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Airdate: The Slap

ABC1 will be revamping Thursdays with Qi, The Slap and a later timeslot for Crownies from October.

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The timeslot for ABC1’s anticipated new drama The Slap has been confirmed:

8:30pm Thursday October 6th.

ABC1 will be revamping its Thursday nights, including moving Crownies to 9:30pm to make way for the new drama.

As TV Tonight reported two weeks ago, finding a slot for the show has been something of a headache for the broadcaster. Monday nights and Wednesday nights are bedded in with other genres. The Slap was originally primed as a Sunday series, but then Underbelly: Razor came along.

Tuesday nights it would have to compete with Packed to the Rafters while Fridays and Saturdays aren’t exactly the right home for a premium local series (despite Bed of Roses having played out on Saturdays).

With Crownies in place on Thursdays ABC1 was having a real dilemma about where to screen The Slap, even conceding it would surface somewhere rather unexpected. Sure enough it will take Crownies timeslot.

With Catalyst having its season finale on September 29th Qi will also move to 8pm Thursdays, leading into The Slap.

It also means the new drama will go up against local drama Rush.

Brendan Dahill, ABC1 Controller, said “I had always earmarked Thursday night as our drama night launching late last year with the critically-acclaimed series Rake. So from next month, we will have back to back Australian drama on Thursday nights from 8.30pm to 10.30pm with The Slap and Crownies.”

The Slap, based on the best-selling book by Christos Tsolkias, has received strong reviews based on the first two episodes which premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August.

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  4. Well, The Slap is a miniseries i would imagine (rather weirdly, have almost finished the book at the moment)- so it could be good,. I might leave it there, its a polarising book
    (but isn’t Spirited really good at the moment?)

  7. I guess if they must play it Thursday the best I could hope for is they replay it on ABC2 when I could watch it or on the main channel near midnight. NB – I plan on watching Chuck and Fringe. I hope whatever is on that Sunday I’ll be interested.

  8. Time slots dont matter for your savvy viewer however they certainly matter when you’re looking for a healthy total number to justify expensive series such as The Slap.

    Ive been looking forward to this and simply think they should have still gone for a night with a bigger audience to draw from. i wouldnt be concerned by the other genres on other nights as they cost nowhere as much to produce.

    Wonder how many execs it took to make the decision…

  10. Crowines has been getting better and better each week IMO. Shame the first episode turned so many people off. It wasn’t that bad I thought, just different for the ABC.

    Also not to unhappy Qi will be on Thursdays, too many things on Tuesdays that I watch currently.

  12. I’ve never understood all the oohing and aahing over Rush. IMO, it’s very average,which its ratings reflect. If the Slap is any good, it should romp it in.

  13. par3182 – totally agree.

    Why is it that everyone wants/needs to complain about scheduling.
    Seriously, just use the catch up sites, series link it, or set the DVD/PVR’s. Not that hard to do,

  14. I might have tried it on Sunday and I can’t record nor use iView. On Thursday I’m watching Eleven. Not everyone is interested in criminals by the way. Detectives yes: criminals no. Oh well. So what will they have on Sunday? I doubt it’s listed for next month yet. Plus I haven’t even looked up next week. Although I remember it’s a September 11 based documentary next week. For obvious reasons.

  17. ABC programmers really don’t understand their own audience. I would much rather have The Slap as an alternative to the horrible Underbelly Razor to watch on Sunday night that have to choose between Rush and The Slap. Crownies is also the wrong show for the ABC – belongs on Channel 10. Why produce two legal dramas at the same time? Don’t they have scarce resources? One is an intelligent and funny legal drama and the other is Crownies .

  20. What is wrong with the ABC! I am loving Crownies and have gotten used to its timeslot. Why do you have to play around with the timings just to try to give a new show a leg up! Follow through with the good ones you have first and reward your viewers by not stuffing them around.

    Whilst we are on the subject – what is with the advertising campaign for Crownies anyhow. After your ads i wasn’t going to watch but luckily i gave it a go as its great, getting better each week and the more the characters develop. Why don’t you run a campaign that reflects what the show actually is – original stories, intelligent dialogue with good snippets of humour, characters that are really interesting that you can to know & love and happily all very hot as well! There are so many people out there I know that would watch this but have been turned off by your bus posters… don’t give us on it yet try a new approach with your advertising.

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