industry

Channel Ten Skips Breakfast

9:47AM Clem Bastow | Despite the fact that most ordinary humans (i.e. the Defamer Australia team) aren’t awake early enough in the day to watch it, breakfast television is probably second only to the Friday and Sunday night ratings in terms of one-eyed network rivalries. With Seven’s Sunrise and Nine’s Today currently in battle, and ABC2’s Virginia Trioli vehicle on the way, Channel Ten has stayed reasonably tight-lipped – and they’re sticking to that stance, despite word that they are about to enter the field. A Ten spokeswoman yesterday denied the network was dumping its kids line-up for news entertainment. “We were shooting for the regular 6am bulletin. I don’t know where this talk of a breakfast program has come from,” a Ten news publicist said. More »

Viewers Oddly Unreceptive To The Cavalcade Of Cringe That Is ‘Taken Out’

9:11AM Clem Bastow | Who would’ve thunk that a gobsmackingly awful parade of hilarious awfulness such as Ten’s James Kerley-hosted Taken Out (sample dialogue: Bloke: “I’m a carpenter” Chick: “A what?” Bloke: “A carpenter” Chick: “Like… making carpets?” Bloke: “…”), a curious melding of Perfect Match, Elimi-Date and, er, the Roman Coliseum, wouldn’t actually hook in the viewers and keep them pressed to the television? Well, it appears that we are all tiring of Ten’s daily dating show, as the ratings slide from “okay” into “average” into “better start looking for other work, Kerley” territory. Hosted by James Kerley, Ten had high hopes for the program, which last night only managed to draw in a little over 500,000 viewers to come in 30th position. More »

What Were We Saying About Daniel MacPherson Mozzing ‘Dancing’?

9:20AM Clem Bastow | Okay, it’s probably a bit unfair that we’ve been waging war against Daniel MacPherson for taking over Daryl Somers’ Dancing With The Stars hosting duties, it’s just that when we heard Larry Emdur and/or Andrew O’Keefe were in the mix, well, MacPherson just feels like sloppy thirds. But call it coincidence or fate, either way, since he took the gig (and it almost certainly has nothing to do with the show moving to Sunday night where it’s competing against Idol and Sixty Minutes), Dancing’s ratings have dived. And they just keep going down! The now Daniel MacPherson-hosted show owned and occupied Tuesday nights for the past four years but plunged to fourth in its third week in its Sunday slot. More »

Australian Idol Round-Up: Ratings Bonanza

11:00AM Clem Bastow | While the traditionally high-rating stage of Australian Idol (i.e. the Final 12 weeks) hasn’t quite begun yet, it looks as though the old stayer of the reality/light entertainment/talent quest format is still a tidy ratings earner for Channel Ten, which will no doubt be a relief after the unmitigated tanking of Big Brother (somewhere, Channel Nine is wiping away its hysterical tears with the contracts drawn up to purchase that ailing axed franchise). The show so far appears to be firing on both media fronts with data from the online researcher Hitwise showing Idol has jumped to the top ranking in online TV shows ahead of The World Game on SBS, Nine’s A Current Affair and Seven’s Home And Away. More »

Kylie Set To Join The Wiggles In Orgy On Bed Comprised Entirely Of $100 Notes

10:30AM Clem Bastow | She spends so much time overseas these days (hell, since the mid-’90s) it’s sometimes easy to forget that, for the purposes of things like “Australia: Just What Do They Put In The Water Down There?” features and, oh, high earner lists, Kylie Minogue is still considered as Aussie as chucking another Victa Mower on the barbie built out of XXXX cans and kangaroos. But she is, and she’s done well for herself in the latest BRW Top 50 Entertainers list of those who light their cigarettes with flaming $50 notes – so I charge another glass of liquid gold and sprinkled with diamonds to Our Kyles! The singer earned $40 million in the last year to see her clinch second spot on the annual BRW Top 50 Entertainers list. Minogue’s fortune is closer than anyone has got to children’s entertainers the Wiggles in years. More »

Hey Hey, It’s Nine’s Best Idea Yet

11:26AM Clem Bastow | Even though there’s still a fair whack of the year left to go, it’s probably safe to say that 2008 hasn’t been as “two-thousand-and-great” as Channel Nine would’ve hoped; between bonings, cancellations, court orders and Sam Newman, it’s been an annus horribilis that even the battle scarred Queen Liz would’ve shuddered at. Thus, I don’t want to jinx things for our “friends” over at Nine HQ, but the latest whisperings in this godforsaken world could well point towards one of the best ideas the network has come up with in a while: bringing back Hey Hey, It’s Saturday! Yes, with Daryl Somers newly exited from Dancing With The Stars, he’s looking for a gig, and word on the street is that a series of Hey Hey clip shows could turn into a revival. After turning his back on an offer from Foxtel to create a one-off Hey Hey It’s Saturday reunion, Somers is apparently back in discussions with Nine boss David Gyngell about refronting the show. More »

Should Anna Coren Stay Or Should She Go?

11:20AM Clem Bastow | That title may seem like a rhetorical question (the answer being, one would expect, “Duh, go”), but it’s par for the course over at Seven headquarters at present. One minute Coren was all set to vamoose the Today Tonight chair and Concerned Face™ to jump ship to CNN, and now it looks like she’s not so certain the US is where it’s at anymore. Where does this leave proposed replacement, Samantha Armytage? That’s an issue that doesn’t seem to be rating very highly on Seven’s Care-Factor-O-Meter, as they’re too busy to-ing and fro-ing about Coren, if Seven’s current affairs honcho Peter Meakin’s stance is anything to go by: “I am scheduled to catch up with Anna tomorrow and everything will be laid on the table – we are going to start with a clean sheet,” Meakin told Confidential last night. More »

When You’re About To Sack 550 Employees, Who Goes First?

1:36PM Clem Bastow | If you’re Fairfax Media, the answer would be simple: can the editor-in-chief of one of your biggest papers! That’s right, just a day after Fairfax announced 550 jobs would be slashed across the board (the news, as other papers quaked in their boots regarding the apparent downturn in publishing the cuts reflected, reached as far as the UK), The Age’s editor-in-chief Andrew Jaspan – who’d been in the role since July of 2004 – was shown the door. Here’s the official word, and more over the jump. Don Churchill, Fairfax’s chief executive for Victoria, broke the news to staff at a meeting this morning. More »

Llllet’s Get Reeeaaady To (Ratings) Ruuuumble!

9:36AM Clem Bastow | Since Channel Seven have been portentously telling us about their post-Olympics premieres with the hilariously epic “AFTER THE OLYMPICS” promos for all their new material, it’s doubtful that there’s a single person in the country who doesn’t realise that every network has been waiting for today (or, in Ten’s case, last night) to start pummelling you with new shows and ratings-grabbing programming decisions. Got your TV guide and a highlighter ready? Good, here’s the word from the network heads: Seven will lead the launch with nine new or fresh series starting this week, with Nine and Ten staggering their news shows over several weeks. More »