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Hamish Blake tops Q Scores
Hamish Blake is now the most popular TV personality in Australia, according to the latest “Personality Q Scores” from the TV research group Audience Development Australia.
He now joins Sigrid Thornton, Hugh Jackman, Magda Szubanski and Andrew Denton as names who have topped the list in the past 10 years.
Q Scores are used by TV networks and advertisers as a gauge of popularity and are considered pivotal for casting, presenting and advertising purposes.
Blake, who appears on shows including Rove, Spicks and Specks, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, Thank God You’re Here, and The …
Comedy Channel series slims down to special
Foxtel recently announced writers Sean Condon and Rob Hibbert, have begun production on I Can’t Believe It’s Not Better, a new sitcom for The Comedy Channel.
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Better won the 2007 Comedy Gold competition at the Screen Producer’s Association of Australia Conference. The project is a behind-the-scenes look at a TV sketch comedy show following writers, producers, network executives and actors.
The project is set to screen as a special on The Comedy Channel later this year with Colin Lane (Lano & Woodley), Toby Truslove (Beaconsfield The Musical & …
Seven extends Jackson coverage
Networks continue to fall over themselves in the race to cover the Michael Jackson Memorial Service.
Details on programming are changing as the day progresses.
Amongst the latest details is word that Today Tonight reporter Clare Brady has scored one of the 17,500 tickets to the Memorial events in an online ballot.
Tomorrow night Seven News will screen extended one hour reports from 4:30pm and 6pm, with TT airing at 7pm. Thank God You’re Here season finale at 7.30pm.
Seven will also replay the Memorial from 12pm and commercial free from 7pm on 7HD followed …
Thank God breaks free
This week’s final Thank God You’re Here stretches to an extended 90 minutes.
Hamish Blake, Angus Sampson, Felicity Ward, Toby Truslove and Josh Lawson all feature in their own scenario.
All five also participate in the “All In” on the set of a game show “Showbiz Squares”.
But the show also has an extended segment, “Breakin’ Free”. Filmed on location, and not at the Thank God studio, it parodies film musicals. Think High School Musical meets Center Stage. Is Working Dog turning into Christopher Guest & co?
All five performers suddenly appear …
Ghost with the most
Plenty of Ghost Whisperer coming up for fans of Jennifer Love Hewitt. Plenty before the end of this season that is.
Seven has three episodes set for the week after next.
There will be a double episode at 7:30pm Wednesday July 15 (thanks to Thank God and Criminal Minds ending next week).
It’s followed by a season finale the night after, 7:30pm Thursday July 16.
Within a few weeks most of Seven’s early evening shows we are currently watching will have been almost universally replaced by new shows.
Who’s under the wig?
Did you pick the face?
It’s Rebel Wilson, who appears as a kranky grandmother in Seven’s Thank God You’re Here this week.
She is joined by Merrick Watts and Akmal Saleh and Alan Brough entering the famed blue door.
Look out for all four plugging a Sizzler-style family restaurant, ‘Carnival.’
The finale scheduled for July 8th will clock in at 90 minutes.
Amended.
Melbourne delays Rafters return
After moving Thank God You’re Here and Ghost Whisperer in Sydney and Brisbane this week, Seven in Melbourne will delay the return of Packed to the Rafters next week to avoid a clash with Nine’s EJ Whitten Legends charity match.
All other states will see Rafters return next Tuesday, June 30. Seven will screen a two-hour catch-up for Melbourne viewers on July 7th.
“We wanted to expose the new series of Rafters to the biggest Melbourne audience possible,” said Seven Melbourne programming chief Brad Lyons.
How we hate conflicting programming. Some states are still …
Jon Olb: Hitmaker
With three hit shows Director Jon Olb has been keeping a frenetic pace lately. But if ever there was truth to ‘making hay while the sun shines’ it’s now. The economic gloom has powered his television gigs, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, Spicks and Specks and Thank God You’re Here.
As Series Director on all three -and on three different networks, no less- he has to be one of the hottest properties in television right now. So while all his shows are firing, Olb’s recent workload has been relentless. He’s lucky all three …
Comedy tonight
Tonight the fourth series of Working Dog’s Thank God You’re Here begins on the Seven Network.
When a deal was done between the production company and network late last year it caught everybody by surprise -not the least of which was Channel TEN, which had been home to the series since its inception. Rumours flew about price tags of $1M per episode, since denied.
In shifting to Seven, the show retains its hallmarks with the same ensemble players, judge, creatives and jovial host, Shane Bourne. Filmed in new studios at Melbourne Showgrounds, the …
Bumped: Guerrilla Gardeners, The Simpsons
TEN is tweaking its post-Easter schedule.
It will move Guerrilla Gardeners from Wednesday nights to Sundays at 6pm instead of Simpsons repeats.
In its place new episodes of The Simpsons move from Friday nights to 8pm Wednesdays, where they will no doubt pull a bigger audience than they were on Fridays. But it will have to compete with Thank God You’re Here, the network’s former comedy, when it debuts on Seven a week later.
Repeats of Simpsons will simply replace the new eps on Fridays -and probably garner a similar number anyway.
Guerrillas renovates Sundays …
Returning: Thank God You’re Here
As expected, Seven has confirmed Thank God You’re Here will move into the 7:30pm Wednesday timeslot.
It will premiere on April 29th.
Seven promises the fourth season will include past favourites plus new performers. Shane Bourne and Tom Gleisner also return to key roles.
Tom Gleisner, co-creator of the show, said: “Thank God You’re Here is all about peril.
Watching our fabulous performers cope with whatever we throw at them. This season we really look forward to making the show even more exciting and unpredictable. In terms of scenarios, we’ve got bigger sets, more elaborate …
Got Talent, got finale
Updated: Seven advises AGT finale is split in two parts.
The grand final of Australia’s Got Talent is set down for Wednesday April 15 -an unusual move by Seven seeing as it’s still the non-ratings period.
This is certainly confident programming by the network, given the show’s popularity would surely garner it upwards of 1.4 in a ratings week.
No doubt Seven is keen to get to its next big thing, undoubtedly Thank God You’re Here.
The show has been filming episodes at a studio at Melbourne Showgrounds. It will be a big boost to …