News Archive:
TEN wants AFL night final
The push is on again for an AFL night final. Channel TEN’s general manager of sport David White has said “I’d like to see a 5.30pm bounce.”
“They (the AFL) know we’re very keen on a twilight Grand Final,” he told news.com.au
Mr White said he preferred a 7.30pm start but believed the AFL was open to a twilight match.
An AFL spokesman said the league remained committed to a day Grand Final although CEO Andrew Demetriou has previously flagged a twilight start.
Pushing the game towards 6pm would drive the audience into primetime …
Nine refuses to reveal The Carver
As some readers on this site have commented, and as Andrew Mercado referenced in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph, viewers in Sydney and Brisbane are still - STILL - waiting to learn the identity of The Carver in the third series of Nip / Tuck.
As the major storyline of the entire third series, and arguably the peak of the show’s writing, The Carver mystery was the show’s very own “Who Shot JR?” or “Who Killed Laura Palmer?” Writer Ryan Murphy teased us with several candidates as to the mystery of the serial …
NRL wins it but Seven takes glory
It was the week that TEN was in breach of subliminal ads (a ruling first leaked by TV Tonight), ACMA instructed Nine to sell part of its Darwin operation, two former premiers will now defend Pay TV v Free to Air battles, while two television gardeners faced off over the environment, a Footy Show comedian defended a school principal under fire, a musical about the media in Beaconsfield was branded as tasteless, a former Idol died in tragic circumstances, Perth’s Telethon broke its own record, SBS lost a top Drama …
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 …
NRL Grand Final
Manly’s shattering win over Melbourne was the biggest in the NRL’s 55 year history of grand finals.
Manly Sea Eagles crushed Melbourne Storm 40 - 0 to the euphoria of an 80,000+ crowd at ANZ Stadium.
The result reversed the fortunes of last year’s loss by Manly.
It was a win that bettered Eastern Suburbs’ 38-0 thumping of St George in 1975.
It represents Manly’s first premiership since 1996, and the first time since 1978 a team has been held scoreless in a decider.
Entertainment included The Living End, Anthony Warlow, cheerleaders and, umm, bbqs.
The second …
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 …
How AFL delayed local drama
Daylight saving may be coming this weekend to most Australian states but viewers in NSW and Qld are already ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to Australian drama.
City Homicide is still screening one week ahead of Vic, SA and WA due to a repeat episode airing against the Brownlow Medal. Seven obviously didn’t want to compete against the AFL’s biggest night so it slipped the repeat quietly under the radar, leaving those states behind.
Next Monday NSW and Qld will see an episode with a killer’s links to …
New, local content wins Seven week
It was the week the “Prince of Darkness” descended upon Nine, the Imparja takeover of NTD9 inched closer, Seven lost an appeal relating to a children’s court case and lost a packet in the financial freefall, TEN signalled the return of boxing only to have its promoter caught up in a drug arrest, two networks fight over the contracts of one presenter, ACMA cancelled a community broadcasting license while a leak led to a Federal Police raid, the Government introduced a bill to firm the switch to digital, TEN turned off …
Bored rigid by lack of competition, it’s Seven.
It was the week that Seven and Nine argued over Karl Stefanovic, Grant Hackett signed with Channel Nine, ASTRA again attacked the anti-siphoning rule –prompting an hilarious “bored rigid” response from Seven, Nine denied a takeover of its Darwin affiliate by Imparja, Grant Denyer landed in hospital, a former Idol was assaulted, WIN trimmed its Queensland newsrooms, SBS said sponsors wouldn’t affect its editorial on Top Gear Australia and networks and advertisers all held their breath as the US financial market went into meltdown.
And unsurprisingly it was another win by Seven …
Seven: ASTRA comments “bored us rigid.”
The war of words between ASTRA and the Seven Network over sports and the anti-siphoning list continues.
Today the Seven Network was all puffed out of arguments, issuing a blunt, two-sentence response to the three page press release from ASTRA.
Seven simply said, quote, “ASTRA’s latest comments have bored us rigid. We’re so bored we can’t even raise the enthusiasm to reply.” Unquote.
You gotta love a bared-boned, dinky-di Australian reaction from the network, and one that is totally outside traditional corporate responses. TV Tonight wishes we had more tell-it-like-it-is responses from our …
Secret agent’s secret ratings
FOX Classic’s Bond movies are surely doing well, with You Only Live Twice being the most watched programme on pay TV on Sunday night. It passed the channel’s previous high set by Dr. No last month.
Foxtel sent out a press release chuffed by its success with the Bond season yesterday.
But despite trumpeting the success of the film, nowhere did the broadcaster bother to indicate the number of viewers for the film.
Instead it referenced FOX Classic’s “combined 3.1% share, up 1.2% on the Sunday year-to-date average.” Great. And that means what, …
Nine’s Sunday touchdown
‘Thankyou Rugby League’, is what Nine will be thinking today after a decisive Sunday win over the Seven Network.
The Storm v Warriors match gave Nine a perfect lead-in to its evening line-up and managed to snatch back the night it lost to Seven the week before.
Nine’s 29.8% share was a triumph over Seven, which came third on 22.5% behind TEN’s 22.8%.
Buoyed by the NRL, National Nine News hasn’t enjoyed figures of 1.63m for longer than many care to remember. That didn’t stop Seven sending out a Press Release today reminding media …