Programming Archive:
Returning: 90210
As has been widely anticipated, 90210 is returning to Channel TEN from 7:30pm Monday November 24th.
In a promotion from 8:30 to 7:30pm, the show makes it back into the final week of ratings.
TEN took the series off air after low figures, much to the disappointment of new fans. It wasn’t helped in some markets being interrupted by the Brownlow Medal either.
In the US the show has a full season from the CW Network.
TEN picks up the season with episode 6, “Model Behaviour” and follows with the last episode of Good News …
Seriously D-Day?
Is today the day that “Seriously” becomes a thing of the past for TEN?
Today Network TEN has its 2009 programme launch, first in Sydney, and later in Melbourne, where it will unleash its shiny new line-up and attempt to put the year behind it.
With the exception of a handful of hits (notably So You Think You Can Dance Australia) it hasn’t been the best of years for TEN.
The second part of the year has been worse than the first, with viewers in a wholesale snubbing of the network since the Olympic …
TV Forums report card
Since the advent of online, television fans have had ways of letting networks know what they think. No more writing letters to newspapers, it’s as easy as logging onto a network website anonymously and speaking your mind.
TV Tonight has been looking at how our networks embrace free and open discussion. Here’s how they stacked up.
ABC:
Within the ABC site there are individual show pages, many of which have open forums. Shows including Enough Rope, Compass, Can We Help?, At The Movies, Life at 3, Good Game, Media Watch, Spicks and Specks and …
The Ex List is axed
CBS has axed its comedy drama The Ex List after just four episodes. It was one of TEN’s mid year acquisitions.
The show revolves around a woman who returns to past relationships after a medium tells her she has already dated her future husband. She is told she has one year to re-find her future husband otherwise she will spend the rest of her life single.
Based on the Israeli series Mythological X it starred Elizabeth Reaser, Rachel Boston, Adam Rothenberg, Alex Breckenridge.
Meanwhile there are more episodes ordered for Gossip …
First it was 90210, now it’s Melrose.
We have Aaron Spelling’s estate to “thank” for this.
Not content with selling off the rights to 90210 for a re-make now they wanna flog off Melrose Place.
Creative Artists Agency originally approached the CW with the idea of developing either 90210 or Melrose Place. Because the CW’s target audience is 18-to-34 year-old women, the network (along with CBS Paramount, the studio) opted for a new 90210.
Despite it not attracting enough eyeballs in Australia, the show has tracked well with demographics in the US (it’s returning here in summer). So now CW is …
The dumping ground of television
It’s become one of the stories of the 2008 television year: dumping shows ad infinitum. This month we’ve lost Fringe, Cold Case, Wipeout, Battlefronts, Kitchen Nightmares USA, Kath & Kim (US), 90210, Bondi Rescue: Bali and even a repeat series of Friends. Dropping shows isn’t new, but its rapidity is increasing, confusing audiences and disintegrating trust between viewers and networks.
Nine’s Head of Acquisitions, Daytime and HD programming Les Sampson spoke to TV Tonight about the challenges and ramifications of scheduling.
As we all know, delivering demographics to advertisers is an artform. Programming …
Full season for Knight Rider
NBC has now picked up Knight Rider for a full season.
The network has ordered another nine episodes of the action-drama, following an earlier thumbs up for four more, which is good news for Seven.
Knight Rider’s pickup is the first of NBC’s new fall series to receive a full season order, joining CBS’ The Mentalist, Fox’s Fringe and CW’s 90210 -two of which are already struggling in Oz.
In the US its most recent episode was seen by 6.9 million viewers.
The telemovie managed 902,000 viewers when it premiered here on Seven. But Seven …
Knight Rider wins extra episodes
Knight Rider has been given an order for another four episodes by NBC -good news for the Seven Network which owns the rights to the show in Australia.
It follows extra episodes ordered for CBS’ The Mentalist, both just shy of a full season.
So far Fringe and 90210 have been picked up for full seasons.
In the US, Knight Rider has had a shaky start, so the four episode approval is a cautiously optimistic move by NBC.
In Australia the telemovie grabbed 902,000 viewers. Seven has indicated it will air the series in October …
Jason Priestly to direct 90210
Jason Priestly doesn’t want to appear in it, but he has agreed to direct an episode 90210 later this season.
It seems he will direct this season’s 18th episode, which Aussie’s won’t see until summer, if we’re lucky…
Meanwhile, EW.com reports that Shannen Doherty is nearing a deal to return for two more episodes later this season. Executive producer Gabe Sachs would only confirm that she’s “in talks,” but sources insist “she’s coming back. The deal isn’t officially done, but it’s happening.”
Sachs says Doherty actually appearing in Priestly’s ep is yet to be …
Good news for The Mentalist, Entourage
CBS has ordered six additional scripts for The Mentalist, just shy of the nine that would give it a full season.
In its first two outings in the US, the show has won its time slot with an average of 15.4 million viewers.
On the back of the NRL Grand Final on Sunday night Nine managed a good 1.33m viewers, and gives the show a repeat outing on Wednesday night.
Along with Fringe and 90210 winning full seasons, this puts Aussie network choices in good stead -despite 90210 being bumped until summer.
Meanwhile HBO has …
ABC beats TEN as Seven wins
It was the week that American critics began to knife Kath & Kim (officially), ABC told staff it would cut up to 35 production jobs, Nine denied having a contract with the wife of a convicted crim, an actor lambasted his former soap, Today Tonight announced its next host would be a sports presenter and said its film crew helped -not hounded- an interviewee, Seven ’streamlined’ its Lotto results, buyers eyed a key production company, the Imparja / Nine Darwin deal fell apart, a TV critic died, and suddenly so did …
TEN on tenterhooks
It’s been an awful week for TEN, Taken Out, 90210 and Bondi Rescue: Bali were all erased within seven days of each other.
As of Friday TEN has only had three shows above the 1m mark -and one of those was a repeat.
On two nights this week TEN finished behind the ABC, with two more results yet to be handed down. As it tries to save face from a week of crushing blows, TEN is in danger of ending the week behind the ABC.
Ominously, Fridays are often weak for TEN, while Saturdays …