Siege interviews now likely to air head on
Both Nine and Seven now circling 6:30 Sunday for siege interviews, as starting times become hot property.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Programming
As we ramp up to the start of the 2015 ratings season this Sunday, Programmers have kept us guessing on what’s going where, especially at Seven and Nine.
Both networks have been promoting their exclusive interview with survivors of the Lindt Cafe Siege, with Seven declaring a Seven News special from 6pm. According to their latest programming info, Seven has a Seven News special edition (including news, sport, weather) at 6pm but has now set Inside The Siege: The Untold Story from 6:30 – 8:00pm. My Kitchen Rules will follow.
TV Tonight understands Nine will air 60 Minutes from 6:30pm – 8:45pm followed by House of Hancock.
Seven’s initial plans to premiere Australia: The Story of Us on Sunday appear to have been shelved due to Nine’s drama.
Meanwhile Nine now has Gallipoli set to premiere at 9pm on Monday following The Block, ending at 10:40pm. Hopefully the later start does not impact on its numbers, but perhaps Nine is seeking to lock it in to the same time every week when it reverts back to one hour episodes.
If there is any new trend emerging this year it is networks sending out publicity releases with premiere dates -but no times- for premium shows, in part so as not to tip off the opposition, but also because Reality shows seem to have elastic running times.
Of course there are still 4 more days to go -anything is possible.
21 Responses
Of course the siege stories will rate strongly and I’ll probably be among those watching, but it really is all very grubby. The trailers for these stories show a crass disregard for the sensitivities surrounding this recent event.
You can’t stop people telling their story and you can’t stop them entering into contracts for their services.
You can’t stop the media reporting things and have a free press which is essential to a democracy.
The attempts to stop it have come from the police and establishment trying to control what people can know for their own ends.
If you don’t like then simply don’t watch it.
If you want facts then wait for the investigation being conducted by Qld and UK police into the operation.
I’m glad I’ll be out of town on the North Coast this weekend. I’ll be touring and having dinner at the sailing club looking out across the river while the networks are pumping out their grief porn and other trash.
Some of these people may never recover from this and possibly never work again. Compensation for terrorism on home soil is capped at several thousand dollars I understand so these peole have little recourse. 7 and 9 are utterly despicable but it’s not really a new low from them. They do plenty of exploitation of vulnerable people.
All the changing or waiting to see what a competitor would do just shows lack of confidence in what they are airing – their product as such.
In my industry, if I changed and reacted suddenly to everything a competitor does, I would end up with confused customers.
While you have to be aware of what competitors are doing, you also have to have confidence in your own product standing up against them.
i wont be watching any of this on sunday night thank god i am going out for dinner!!!
@cazz81 and @andrewg76 – you’ll be pleased to know when I turned on the TV at 8.59pm to watch Grey’s Anatomy I checked the EPG and it said 9pm start time and then at the last minute it changed to 9.01. Not a bad effort…it’s only taken…how long…for 7 to get into gear of finishing MKR on time (or thereabouts). Maybe 9 will follow suit one day soon (I noticed The Block was due to finish at 9.08)….as I write this though GA is not a highly rated show so am not sure if it’s a good indication of 7 being able to tell the time. Tonight’s Winter and next Tuesday’s HTGAWM will be a true indication of whether 7 has learnt from their ability to tell the time, edit accordingly, place ads appropriately and value their viewers. No wonder most people seem to record shows to watch them later. Reality, News and Sport are the only genres that most people watch live. I personally prefer dramas…
Once I got over my self righteous indignation I decided I will watch the 8 hostages on 60 Minutes as they compare notes as to what happened.
Yeah, I won’t be watching this grief porn.
@Jennome – agreed. There’s an elderly gentleman who lives across the street from me who relies on a printed TV guide and he has given up watching a lot of commercial TV because he can’t find his shows.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. A Duke from another country has been made a Knight in this one. Hooray!
I have no interest in watching interviews with the siege victims, I could almost write the script myself. I feel sorry for those who rely on printed program guides, they are so wrong so frequently. Even those in that day’s newspaper are invariably wrong.
Do the networks seriously think we’re not all livid with their shenanigans? And from memory, there’s no way to complain to them except to some poor switchboard operator. If you can find a phone number.
This nonsense should be legislated against. Who is the relevant Minister (if there is one. With this government, probably no one)
I think I’ll be watching Channel Ten that night.
@Bogues Reportedly both Seven and Nine are paying them for the interviews. According the Herald Marcia Mikhael is getting $400,000 for her interview with Seven and some of the other hostages are getting up to $100,000 each. There needs to be laws in place to prevent this grubby activity of profiting off this tragic event where two people were killed. The hostages that getting paid these obscene amounts of money for these interviews are just plain greedy.
I checked the epg last night and channel 7 had no data from sunday onwards. Do 7 and 9 expect viewers to be constantly checking their epgs for changes. This just means I’ll be watching more 10, abc and sbs in the future.
Some events are above all this nonsense. 7 and 9 should be ashamed of the way they are behaving.
So, in the end, no one cares about the viewer, right?
One question. Did either Nine or Seven pay for these interviews?
The big loser out of all of this (apart from viewers due to utter confusion) is ‘Shark Tank’. It’s probably going to get devoured by Siege7 & Siege9.
This is why I record what I want and FF the ads, the advertisers are the ones that lose with all these constant changes. My Foxtel EPG also has the Block Triple Threat after House of Hancock, I presume this is a repeat.
Why can’t anything be done about shows starting and finishing at Stupid times, the only reason shows do this is stop us flicking over to another station. Things need to get back to finishing On the hr or 1/2 hr. Channel 10 is probably the best at this or maybe a few minutes over, but 9 or 7 are 12 – 16 mins. I think someone should start a petition to get the programmers act into gear.
I’ve also noticed there is no sign of Revenge starting next Monday? A movie instead has been planned…do they fear Gallipoli will win over Revenge? It probably will but I don’t care…bring Revenge back to Monday nights. No one really watches movies on FTA anymore….unless it’s the middle of winter on a Friday night.
Interesting how 7 has little faith in their own “Inside the siege” interviews and has already moved it. I might just tune into ABC permanently David. Thanks for the Programmer’s Wrap. Looking good for 2015.
Its programming decisions like this that force people to watch content elsewhere, you’d never see this happening in the US and UK. It is beyond a joke, and I’m not going to to be chasing any program, I’m happier to miss out on seeing them altogether.
Does nine really have to air a double episode of Gallipoli if they’re not starting it until 9pm….or what it will probably really be…9:13pm. The commercial channels just keep making it easier and easier not to bother with them.
This is so grubby. Two good people died. This is too recent and voyeuristic. We know this type of coverage occurs, but this is a new low.
They are chasing ratings without a moral compass