TEN has pulled Young Talent Time from Sunday nights and bumped it to Friday nights at 7pm from Friday March 30th.
The move is a major blow to TEN’s Super Sunday and ambitions to revive the iconic talent show for a new generation.
The show’s ratings had slipped from its million plus debut, to 689,000. But significantly it was down in key demos. The show also had next to no lead-in from TEN’s insistence on a Sunday edition of The Project.
While the young talent has been solid, and host Rob Mills has received good reviews, it hasn’t been able to attract the kind of buzz afforded to Australia’s Got Talent. In an era of Reality-driven talent shows, having an optimistic family-friendly show has been a challenge.
David Mott, Chief Programming Officer, Network Ten, said; “As we move through the year we will continue to reinvigorate our Super Sunday line up and our move this weekend of The Biggest Loser
“We’ve built Friday nights for family-friendly entertainment, fun light programming and now the perfect for Young Talent Time as it heads into the big semi final and final weeks. The first Friday is a Michael Jackson special and audiences are going to love it.”
TV Tonight understands TEN has an option for three seasons of the talent show.
Friday Nights are where most of your 15/16 year olds who watch are either out with friends or have a night job somewhere at the fast food shops/video store or retail outlet of some type so naturally it wouldn’t have worked putting this on then.Off the topic a little Ten already has Glee so do they really need an Australian poorly done clone.I am old enough to remember the 80′s version as a kid watching it on Saturday Nights before Magnum PI.
Lachlan Murdoch negotiated the salary for Paul Henry not David Mott. It’s also worth a reminding that nowhere has Henry ever said its was $1m a year. It’s probably a 3 year deal.
vinnie33- couldn’t agree more!
David Mott should be sacked and any executive who decided on inserting The Renovators into the MC finale, giving Andrew Bolt his own show and paying Paul Henry over $1m to make Karl Stefanovic look good in the mornings!
It would have been good if it was kept like the original one which I enjoyed. They need younger kids for the cuteness factor, in the old show the kids had to retire at 16 but most of these kids are 16 and 17 and one of the contestants was 18! they should go on the X Factor and let younger contestants go on YTT. The kids try too hard and look too professional and the whole thing comes across as very forced. Its a bit like Glee and I hate that too!
This isn’t YTT… its Junior Australian Idol..
It could do well on fridays, but not at 7pm against H&A, 7.30 would be more sensible but i guess smart thinking is too much to ask from whoever is making these decisions. I really hope it does continue, because as has already been said, these kids are really talented & deserve it.
I actually think some of the issues with some shows not rating as well as they could be this year is timing problems. For example, the weekend before last was glorious weather in Melbourne, the Grand Prix was on & it was a long weekend, at 6.30 many people would have been out enjoying the sunshine than sitting home watching Tv. Maybe some of these shows should start in winter when people tend to get home earlier, up against the footy on sat night might work as it gives the kids & non sports viewers an alternative.
@cglenn1988: The only reasons some of the shows you’re thinking of are doing better than Revenge in the US, is because they’re on CBS and everyone in America watches that network like lemmings.
Two examples I can think of, NCIS:LA and Hawaii Five-O. They get big ratings in the States but in the past few weeks these shows have struggled to crack 500k over here (although NCIS:LA finally gained some momentum this week).
Oh yeah…. and fire David Mott immediately.
@guy @secret_squirrel
Couldn’t agree more! So many knee-jerk reactions and not looking at the core problem: the 6:00pm slot every night of the week; it should be a half-hour local news service, and not directly preceded by any other news service – it must be standalone. The Project’s 3 problems are: it’s in the wrong time-slot (should be 6:30pm); it is a half-hour too long; and it should only be on weeknights.
YTT has suffered because it’s lead in is getting woeful ratings.
Maybe they should have ditched The Project instead?
Seriously – YTT is going to be destroyed by BH&G and the footy – and a very talented group of kids are going to be sacked as a result of another stupid decision by Ten management.
BTW – what happens to Glee now? They have been mucking around with it’s timeslot so much it is eventually going to end up on Eleven.
The move makes sense. The Biggest Loser always had a Sunday show until this year. YTT should have been on during the year after TBL. It could have been a great Saturday show too. TBL should keep the Friday editions and have YTT at 7:30pm. Glee has one more episode before going on a break with no new episodes until after Easter so YTT will fill the gap. YTT does attract a very young audience plus they have plenty of talent and no nasty judges.
BTW Friday is not a wasteland or where shows go to die. Better Homes and Gardens is doing well on Fridays as well as the NRL. Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries is one of ABC1′s top shows and doing well. Even New Tricks did well last year in the same timeslot. Pity Ten isn’t doing so well, they have some great shows and some US shows are doing much better than Revenge in the US.
David Mott needs to be fired from Channel TEN. Sorry to be blunt here but he has no idea what he is doing. He has run the network into the ground. James Warburton is a good pickup but its going to be a very very long road ahead. Nothing at TEN has changed. They still target the young demos and now they are falling apart at the seams. They need a brand new image and the current image change has backfired. YTT isn’t a good show but i can see the appeal to the under 18′s and their parents. 3 seasons? Its possible but unlikely.
If TEN think The Shire, Lara Bingle and The Living Room is going to help them then this shows the stupidity of Mott. He is scraping the bottom of the barrel hoping it works. It reminds me of Channel Seven back in 2004 when they crashed hard. Problem is TEN has crashed and i don’t think can rebound.
The show is so horrible, I can’t watch it for more than a couple of minutes at a time while channel surfing. It just tries too hard. It gets pretty cringe-worthy at times.
Friday Night. Where programs go to die.
It could be worse, it could have been bumped to Saturday nights, but Friday is just as much a wasteland. With only a few weeks to go, this is obviously a major move to slowly run down the clock.
Yep biggest loser 6.30 sundays now. It will be the weigh in and elimination on sundays just like last yr. Thank god cause 6.30 there was nothing to watch
At least TEN is sticking with it and not shafting it to ch11.
I assume they will pair YTT with Glee followed by a movie?
So are they clearing the way for the f1, yes I know that won’t start until around 9:30 in the evening.
This is good news, it might lift their fridays.
This show is a young teen show, i mean who wants to watch 13 yr olds on stage- 13 yr olds
They really should bring back so you think you can dance Aus cause that shat all over this show.
So is he saying the biggest loser is now on sundays ??
Why the Team haven’t released a single yet – which would be great promo for the show – I have no idea. It would be a big boost on the net, on radio, and on music TV (On Eleven anyway).
And Glee gets moved again presumably? (Yes, I know – I meant when it returns from break)
Ten’s media releases are getting more entertaining than a good portion of their schedule.
I think Saturday would of worked better followed by new Your Gen and then Graham Norton.
I’m feeling dizzy from all that spin. YTT isn’t the problem, and the ratings were up a little from the week before (as were a number of shows). However, it was never going to appeal to the amped-up iGeneration – it’s needs to be OTT not YTT.
The problem is The Project and it’s clearly not working on Sundays – a case of too much of a mediocre thing. Its lead-in is hobbling YTT. A gameshow would prob work better.
Anyway, I don’t think TBL is going to do much better than YTT, altho’ the demos might be a little more favourable. I think that the people who currently watch TBL during the week might have already had their fill.
The talent on YTT is quite good, and I think MIllsy does a good job as host, but I can’t stand the scripted banter that goes on between Millsy and the cast before and after each song.
I’ve only watched a bit of one episode, but I really can’t stand the sound of young kids singing, it’s so high pitched and screechy. Then there’s the vocal gymnastics so prevalent these days, nobody can reach for one note without going through half a dozen other notes to get there, warbling all over the spectrum. It’s just bad singing.
The Project should be gone, not YTT. Why are they so insistent on this program. The Simpsons would have been a great lead in. I guess they are the channel that was.
LOL.
Sorry.
But… wow.
Might as well moved it to Saturday night up against Funniest Home Videos which also gets the same ratings (500,000-900,000) but with most revivals it always fails just like Hey Hey It’s Saturday.
Fix the show up and make it like the originals.
so they are happy to p** off 689,000 viewers by moving it. I’ve enjoyed YTT, i think its a really slick production and the kids have got talent. I’m enjoying the competition element too. I must admit i’ve missed a few weeks as haven;t found it is “must see tv”. I imagine the key demos would be watching Home and Away at 7pm.
I lost interest very quickly. I didn’t enjoy how they were trying to create the young cast into superstars overnight. With the constant fake audience cheering every time one of the kids were asked a question was just too much. Let them do their ‘job’ don’t quiz them or try to create funny stories around them ect.
Let’s hope TEN do get the NRL rights, therefore there can be at least some consistency programming on Fridays for once.
Start it at 7.30, not 7pm!!! Most of the audience are still watching home and away.
David Mott has no idea what he’s doing. He said the following only a few weeks ago
“The one that thrilled us the most was to get over a million viewers for YTT and even the encore did well with over 500,000 against the tennis.We know there will be a lot of Sport for a while yet, but it just feels tonally right for 6:30 on a Sunday.That line-up won’t move. It will be a rock solid schedule for a long time to come”.
So when he says “a long time to come” he actually means a few weeks.
3 seasons…not a chance, unfortunately
I thought everything about it was horrid. Who are these people giving it good reviews?
The judges were bland, the set was daggy, the team had no talent, the forced banter was painful, the competitors were the same ever week, and rob is annoying and thinks he is funnier than he is.
Significantly, a “Michael Jackson tribute special” on “Young Talent Time” that moves into the Programming Graveyard of Friday night.
Significant? Well, yes – both items are deceased.
Will it be for an hour or an hour and a half? Because if it starts at 7pm then the next show will begin at a silly time of 8pm if it’s only for an hour. Unless they plan on putting a half hour show there.