ABC bumps My Place, Sleuth 101, ‘reinstates’ Collectors.
In a rare programming backflip, the ABC pulls My Place from Sunday nights and returns Collectors to Friday nights.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under Programming
The ABC has announced two major scheduling changes, affecting My Place, Sleuth 101 and Collectors.
Collectors will be reinstated to its traditional time of 8pm Fridays from March 19th. It follows the ABC’s attempt at a 6:30 Sunday slot after the exit of The Einstein Factor. But viewers have been adamant in online forums that they preferred its Friday night slot.
Sleuth 101 which was in the Friday night slot will shift to 6:30pm Sundays from March 28th.
Meanwhile, ABC3 family drama My Place which had been replayed at 7:30pm Sundays on ABC1 has been abandoned from the prime slot after diastrous figures. On Sunday it pulled 286,000 against Air Ways on 1.43m viewers and dragged the network’s Sunday share down to just 11.1%.
It will be replaced by a series of nature documentaries from this Sunday night: Kalahari Tales, Titus: The Gorilla King, The Mountains Of The Monsoon. ABC will resume My Place in a kid-friendly timeslot of 5:30pm in late April.
Making late programming switches of this kind is rare in the ABC.
Marena Manzoufas, ABC TV Head of Programming said, “Clearly, the family audience has not engaged with the repeat of My Place on Sunday night at 7.30pm on ABC1, so I am replacing it with natural history programming, beginning with the Kalahari Tales and My Place will now move to 5.30pm on April 22 on ABC1.
“The dedicated Collectors’ audience has clearly demonstrated their preference for the show’s original 8pm Friday slot so I have decided to reinstate it there and move Sleuth 101 to Sundays at 6.30pm.”
34 Responses
“””Could they not use a Tasmanian based Identity ?”””
No, Errol Flynn is dead.
The ABC Programmers are a joke.How do you expect to compete against Sevens Movies with Bed Of Roses.They should not have even bothered the last two weeks with that show.Sister Act 1 and 2 would have eaten them alive.
It’s probably a good move, and a better fit for the two programmes…
But….. has the world gone toppsy turvey?
Since when did Nine Network programmers work for ABC1? I like Sleuth 101, but I agree with Tas Devil saying Wednesday night would be better for it.
The ABC have confirmed that Dr Who – series 5 will premiere in April so I guess they are filling the gaps with nature docs until then.
Oh no now the abc joins the ranks of the commerical networks in switching programs before the end of their run. Shame on you ABC! But cant wait for librarians!
I’m kinda pleased about this. Friday night isn’t really the night we sit down as a family to watch something, but Sunday is and we do sit down to watch Sleuth 101 together as el kiddo loves it. We tended to record it though, so it really isn’t too big a deal, but nice to see the ABC making the change. The earlier time slot will suit us better too.
Yep – Sunday sucked! And while I’m at it. while I have nothing against Claudia Chan Shaw – She is promoted as Sydney based. So who is footing the bill to get her to the tapings? Could they not use a Tasmanian based Identity ?
Thank goodness the ABC finally saw sense and put Collectors back where it belongs. @ kev- you’d be the only one..every single fan on the Collectors website Hated the Sunday time slot..Friday is where it’s been for five years and where the fans were used to seeing it. I reckon the Collectors site will be going off about now!
And now if they’ll just bring The Einstein Factor back!! I concur it was ideal Sunday night viewing.
@ Stephen H Sorry, BORing is not in the same league as Doc Martin and New Tricks. It tries and dismally fails.
On the other hand, isn’t it nice to see a network actually respond to viewer feedback!
It’s rare for ABC to make a schedule change like this, but I’m glad they did because this was really not working for them. 6:30 Sunday for Sleuth 101 though? I can’t see that working. 9:00 Wednesdays would have made more sense. The IT Crowd is unfairly suffering because of its poor lead in and Sleuth 101 would hopefully solve that problem, while also improving its own ratings. It seems obvious.
ABC viewers on its message board have been ruthless about the programming change with collectors. I for one do not join them in their chorus on complaints. Fridays should eb a night reserved for crime and collectors certainly does not fit in well here.
Its disappointing to see My Place go!! My kids really enjoyed this show and it was nice to go back through the way things were in the past with them – to get an insight!!
Collectors owns that spot doesn’t it? Although I have really enjoyed Sleuth!!
Loved Einstein Factor. Absolutely loathe Sleuth 101. Please ABC no more of this rubbish.
Sleuth is good production wise, it’s worth putting it on after Spicks & Specks where it would receive good ratings. I don’t know what Hungry Beast is trying to be, it’s sketch comedy/youth Labor propaganda. I’d prefer to see local unaffected sketch comedy in the same vein and quality that we see produced in Britain.
My Place is a disaster, kids don’t go for boring drama & require an element of fun, not just curiosity, something the producers & directors never factored into the show. I also saw a promo for it showing a group of girls accepting an asylum seeker which appears to be even more Labor propaganda. Maybe families just don’t want their kids to be brainwashed by the ALPBC.
Isn’t this a bit ruthless by ABC standards?
I don’t care for The Collectors, so I’m not fussed when it’s on; and come AFL season, I certainly won’t be watching tv at 8.00pm on Friday (unless 7 decide to show the games live interstate).
re Sleuth 101 – personally I think this should go to Tuesdays – probably at 8.00pm, then Foreign Correspondent at 8.30, the 8.30 program (currently Rivers) to 9.00pm, and then Jennifer Byrne. QI? To ABC2.
Sorry Ronnie Bed Of Roses is a Great Program that my family and I enjoy far better then shows like New Tricks and Doc Martin which often do well in that Saturday 7:30 timeslot.
How’s Sleuth 101 doing ratings wise?
Interesting moves by the abc.
I agree. Bring back The Einstein Factor. That was a great show
Hungry Beast would be much better suited at 9:30pm. If they put Sleuth 101 after Spicks and Specks they’d probably keep some of the family audience. Hungry Beast is going to kill the Wednesday night comedy line up if they don’t do something about it.
It’s such a pity the ABC programmer doesn’t know what she’s looking at.
My Place should never have been put at 730 Sunday. It’s a kids show, and worse, slow and worthy. Please bring someone onto the programming teams who has some drama expertise and how to programme it. Bed of Roses is a mess, Rain Shadow was embarrassing, as was East of Everything.
Don’t know how they expected a repeat from ABC3 to do well in prime time on ABC1. They should have run this first on ABC1 at 6.30pm on Sundays and then repeated it on ABC3 later.
Bring back the Einstein Factor.
It was a great show and Peter Berner was a fantastic host – a perfect Sunday evening programme.
Bzzt. Try again. Bump Hungry Beast to ABC2 and put Sleuth in that spot.