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7TWO hits 6.0%
On Saturday night 7TWO hit a big viewer share of 6.0% -the biggest audience yet reached by a digital channel.
It overshadowed the share of its direct competitors: GO! had 3.6%, ONE 2.4%, ABC2 1.9%, ABC3 0.6% and SBS TWO 0.4%. In fact it was only just behind SBS ONE on 6.4%.
The top show on 7TWO was A Touch of Frost on 253,000, pulling a huge 101,000 viewers in Melbourne alone. A week earlier it was 189,000 nationally. Heartbeat pulled another 200,000 while a week earlier it was the same at 199,000. …
Vale: Ian Carmichael
Veteran British actor Ian Carmichael, who starred as Bertie Wooster in the BBC’s World of Wooster, has died at the age of 89.
He died peacefully on Friday at his home after falling ill over Christmas.
During the 1960s and 1970s, he was a successful television actor, particularly as the PG Wodehouse character Bertie Wooster in The World of Wooster and Lord Peter Wimsey in several drama series based on the mystery novels by Dorothy L Sayers. He appeared in the BBC serial Wives and Daughters in 1999 and his most recent roles …
7TWO to launch on Prime
Regional Prime viewers will finally get 7TWO on their television sets from 9am tomorrow morning.
The digital channel arrives more than 6 weeks after it aired to metropolitan viewers, and three weeks after its Tasmanian launch.
It will end a long and frustrating wait for regional viewers who have been angered that they have missed out on the extra shows, and never getting any clarity on when the channel would air.
The launch will push the channel into regional homes in NSW, ACT, Victoria and the Gold Coast.
“Over the last few weeks, Prime has …
Returning: Heartbeat
Heartbeat is returning to screen via 7TWO.
The UK drama returns with 2005 episodes, “Auld Acquaintence” which, surprisingly, is first run for most viewers except Perth and Adelaide.
PC Rob Walker is surprised to find a stranger staying at Ashfordly Hall while Lord Ashfordly spend the winter in Bermuda. At the station, Blaketon and Peggy are at loggerheads once again when a festive conflict of interest results in a Santa showdown.
Last year the 1960s cop show shot episodes on the Gold Coast with actors Joe McFadden, Clare Wille and Lisa Kay, with …
2008-09 Production Report
Screen Australia has released the findings of its annual Production Report on the state of film and television.
Never wanting to paint a bleak picture, it manages to find optimism with a healthy state of production, if boosted by the big investment of George Miller’s Happy Feet 2 and the $100m Hollywood animation Guardians of Ga’Hoole in Sydney.
TV Tonight has taken a look at the television sector separately, and the results are still very good. While series / serials were down, mini-series (which also includes telemovies) were up.
The …
7TWO to launch November 1st
Channel Seven has unveiled its free-to-air digital channel 7TWO, a broad entertainment channel set to launch on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at 12noon on Channel 72.
Channel Seven’s Director of Programming and Production Tim Worner said, “I am pleased to announce that 7TWO will be the new home for premiere episodes of our international hits including J.J Abrams’ Lost, Ugly Betty, Heroes and 24,” said Worner.
“We’ve been strategic in putting together a program schedule for 7TWO that allows us to grow our audience between our two channels, without sacrificing one for …
ITV axes shows, cuts staff
ITV is preparing to slash prime-time drama, cut stars’ salaries, show more repeats and axe 600 jobs in the biggest wave of cutbacks in the channel’s history.
Executive chairman Michael Grade blamed the ’short-term horrors’ of the economic downturn for the company’s worst-ever annual results. ITV posted pre-tax losses of £2.73billion. The equivalent of $300 million AU will be slashed from the programming budget by 2011 in the biggest cuts in the broadcaster’s 54-year history.
Amongst confirmed casualties, there will be no new episodes of popular crime drama Wire in …
Rumour: McDonough to join Sea Patrol
Blair McDonough is strongly tipped to join Channel 9’s Sea Patrol.
The Herald Sun reports McDonough insists no contracts have been signed, but Nine sources say the former soap star will join the cast soon.
If Jay Ryan stays with the Nine drama, McDonough would be working alongside an old Neighbours colleague.
McDonough, who recently filmed an episode of City Homicide, will head to Britain next month to film three episodes of the long-running village cop drama, Heartbeat. He has been currently shooting an episode on the Gold Coast.
Meanwhile he will also continue …
Heartbeat films on the Gold Coast
British drama Heartbeat is currently shooting an episode on the Gold Coast this week with actors Joe McFadden, Clare Wille and Lisa Kay, with Blair McDonough in a guest role.
The production is in Australia for two weeks.
“We were over in a really interesting place last week near Casino which hadn’t changed much since the 1960s,” McFadden told news.com.au. “Filming is going so well there is talk at the moment of perhaps doing a spin-off.
“I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I might be involved.”
McFadden, Wille and Kay play PC Joe Mason, …