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Top Gear denies encouraging illegal stunts
EXCLUSIVE: In a developing story following a ‘hoon video’ airing on A Current Affair, and subsequently Today Tonight, producers of Top Gear Australia have denied encouraging illegal behaviour as part of their call for auditions in 2008.
A driver seen “drifting” on public roads as part of his video audition was soundly blasted on both programmes. But there has been some contention over use of the word ‘Exclusive’, whether his identity was known by Nine and the targetting of Top Gear in Seven’s story.
Today media website Crikey also wanted to …
TV Tonight Awards 2009: The year of Shaun Micallef
The votes are in.
Readers have spoken on their best and worst television for 2009 in the third annual TV Tonight Awards.
The winners: Shaun Micallef, MasterChef and Packed to the Rafters.
Over 1000 surveys were completed this year, and there were some definite trends. Some choices were clear decisions, others were tight races.
Several “winners” were also “losers” elsewhere, showing a divided audience, and a number of populist shows proved their mettle by staying ahead of underdogs.
Shaun Micallef won both Favourite Male and Most Underrated Performer, while Talkin’ ‘Bout Your …
Top Gear’s last spin on SBS
SBS will say goodbye to Top Gear after five years and 13 series in mid-January.
Nine swooped on the show in October, winning the Australian rights to both Top Gear and Top Gear Australia after a fierce bidding battle.
The deal has bruised SBS which took a punt on the show and built up its brand in Australia.
The show is currently airing unseen “classic” episodes from Series 4 on Mondays at 7.30pm on SBS ONE.
The very last to air on SBS will be Series 4 Episode 10 on Monday 18th January.
James is sent …
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 …
Nine’s TV survivor
This week TV Tonight has spoken to key figures in Australian television: Tim Worner from Seven, Kim Dalton from the ABC and David Mott from TEN.
Today Nine Programmer Michael Healy sits down for his first interview here, sharing his thoughts on upcoming shows, programming trends, television journalism and hints of new titles.
Foremost in his mind is the recent success in acquiring the Top Gear brand, which will continue to have its local series delivered by Freehand Productions.
“We have a lot of respect for what Freehand did with Top Gear Australia,” he …
Top Gear drives onto Nine
The Nine Network has won the rights to Top Gear following a deal with BBC Worldwide Australia.
The deal includes both Top Gear Australia from Freehand and the UK series.
PBL Media already has the rights to the magazine and website topgear.com/au
“We are thrilled to create a unified home for the Top Gear brand in Australia” said Julie Dowding, BBC Worldwide Australia’s Sales Director. “This country is Top Gear’s biggest territory outside the UK. We greatly look forward to developing its potential with a long-standing partner like Nine.”
David Gyngell , Chief Executive of the Nine …
Top Gear, top rumours
Yesterday a rumour on 3AW suggested that Top Gear Australia could be moving from SBS to Channel Nine -with Shane Warne as host no less.
The local version has had two seasons on SBS with Steve Pizzati, Warren Brown and this year joined by James Morrison.
The show is enormously expensive for the public broadcaster, and while it doesn’t pull the same figures of the UK original, it remains the network’s most popular local production, averaging around 600,000 viewers.
By moving to Nine the show would be under the PBL Media banner, which currently …
Freehand appoints Head of Factual
Freehand Productions, which has produced such shows as Dancing with the Stars, Top Gear Australia, Escape from Scorpion Island, and Missing Persons Unit, has announced the appointment of Paul Rudd to the role of Head of Factual Programmes.
Rudd came to Freehand to help create The Nest and has been an Executive Producer at the Nine Network and Film Australia. His credits include RPA, Enough Rope, Getaway, Colour Of War and Captain Cook – Obsession and Discovery. He has 20 years of producing television for Australian, New Zealand, Canadian and UK media …
Top Gear, top stacks.
When Top Gear Australia first started many viewers commented that the presenters were trying too hard to mimic the UK trio. Charlie Cox was supposedly Jeremy Clarkson, Warren Brown was apparently James May and Steve Pizzati was said to be too much like Richard Hammond.
If there’s any truth in that, it seems Pizzatti may have taken the likeness one step too far. At least, the parallels are hard to ignore after a stack on the weekend saw the TGA presenter involved in an accident at Sydney’s Eastern Creek raceway yesterday.
Pizzati …
The ratings lotto
While the country held its breath on a $100m lotto, networks watched as their numbers stacked up in a routine order for Week 27. It followed two weeks of ratings upsets.
Seven won the week with 27.6% ahead of Nine’s 25.4% and TEN’s 24.8%. The ABC had 16.8% and SBS 5.4% as supplementaries.
Yet again TEN won three key demos 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54.
But while the country returned to a routine for first, second and third, some cities took a different view. Seven won Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, but Nine took Brisbane and …
Modest debut for Nine’s new arvo
First figures are in for THIS afternoon and they are modest: 321,000 viewers.
The debut of the new show was beaten by The Bold and The Beautiful / TEN News at Five (543,000/ 1.08m) and Seven News at 4:30 / MASH (430,000 / 584,000).
The good news is it improved on Nine’s position. Last Monday Nine Afternoon News took 263,000 for its half hour edition.
Interest was strongest in Sydney (109,000) followed by Melbourne (95,000). In Brisbane, where Extra became a casualty of the new show, it took 60,000.
The new show also now gives …
Three way brawl for ratings week
Week 26 was the tightest ratings race all year.
TEN was riding high on MasterChef, Nine had the State of Origin and Seven… well, Seven really just had another week of regular programming. By Saturday we had ourselves a three way tie.
But a cleverly timed Michael Jackson tribute helped Nine take the final night and all three had to contend with ABC programming too.
Nine won Week 26 with a 26.3% share ahead of TEN’s 25.8% and Seven’s 25.5%. The ABC had 17.6% and SBS 4.8%.
TEN again won key demos 16-39, 18-49 and …