News Archive:
Heaven for Seven
As they went into Saturday night Seven and Nine were a dead heat. It was a chance for Nine to win its second week of the ratings year. But it was not to be.
Seven clinched the night on comedy repeats, including old Vicar of Dibley reruns it nabbed from the ABC, and Seven News, winning the week with 27.7% ahead of Nine’s 27.4% and TEN’s 23.3%. The ABC had 16.9% and SBS on 4.7%.
Nine won key demos 18-49 and 25-54. TEN won 16-39 (and it also beat Seven in 18-49).
Nine also …
Voices of experience
While blokes on telly gain respectability with the passing years for women it’s practically a pink slip.
Who do we have to represent women who have gained wisdom, temperament and staying power? It’s an elite class.
There is Geraldine Doogue, Margaret Pomeranz, Jennifer Keyte, Sandra Sully, Liz Hayes, Tracy Grimshaw, Jo Hall, Noni Hazlehurst, Kerrie-Anne Kennerley, Judith McGrath, Jackie Woodburne, Lyn Collingwood, Lynne McGranger, Lee Lin Chin, Marcia Hines, Maggie Tabberer and Jenny Brockie.
Underbelly had Caroline Gillmer, who also returns soon in Bed of Roses with Kerry Armstrong and Julia Blake. Lately we’re …
Radio jibe over Underbelly cameo
This is such a non-story it’s almost not worth visiting. But in the interests of helping to set the record straight….
Austereo’s Kyle Sandilands has criticised the fleeting Underbelly appearance by his radio rival Merrick Watts.
Yesterday Sandilands suggested Watts only took part in Monday’s episode for publicity.
“(I wouldn’t want) to have a Merrick Watts part where you get shot in the head two minutes into it,” he said.
“I’d want to be a full deal star, a real star.
“Not a bit part that you buy your way into.”
Production company Screentime denied that …
Radio active TV
“We decided to go with humour for the second series. Jokes. Funny,” insists Tim Ross.
“No, it’s more of the same but I think we’re in a better position with this one. Everytime you do a second series I think you’re much more comfortable. Your team gets its shit together. Not that people are always interested in what goes on behind the scenes, but we’ve gotten to know our writers and producers and editors, people who do our costumes. It’s a really nice team at the moment, everyone’s on the same page …
Logie Awards 2009: Nominees
Packed to the Rafters and Underbelly dominated 2008 television and so it is with the 51st TV Week Logie Awards.
Rafters leads with 11 nominations while Underbelly has, appropriately, nine. Rebecca Gibney, Kat Stewart and Gyton Grantley all have nods in acting for both popular and peer-voted outstanding categories. Gibney is also a front runner for the Gold. Both shows are also in as Most Popular Drama and Most Outstanding Drama.
The lists reflect a strong showing by Drama in 2008. While the magazine’s younger readers favour soaps, the industry also nods to …
Gold Logie leak
The list of Gold Logie nominees has been leaked.
It is reported to nominate: Rebecca Gibney, Kate Ritchie, Simone Jade Mackinnon, Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Andrew Denton, Adam Hills, Rove McManus and Ian Smith.
Advertisements for the issue of TV Week featuring the names of the Logie nominees aired on Channel 9 yesterday morning. At least two of the ads screened before being pulled from air.
Whoops.
The Herald Sun has scooped the eight names today, ahead of this morning’s nomination event at Hoyts Entertainment Quarter in Moore Park.
The leak is a major bungle for the …
30 Seconds cast ad nauseum
Peter O’Brien, Joel Tobeck, Gyton Grantley, Stephen Curry and Jenna Lind will feature in 30 Seconds, the new scripted comedy Andrew Denton is producing for the Comedy Channel.
The show is a character study ‘based on the moral dilemmas people face, heightened by the excesses of the advertising industry and the three maintain no character in the show is based on any single person they know, but drawn from many of their real-life experiences.’
The show’s creators Tim Bullock, Justin Drape and Scott Nowell, who met in 2003 when they worked together at …
Everyone’s a winner
It was a week that gave everyone reason to smile -well everyone in commercial telly, anyway.
The Seven Network again won the week, its sixth so far this year. Seven won with a 28.6% share to Nine’s 26.1% and TEN’s 23.1%. ABC had 17.0% and SBS: 5.5%.
Seven won key demos 18-49 and 25-54. TEN won 16-39. Seven also won Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Nine won Monday, while TEN took out Thursday - topping its best week so far this year. Seven won all cities -just. It won Brisbane by just …
Matt Passmore lands FOX lead
Underbelly and The Cut actor Matt Passmore has landed the lead on FOX’s upcoming pilot Masterwork by Prison Break creator Paul Scheuring.
The series centres on an FBI agent (Passmore), a specialist in the acquisition of stolen art and a fine-arts expert who teams with an MI-5 agent (Natalie Dormer). Tom Ellis plays her fiance, a special agent at Scotland Yard.
The pilot, directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, will film in Prague.
Passmore landed the part after he was pitched to 20th Century FOX TV by an Aussie casting agent hired by 20th TV to …
NSW Premier’s Literary Awards: Nominees
Three television programmes have made the shortlist for the Script Writing Award in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards
The Script Writing Award ($30,000) is offered for the screenplay of a feature-length fiction film, for the script of a documentary film, for the script of a play or documentary for radio, or for the script of a television program (whether fiction or non-fiction).
They are:
David Caesar - Prime Mover
Greg Haddrick, Felicity Packard & Peter Gawler - Underbelly: Series 1
Anna-Maria Monticelli - Disgrace
Sean Nash - All Saints Episode 447: Not What You’d Expect
Louis Nowra and …
Nine’s Easter programming
In keeping with previous posts about programming plans for the Easter non-ratings period, here are the Nine shows you can expect to see in the week of April 5:
Continuing new episodes: 60 Minutes, A Current Affair, Customs, Footy Classified (select markets), World’s Funniest Videos, Commercial Breakdown, Hell’s Kitchen, Bridezillas, What’s Good For You, RPA, The Footy Show, Getaway, Adults Only 20 to 1, The King of Queens, Til’ Death, NRL, Australia’s Funniest Home Videos, Tropfest 2009.
Repeat episodes: Two and a Half Men, Underbelly, Cold Case, 20 to 1.
Movies will also screen …
Rafters finale tops 2 million
Packed to the Rafters cracked the 2million barrier for its final episode last night, its best figure this year.
Viewers were drawn to seeing how Julie and Dave Rafter would deal with the news from the previous week of a surprise pregnancy.
The episode focussed on the couple coming to terms with the medical repercussions of proceeding with the pregnancy, versus the (TV) controversy of termination.
Eventually the good-hearted pair decided to keep the baby.
“What’s life about if not taking risks?” asked Julie. “Jumping in with both feet and seeing what happens.”
Indeed. It’s a …