0/5

TEN cancels Don’t Stop Believing

EXCLUSIVE: TEN stops believin' in the musical genre and pulls the pin on its all-singing, all-dancing series planned for 2011.

EXCLUSIVE: Network TEN has pulled the pin on Don’t Stop Believing, its all-singing, all-dancing spectacular that was due to launch in 2011.

The Glee-inspired production was originally planned to kick off the ratings year for TEN, but was recently pushed back by several months amid network uncertainty.

TEN has since decided not to proceed at all, despite a lavish production number staged before sponsors at its 2011 launch in Sydney and Melbourne.

The cancellation of the Shine-produced series follows its failure in the UK, hosted by Emma Bunton.

TEN has also been watching the performance of The X Factor, which is belatedly beginning to pick up steam. But the money paid for the show has not met market expectations. While TEN is working in a changing environment under shareholders Jamie Packer and Lachlan Murdoch, it is determined to start the year off from a strong position.

Don’t Stop Believing brought together vocal groups of varying sizes and ages in a live performance designed to capitalise on the success of shows such as Glee, High School Musical and Hairspray. It was also including a resident troupe of singers and dancers. Without Australian Idol, So You Think You Can Dance and Don’t Stop Believing, TEN is now without a local performance show in the musical genre.

TEN commissioned the production before the UK series began, where it fell victim to falling ratings after being moved from its timeslot due to sporting commitments by Five.

David Mott, Chief Programming Officer had previously said of the show, “Don’t Stop Believing is a joyous format and a perfect fit for the big entertainment, feel good direction TEN has been heading for the last few years.

“We have had incredible success in identifying and airing excellent high impact performance shows and this is bigger and better than any we have ever undertaken.”

TV Tonight, which broke the news on the series being commissioned in July, understands auditions for vocal acts was advanced but no performers had yet been attached to the series.

62 Responses

  1. Ummm Neilo…. 7 is the Music Talent Network??? In the 16-39 demo… you probably need to check your facts mate.

    X Factor is beaten weekly in the 16-39 demo by a certain cooking show

    and…. AGT is only popular with the blue rinse crowd

    The best thing 7 have done with the 16-39 crowd is Beauty and the Geek, which rimped it home last night. Perhaps you should be harping on about that.

  2. Ha! It was only yesterday i posted a comment on why it was suss TEN were still airing promos for the show.

    Why don’t TEN just learn from the mistake and bring back So You Think You Can Dance and put it Back on Sunday night.

  3. Okay with the decision as long as it’s replaced with something new and interesting… please don’t pepper us with repeat of Rules of Engagement or other crappy US sitcomes.

  4. good move, but what took them so long? audition calls were airing as late as wednesday.

    when they said biggest loser is still running 4 nights eyebrows had to be raised, TBYG is also retuning and there are only so many dys in a week. the only thing is: can TBL do any better.

  5. I don’t watch any of the reality “talent” shows, but I would have tuned into this simply because of its similarity to Glee.

    But just because it was similar to Glee is no guarantee that it would have been as good as some of the better Glee music numbers and we may have all been saved another entrant in the most shameful Australian reality TV series awards.

  6. “Without Australian Idol, So You Think You Can Dance and Don’t Stop Believing, TEN is now without a local performance show in the musical genre.”
    Bring back YTT

  7. Normally i would not join in the negative nelly brigade on this, but am thankful that it will not proceed. It just smelled of try hard and derivative programming. But, it also points to the owners flexing muscle in a way that may yield further change.

Leave a Reply