★★★★★ 0/5
Gone: Strictly Speaking
The ABC has spoken. Strictly Speaking is out of the schedule, to be replaced by more Qi with Stephen Fry.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Programming
ABC has wasted no time in removing Strictly Speaking from its schedule after dismal figures last night.
It pulled just 390,000 at 8pm down from its 715,000 lead in from The 7:30 Report. It sure didn’t help The Librarians which had to rebuild to 595,000 at 8:30pm.
From next week it will be replaced by extra episodes of Stephen Fry’s Qi (Series 2, Episode 8).
Stephen Fry is joined by guests Alan Davies, Jo Brand, Fred McAulay and Rich Hall to discuss bees, barnacles and basketball.
ABC hasn’t had a good run with Strictly Speaking, an awkwardly-staged public speaking show hosted by Andrew Hansen. Episodes that are airing were filmed some 12 months ago.
Qi will now be screening twice a week:
9:30pm Tuesdays
8:00pm Wednesdays
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- Tagged with Qi, Strictly Speaking, The 7.30 Report, The Librarians
52 Responses
My husband and I really enjoyed this show . We were really disappointed learn it was not screening tonight. Please let it be rescheduled for another time slot. The viewers need to see it through to the final.
Andrew Hansen is so supercilious and snide, he really didn’t carry the show well.
He is very irritating.
It would have made for Much more interesting TV if all the contestants were made to do the same impromptu.
How do you think I feel? Strictly Speaking has been axed a week before my episode!!
Programing should let marketing know about this as the facebook ad for Strictly Speaking is still running… there’s our 4c a day in action!
Its been strange that ABC came out with this change and earlier on it was SBS with Anna Pihl being bumped to 10pm. (though not axed).
I like the idea of the show and enjoyed it, except for one big problem, Andrew Hansen as host, he’s a complete and utter dill!
Wow, really rare for the ABC to remove a show from its run – very rare. I worked there for two decades, and even when expensive shows were failing – like The Last Resort or Raw FM – they were not pulled from the schedule. I saw a few minutes of one ep of this, and wasn’t really hooked.
@Tasmanian de√il, maybe season 2, episode 7 is classified M and cannot be shown in that time slot? Hopefully it will air the following Tuesday. I assume any skipped Christmas specials will get a run in December.
Didn’t watch this, but have always found Andrew Hansen to be the most hit-and-miss member of the Chaser team. His Chaser-produced, self-written radio series The Blow Parade (which aired on Triple J earlier this year) was absolutely awful. Totally devoid of laughs.
the abc didnt really have much choice… 400k in prime time sort of indicates theres a lack of public interest in it so its within rights for them to change its timeslot.
hopefully the new timeslot for it is around 1am or perhaps 4am
I went a studio recording of Strictly Speaking and while the speakers were impressive, it was never going to make good TV.
Stephen Fry is fast becoming the Charlie Sheen of ABC1 these days. 🙂
You can never have enough Steven Fry 🙂
(Sorry to fans of “Strictly Speaking”)
I’m a massive fan of Andrew Hansen so tuned in to watch not really knowing what the show was about.
I couldn’t make it through the first episode.
Hopefully he will be back on something in the future that will use his many many talents.
Love QI – but they can get a little risque at times. Won’t the ABC have to cut bits to suit the family-friendly time slot?
I didn’t intend to watch Strictly Speaking, but I got hooked into it. Too bad about the figures, I guess it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
QI should be a good replacement, but why are they skipping an episode? It seems that every time a show gets put in a new time slot an episode always ends up being skipped. The S1 Christmas special was skipped too, which doesn’t make sense as the S7 Christmas special wasn’t.
Sad for Fr. Bob (a champion man if ever here was one), but that’s my only lament.
Hurrah for more QI – easily the funniest and most informative show on the idiot box!
That said, I think Stephen Fry is being over-exposed, shades of Ramsey, Masterchef and Eddie Everywhere here.
Not sure if it has been mentioned, but Andrew just said on his twitter that it will come back in a different timeslot.
So for those that have been watching it, and liked it, Strange perhaps to most, but I liked it. When can I see the rest??
It may pop up on ABC2 or during summer but no word yet sorry.
I agree. Its rare for teh ABC to pull the plug on any program, but it wasn’t the best program on TV, but QI is a great, smart, intelligent but also very funny show. I always learn something new from QI, so more QI the better.
Was never interested in Strictly Speaking. However, not even Stephen Fry – who otherwise is fabulous in every way – or his terrific guests – can save QI. Bad enough that it’s on once a week, let alone twice.
Run QI on Wednesdays at 8.00pm, and schedule The Graham Norton show on Tuesday night instead of burying it late on Friday nights on ABC1. (I acknowledge they would need to fill the next couple of Wednesdays until Norton is available).
It was physically painful to watch.
Didn’t think ABC would do that. Sad.
Not sure Andrew Hansen was the right choice of host for this. I can’t see his normal audience enjoying a public speaking competition, and the those that would enjoy it were possibly put off by the idea of him as host before giving it a go.
Shame! I found this not the worst option on the box last night. Oh well! ABC to pull the plug so easily.mmm Seems like they have a case of seven-itis.