed, including Crusoe, Local Heroes, For Richer for Poorer, Who Do You Think You Are? and When I Grow Up. You can just tell

    Ten and Seven have aired all of the shows they ‘proposed’ for the first quarter, so you can’t compare Nine with them

  11. Tepee March 24, 2009 at 4:59 pm -

    There was never any chance all on Nine’s promised shows were all going to air in the first quarter. Surely they knew there was no space to accomodate all of these shows in the first place? And hurry up Seven and join the secondary channel party!

  12. chris March 24, 2009 at 4:42 pm -

    So very bland.. Gotta say ABC 2 is shaping up as my favourite channel this year.

  13. cpandilo March 24, 2009 at 4:24 pm -

    In response to Doris, no ten & Seven are currently not as bad as Nine is on a number of fronts including that they do their programming better and that they are not nearly as bad as Nine is at their timing of their decisions as well as how they treat their viewers and program.

  14. Russell March 24, 2009 at 4:23 pm -

    “Promised”

    That’s a strong word. Did Nine ever really “promise” anything?

    Or Ten or Seven

    They “indicate” or “propose” and “suggest” and “plan” but I don’t think any network “promises” certain shows.

    And they are a TV network, don’t they reserve the right to ammend and chnage their plans after seeing shows and seeing ratings etc?

  15. Pass The Remote March 24, 2009 at 4:15 pm -

    Jumping the gun a bit with this.
    First quarter finishes on May 2nd.
    As it states this is a guide.

  16. Tyson March 24, 2009 at 3:03 pm -

    I thought it was originally Lisa Wilkinson going to host What’s Good for You? So now its gone from Lisa to Dr Andrew to Lyndsay

  17. DAN March 24, 2009 at 2:41 pm -

    Typical 9 but doesn’t really bother me that much because I wasn’t interested in any of those shows anyway

  18. Andrew B March 24, 2009 at 12:42 pm -

    @ Doris: So should we all just sit here and accept that the networks change shows and scheduling with little notice? Make promises they don’t keep? Provide little care for the viewer? Yes, it happens at 10 and 7 as well but 9 are by far the worst. Prove me wrong.

  19. mac March 24, 2009 at 12:30 pm -

    @ doris many people may have forgot that some of these shows where meant to air and publishing a list like this reminds the networks that people keeping track and they will be held accountable, yes we are use to shows being cancelled all the time but that donsn’t mean we should get use to it and turn a blind eye.

  20. mac March 24, 2009 at 11:33 am -

    good comparison with the politicians Craig, david where did that nine network program guide image come from, it looks great, similar to the TV1 website

  21. Doris March 24, 2009 at 11:24 am -

    All I can say peoples is “Get over it” and David, is there no real tv news to report on today? David you should know better, this is Television things chop and change all the time. I’m sure Seven and Ten are just as bad.

  22. Richard H March 24, 2009 at 11:01 am -

    ok thats it time to pack it in nine just run a test pattern on the station oh wait u might shelve that too!

  23. brendan March 24, 2009 at 10:54 am -

    What about Survivor: Gabon and Tocantins? come on channel nine.

  24. Andrew B March 24, 2009 at 10:36 am -

    We all knew there were too many shows promised for the available time slots even generating some speculation that some would be on SD2 when ratings started in Feb. Of course, that did not happen.

    I am wondering if 9 has a different definition of 1st quarter than the rest of us – if they take it as 3 months (getting them to May) rather than the first 8 weeks of ratings, then some of those shows might air after Easter. Sea Patrol probably when Underbelly finishes.

  25. bindi March 24, 2009 at 10:08 am -

    how about moonlight, waiting 15 months and counting. they took it off coz the ratings season resumed around january 2008, promised it would be back in the summer that has recently passed, still nothing, oh well the dvd producer is laughing, initial stock sold out in a few days and they are now having to produce more to fullfil pre-orders.

  26. fizzin March 24, 2009 at 9:46 am -

    Probably the only series on Nine I will watch is Sea Patrol.

    Seen Crusoe, only one season of 13 eps made to date and due to a collapse in ratings in the US it may only be a one seasoner. Crusoe it’s a rollicking good yarn with plenty of humour. The shame is nine has got it, they’ll probably show one or two eps and relegate it to the vault.

    Normally I would whinge about Fringe now, but I’m seeing it too……..

  27. Brodie March 24, 2009 at 9:40 am -

    There were also promos for Eleventh Hour “this February”

  28. Craig March 24, 2009 at 8:55 am -

    *Tries not to look shocked!

    Networks are like politicians, they promises a lot and only deliver in the dieing days of the year. This is why I believe we will not see the new 2nd channel until late 2009 and not mid year, ditto for ONE HD on SC10.

    None of the shows listed interest me apart from the ones 9 sold to Fox8 (Chuck. PD and Terminator)

  29. Travis March 24, 2009 at 8:30 am -

    News.com.au annouced Lyndsey Rodrigues signed to Nine to host What’s Good for You last December.

  30. bj March 24, 2009 at 7:53 am -

    Yes. They now have an ad saying Sea Patrol is Coming Soon. Coming soon is not June, Channel Nine. That’s barely in the first half of the year. Put it on after Easter break! The fans are more than ready for it!

  31. Teddy Bär March 24, 2009 at 7:51 am -

    Bravo 9! As this is a terrible list and you have done the viewing public a good service.

    I also take comfort that 9 also shows the same ‘respect’ to the advertisers as is shown to the viewers, kind of makes me feel more part of the process…

    Cheers,

    Teddy Bär

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