All Stories FeedNews Archive:
South Park gets stuck into Dave, Tiger.
It’s not just Tiger Woods that will get lampooned in the new South Park series. But David Letterman too.
The new series starts in the US today.
Check this out…
(language or concepts may offend)
Airdate: Tool Academy
GO! has jumped on the Tiger Woods story and brought forward its screening of the aptly titled Tool Academy, featuring Jaimee Grubbs, who claims to have had an affair with Woods for two-and-a-half years.
The reality show is dedicated to “taking the most arrogant, dishonest, thoughtless and unfaithful boyfriends and transforming them into husband material.”
Tool Academy features eight other frustrated women who are all dating complete “tools”, including Jenna, whose boyfriend Ryan is kind and caring – until he turns into his alter ego “Matsu-Flex”, a tattooed tool who feeds off …
Birth for a nation
The final week of the ratings year is over and it was a Rafters baby that defeated singing Idols, Celebrity Masterchefs, new Apprentices, Geeks and Robbie Williams. Seven enjoyed a clean sweep of Week 48, winning all 7 nights, 3 key demos and all 5 cities -it was almost a microcosm of 2009, but this year Nine has seen to it that it didn’t quite enjoy that triumph.
The Seven Network won Week 48 with 31.3% over Nine’s 26.8% and TEN’s 21.3%. The ABC had 15.2% and SBS 5.4%.
GO! had 3.1% over …
Where’s my favourite show?
It’s a sign of the times.
Networks are taking new steps to respond to viewers who are confused, irate or have seemingly better scheduling ideas than Programmers do.
Last week GO! started a blog on its website to inform and appease viewers who were angry about the disappearance of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Weeds and South Park.
“Don’t fret, all you South Park, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Weeds fans; they will all return November 29th,” it declared.
It makes sense for networks to use the web to communicate with viewers. After all, that’s where many …
Returning: Weeds, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Wire, Fringe
As promised, those shows that have been dumped from GO! are back once non-ratings begin.
This is because Nine is keen to lift its network share in the final days of the ratings year. Probably so it can claim the “Nine Network” won key demographics.
South Park is back 8:30pm Sunday November 29th
Curb Your Enthusiasm is back 9:30pm Sunday November 29th
Weeds is back 10:00pm Sunday November 29th dbl ep
The Bachelor is back 10:30pm Tuesday December 1
Fringe is back 8:30pm Thursday December 2
The Wire is back 9:30pm Wednesday December 2
Drop Dead Diva is back …
Gone: Weeds, Curb Your Enthusiasm, South Park
More changes to GO! this time for Sunday night.
The movie The Matrix Revolutions will screen from 8:30pm in their place, with more movies expected over the following two Sundays as we race to the finish line of the ratings year.
As a result, South Park, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Weeds are not expected to return until December.
We’re seeing quite a few changes on Nine / GO! right now. Could it be the tight race for demographics between Nine / GO! and Seven / 7TWO has some television execs on a knife-edge? …
Gone: The Hills, Father of the Pride.
Some lengthy changes have come through for Saturdays on GO!
They are bad news for fans of The Hills, Father of the Pride and South Park.
From this Saturday The Hills is replaced with The Nanny and Get Smart from 6pm.
Father of the Pride, South Park and Reno 9/11 are replaced by repeated of Seinfeld -although Reno 9/11 airs at 10:30pm.
Seinfeld lands a 2hr block from 8:30 – 10:30 as a result.
A GO! executive recently told media that the new channel would not be dropping shows from its schedule, but it might switch …
Top Gear loss “not the be-all and end-all”
TV Tonight continues its interviews with key executives in television. Following on from last week’s interviews with Seven, ABC, TEN and Nine, today the spotlight turns to SBS Director of Content Matt Campbell.
The last two weeks have not been without their challenges for Campbell, who learned the fate of Top Gear, a programme he had taken a punt on many years ago when no other network would touch it.
Having spent a lot of time trying to convince the BBC it should be staying at its natural home, he admits the loss …
GO! has official launch
GO! has its full channel launch from today. It follows the soft launch by the channel in early August.
Curb Your Enthusiasm and Weeds return to television in new episodes from 9:30 & 10:30pm tonight.
Tomorrow night Nip / Tuck, returns, while Father of the Pride and episodes of South Park and Reno 911 are also being added.
From 11th October, GO! gets local with split market commercials around Australia.
Extra late night blocks of evening shows are now being seen from midnight. If you miss a show in the evening, you …
FlashForward debuts with 1.78m
New US drama FlashForward enjoyed a solid 1.78m viewers last night, landing as the #1 show of the night.
It was a strong debut for the new Seven acquisition after months of promotion and hype. The audience was strongest in Sydney where 516,000 viewers tuned in, just ahead of Melbourne’s 493,000. While it was nothing like the debuts for Desperate Housewives, Lost or even Prison Break it streaked ahead of its competitors, a fastracked Mentalist (988,000), Good News Week (828,000), Four Corners (814,000) and High Altitude (228,000) / South Park (173,000).
Seven was …
Screw you guys, South Park out until 2010.
TV Tonight can confirm that South Park, which will be pulled from SBS programming after Monday night, will not return until 2010.
SBS is replacing the show with Man v Wild.
The long-running animated series only returned to air on September 14 and still had 3 more episodes planned to air.
The backflip is a surprising move by SBS, given it isn’t usually prone to reactive programming.
An earlier season of the show will also air on GO! on Sunday nights in October.
Merrick & Rosso to air in the UK
For the first time ever, Comedy Central ispicking up Australian programming, with Merrick & Rosso set to screen in the UK.
The 4-channel Comedy Central will air a one-hour TV special featuring highlights of their Foxtel series, The Merrick & Rosso Show. The deal will see the one-hour special aired on an unlimited rotation basis throughout November and December, reaching a potential audience of 10 million homes in the UK.
Sarah Farrell, Director of Content at Comedy Central (UK), said: “We’ve long been fans of Merrick & Rosso’s work and we’re really excited …