TV Week Logie Awards–the nominations

Last night saw TV Week reveal the list of nominees for this year’s TV Week Logie Awards to take place at the Crown Entertainment Complex, Melbourne, on Sunday 15 April.

 

Publicly-voted categories:

GOLD LOGIE

Most Popular Personality on Television
Adam Hills (Spicks And Specks/Adam Hills In Gordon St Tonight, ABC1)
Asher Keddie (Offspring, Network Ten / Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo, ABC1)
Carrie Bickmore (The Project, Network Ten)
Esther Anderson (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
Hamish Blake (Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year, Nine Network)
Karl Stefanovic (Today, Nine Network) (pictured)
(Last year’s winner: Karl Stefanovic, Today)

SILVER LOGIES

Most Popular Actor
Daniel MacPherson (Wild Boys, Channel Seven)
Eddie Perfect (Offspring, Network Ten)
Erik Thomson (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Hugh Sheridan (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Ray Meagher (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
(Last year’s winner: Hugh Sheridan, Packed To The Rafters)

Most Popular Actress
Asher Keddie (Offspring, Network Ten / Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo, ABC1) (pictured)
Danielle Cormack (Underbelly: Razor, Nine Network / East West 101, SBS)
Esther Anderson (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
Jessica Marais (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Rebecca Gibney (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
(Last year’s winner: Asher Keddie, Offspring)

Most Popular Presenter
Adam Hills (Spicks And Specks/Adam Hills In Gordon St Tonight, ABC1) (pictured)
Carrie Bickmore (The Project, Network Ten)
Chrissie Swan (The Circle, Network Ten)
Hamish Blake (Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year, Nine Network)
Karl Stefanovic (Today, Nine Network)
(Last year’s winner: Karl Stefanovic, Today)

LOGIE AWARDS

Most Popular New Male Talent
Dan Ewing (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
James Mason (Neighbours, Network Ten)
Peter Kuruvita (My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita, SBS)
Steve Peacocke (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
Tom Wren (Winners & Losers, Channel Seven)
(Last year’s winner: Firass Dirani, Underbelly: The Golden Mile)

Most Popular New Female Talent
Anna McGahan (Underbelly: Razor, Nine Network)
Chelsie Preston Crayford (Underbelly: Razor, Nine Network)
Demi Harman (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
Melissa Bergland (Winners & Losers, Channel Seven)
Tiffiny Hall (The Biggest Loser Australia, Network Ten)
(Last year’s winner: Chrissie Swan, The Circle)

Most Popular Drama Series
Home And Away (Channel Seven)
Offspring (Network Ten)
Packed To The Rafters (Channel Seven)
Underbelly: Razor (Nine Network)
Winners And Losers (Channel Seven) (pictured)
(Last year’s winner: Packed To The Rafters)

Most Popular Light Entertainment Program
Australia’s Got Talent (Channel Seven)
Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year (Nine Network)
Spicks And Specks (ABC1)
Sunrise (Channel Seven)
The Project (Network Ten)
(Last year’s winner: The Circle)

Most Popular Lifestyle Program
Better Homes And Gardens (Channel Seven)
Getaway (Nine Network)
iFISH (Network Ten)
Ready Steady Cook (Network Ten)
Selling Houses Australia Extreme (LifeStyle Channel, Foxtel)
(Last year’s winner: Better Homes And Gardens)

Most Popular Sports Program
2011 AFL Grand Final (Network Ten)
Before The Game (Network Ten)
The AFL Footy Show (Nine Network)
The NRL Footy Show (Nine Network)
Wide World Of Sports (Nine Network)
(Last year’s winner: The Footy Show (AFL))

Most Popular Reality Program
Beauty And The Geek Australia (Channel Seven)
MasterChef Australia (Network Ten)
My Kitchen Rules (Channel Seven)
The Block (Nine Network)
The X Factor Australia (Channel Seven)
(Last year’s winner: MasterChef Australia)

Most Popular Factual Program
Bondi Rescue (Network Ten)
Bondi Vet (Network Ten)
Border Security: Australia’s Front Line (Channel Seven)
RPA (Nine Network)
World’s Strictest Parents (Channel Seven)
(Last year’s winner: Bondi Rescue)

Industry-voted categories:

SILVER LOGIES

Most Outstanding Drama Series, Miniseries or Telemovie
Cloudstreet (Showcase, Foxtel)
Offspring (Network Ten)
Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo (ABC1)
The Slap (ABC1)
Underbelly: Razor (Nine Network)
(Last year’s winner: Underbelly: The Golden Mile)

Most Outstanding Actor
Alex Dimitriades (The Slap, ABC1)
David Wenham (Killing Time, TV1, Foxtel)
Don Hany (East West 101, SBS)
Geoff Morrell (Cloudstreet, Showcase, Foxtel)
Rob Carlton (Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo, ABC1) (pictured)
(Last year’s winner: Richard Roxburgh, Rake)

Most Outstanding Actress
Asher Keddie (Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo, ABC1)
Diana Glenn (Killing Time, TV1, Foxtel)
Essie Davis (The Slap, ABC1)
Kat Stewart (Offspring, Network Ten)
Melissa George (The Slap, ABC1)
(Last year’s winner: Claire van der Boom, Sisters Of War)

LOGIE AWARDS

Graham Kennedy Award – Most Outstanding New Talent
Anna McGahan (Underbelly: Razor, Nine Network)
Chelsie Preston Crayford (Underbelly: Razor, Nine Network)
Hamish Macdonald (Senior Foreign Correspondent, Network Ten) (pictured)
Hamish Michael (Crownies, ABC1)
Melissa Bergland (Winners & Losers, Channel Seven)
(Last year’s winner: Firass Dirani, Underbelly: The Golden Mile)

Most Outstanding News Coverage
“Lockyer Valley Flood” (Brisbane News, Channel Seven)
“Qantas Grounded” (Sky News National, Sky News Australia, Foxtel)
“Skype Scandal” (Ten News At Five, Network Ten)
“The Queensland Floods” (Nine News, Nine Network)
“Unfinished Business” (SBS World News Australia, SBS)
(Last year’s winner: “New Zealand Mine Disaster”, Seven News)

Most Outstanding Public Affairs Report
"A Bloody Business" (Four Corners/Sarah Ferguson, ABC1)
After The Deluge: The Valley (Paul Lockyer, ABC1)
"Rescue 500" (Sunday Night, Channel Seven)
"Salma In The Square" (Foreign Correspondent/Mark Corcoran, ABC1)
Tour Of Duty: Australia’s Secret War (Network Ten)
(Last year’s winner: “Smugglers' Paradise”, Four Corners)

Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Program
Australia’s Got Talent (Channel Seven)
Gruen Planet (ABC1)
Spicks And Specks (ABC1) (pictured)
Talkin’ ’Bout Your Generation (Network Ten)
The Project (Network Ten)
(Last year’s winner: Spicks And Specks)

Most Outstanding Sports Coverage
2011 Australian Open Tennis (Channel Seven)
2011 Bathurst 1000 (Channel Seven)
2011 Melbourne Cup Carnival (Channel Seven)
State Of Origin III (Nine Network)
Tour de France 2011 (SBS)
(Last year’s winner: The Ashes 2010 First Test – Day One at the Gabba)

Most Outstanding Children’s Program
Camp Orange: Wrong Town, (Nickelodeon, Foxtel)
Lockie Leonard (Nine Network)
My Place (ABC3)
Saturday Disney (Channel Seven)
Scope (Network Ten)
(Last year’s winner: Dance Academy)

Most Outstanding Factual Program
Go Back To Where You Came From (SBS) (pictured)
Leaky Boat (ABC1)
Mrs Carey’s Concert (ABC1)
Outback Fight Club (SBS)
Tony Robinson Explores Australia (The History Channel, Foxtel)
(Last year’s winner: Trishna & Krishna: The Quest For Separate Lives)

TV Week is yet to announce this year’s inductee into the Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.

The 54th annual TV Week Logie Awards will be held on Sunday 15 April and telecast on the Nine Network.

Source: The Age.

Breakfast battle takes on an early start

The Ten Network’s new Breakfast show debuts today (Thursday) following news last night of the resignation of Kevin Rudd from the position of Foreign Minister.

The new program was originally scheduled to launch on Monday.

Breakfast co-host Paul Henry (pictured, second from left) confirmed the sudden programming change on Ten’s The Project last night:

“This is a hugely exciting evening.  We are not launching Breakfast on Monday.  Ten are launching Breakfast tomorrow morning at 6am. How good is that!”

Joining Henry on Breakfast will be Andrew Rochford, Kathryn Robinson and Magdalena Roze. 

And in an interview published in this week’s TV Week, Sunrise producer Michael Pell is not overly concerned about his show’s new competitor.  “We just concentrate on what we do and what we’ve got coming up.  We don’t look over our shoulder,” he said.  And in comparison to the successful chemistry between Sunrise presenters Melissa Doyle, David Koch, Natalie Barr, Mark Beretta and Grant Denyer, Pell says Ten’s combination is an unknown quantity.  “The presenters on Ten’s new show… we haven’t seen them work together.  So it’s anyone’s guess how it will turn out – chemistry is the key.”

Meanwhile, Today co-host Karl Stefanovic welcomed the addition of the new Ten program as it will force all players to be at their competitive best and viewers will be the winners there.  “The more competition in the slot, the better it is for everyone,” he said.

Currently, Sunrise still dominates the breakfast slot nationally, and while Today is ranked second nationally it is now leading in the key markets of Sydney and Melbourne.  ABC News Breakfast is coming a distant third.

Breakfast.  Weekdays, starting today, 23 February, 6.00am.  Ten.
Sunrise.  Weekdays 6.00am, Seven.
Today.  Weekdays 5.30am, Nine.
ABC News Breakfast.  Weekdays 6.00am, ABC1, and 6.00am (live, AEDST) on ABC News 24.

Source: Network Ten. TV Week, 25 February 2012. The Age.

Ten’s ready to rise for Breakfast

Network Ten’s new breakfast news program, creatively titled Breakfast, is set to debut on Monday, 27 February at 6.00am.

Breakfast will be fronted by Andrew Rochford (The Block, The Project and recently breakfast co-host at Mix 106.5 in Sydney), Kathryn Robinson (Ten News), Magdalena Roze (The Weather Channel, Ten News) and outspoken New Zealand presenter Paul Henry, who was signed up for the new program for $NZ1 million by Ten’s interim CEO Lachlan Murdoch.

Even before Henry makes his Australian TV debut, his appointment to the network has already sparked divisive debate largely due to controversial comments made while host of TVNZ’s own Breakfast program which led to his resignation from the national broadcaster and subsequent million-dollar offer to cross the Tasman.  He will also continue to appear on New Zealand television with plans to host a weekly comedy show on commercial network TV3.

Ten’s head of news and current affairs, Anthony Flannery says Breakfast aims to be ‘must-see’ TV for Australians as they start their day:

“Breakfast is a tough, competitive environment and we can’t wait to get into the game. Already, the opposition is taking cheap pot shots – I couldn’t be happier that they’re taking us so seriously, so soon.”

“We plan to make Breakfast a must-watch part of Australia’s day. From fact to fun, it’s going to be a fresh start to the morning TV schedule.”

The new show will have a tough job ahead of itself, entering a market dominated by the long-running Today and Sunrise programs as well as alternatives ABC News Breakfast and Sky News’ First Edition and AM Agenda.

Ten’s new show will also be under pressure to deliver numbers to lead in to mid-morning show The Circle which currently suffers by not being handed a large audience from the preceding early morning children’s shows.  The Circle, despite winning a TV Week Logie last year for Most Popular Light Entertainment Program, is currently rating well behind Seven’s The Morning Show and Nine’s recently-launched Mornings.

1991: October 12-18

Cover (Top Right): Richard Huggett, Rachel Blakeley (Neighbours); (Bottom Right): Nicolle Dickson, Ryan Clarke, Ross Newton (Home And Away); (Near Right): ‘Ferret’ (Alan Pentland), Alyce Platt (Fast Forward).

The Great Jason and (the other) Kylie Show!
It doesn’t happen often, but television network rivalry is to be put aside for a special to screen on the Nine Network later this year to commemorate 35 years of television.  The three-hour production is set to feature a cast of famous faces – including Jason Donovan, Kylie Mole (Maryanne Fahey), Mike Willesee, Bert Newton, Olivia Newton-John, Jana Wendt, Ron Casey, Max Walker and Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum – each presenting a segment on a different genre.  Graham Kennedy and Ray Martin are also to appear in the program.  “It’s the first time that it’s a celebration of all TV,” producer David Lyle told TV Week.  “For the first time, Ten, Nine, Seven, ABC, SBS, all the production companies except one, and the overseas distribution companies are involved.  The amount of material is mind-boggling.  That’s part of the problem.  Three hours isn’t enough.  We’re steering clear of the well-worn clips to get something new.”

‘I’m sorry to lose good actors, but…’
Brendon Lunney, the executive producer of the Nine Network series Chances, has defended moves to trim the show’s cast numbers down from 17 to six as the network trims the show’s output to one hour a week.  “It was a painful decision to change the focus of a show midstream,” he told TV Week.  “I’m sorry to lose good actors, but bringing the show down to an hour is a difficult and very painful process.  It’s all part of making Chances stronger and focussing more on individuals.”  The series is also set to continue to feature its trademark nude scenes, although one of the show’s stars, Natalie McCurry (pictured), is leaving the show after refusing to sign a frontal nudity clause.

Stone set to take on Jana… or 60 Minutes?
Details are slowly emerging of the new Gerald Stone project being developed for the Seven Network.  The former 60 Minutes executive producer is reported to be developing a new current affairs program – but speculation continues as to whether the show will tackle A Current Affair (with Jana Wendt, pictured), or whether it will adopt a weekly one-hour format similar to that of 60 Minutes.  Seven does have a dilemma in that a nightly half-hour format would likely dump the long-running Hinch program which has been recently out-rating Neighbours and Sale Of The Century in its timeslot.  In the meantime, Four Corners reporter Neil Mercer is set to join the new program, and ABC newsreader Edwina Gatenby has also been recruited.

Briefly…
The new series of ten episodes of Col’n Carpenter (Ten) sees Col’n (Kim Gyngell) without his two housemates – Linda (Kaarin Fairfax) and Michael (Stig Wemyss) – and living on his own.  “He’s quite different now and that was important to follow through.  The next obvious step was for Col’n to start surviving on his own,” Gyngell told TV Week.  The series return also sees Col’n re-united with his long-lost brother Peter – although he’s now a shapely female, Peta!  “The transsexual storyline was mooted 18 months ago, but it was knocked on the head because it worried management,” Gyngell said.  “Now, because the show has survived so long, the network has started to trust us a bit more.”

It’s an unusual match-up in Fast Forward, with moccasin-clad skinhead Ferret (Alan Pentland) dumping girlfriend Michelle (Magda Szubanski) when he wins a weekend away with Alyce Platt at Hamilton Island.  But a bust-up emerges when Michelle arrives at the island.  “It’s something I’ll be able to tell the grandchildren.  I was head-butted by Alyce Platt,” Szubanski told TV Week.

The Nine Network’s Today is moving out of the studio for a week as the team embark on a train tour around New South Wales.  Hosts Steve Liebmann and Elizabeth Hayes will start in Broken Hill and will stop off at towns including Dubbo, Orange, Cootamundra, Goulburn and Bombo.  “Bombo is a quaint little station on the coast, south of Wollongong,” producer Steve Wood said.  “I thought it would be a nice place to end the week.”

Chances star Cathy Godbold has just taped her final scenes with the series but has walked straight into a guest role in Home And Away.  She will play Meg Bowman, a young girl dying of leukaemia.  The role of Meg’s mother, originally to be played by Rowena Wallace, will now be played by Debbie Byrne.

John Laws says…
”The sign of a good TV interviewer, especially one who handles politics, is that he or she maintains a high professional standard, not just in one or two interviews but in many interviews over the years.  Only a handful of such interviewers have emerged in television in the past decade or so.  It takes a bit of character to stay the course and keep intact your integrity as well as the fire in the belly.  The 7.30 Report’s Paul Lyneham is one interviewer and political commentator who can lay claim to both.  Lyneham is not one of ABC’s high-profile personalities.  You don’t see him popping up in the women’s magazines or showing Don Burke his backyard and you never read stories about him threatening to quit or being tempted with massive commercial TV offers.  No, he is a dependable character who seems quite at home at the ABC, doing his job in a thoroughly professional manner.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, October 12-18):
Saturday:  Nine crosses to the Gabba, Brisbane, for FAI Cup cricket between Queensland and Victoria.  Ten presents live coverage of the Australian Drivers’ Championship from Eastern Creek Raceway – and ABC presents highlights of Rugby World Cup games, including the match between Australia and Western Samoa.  Actor Nick Giannopoulos, pop star Collette and guitarist Tommy Emmanuel are contestants on Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune (Seven).

Sunday:  Nine presents FAI Cup matches live from the Gabba, Brisbane, and from Adelaide.  Sunday night movies are She’s Out Of Control (Seven), The Fabulous Baker Boys (Nine) and The Delinquents (Ten).  Seven then crosses live to London for the match between West Coast Eagles and Hawthorn in the Fosters International Cup.

Monday:  There are shocks in A Country Practice (Seven) when the body of Laurie Brown (Bob Newman) is found in the National Park.  Sgt Frank Gilroy (Brian Wenzel) suspects unemployed Colin Scott (Shane Connor) of murder.  Dennis Miller guest stars in Col’n Carpenter (Ten).

Tuesday:  In Chances (Nine), Connie (Deborah Kennedy) meets a 16-year-old Italian who is infatuated with her and he persuades the entire family to move to Italy with him.  In Beyond 2000 (Seven), Dr John D’Arcy reports on the enviro-friendly potato cup, which is totally bio-degradable, extremely cost effective and tastes great.

Wednesday:  ABC presents Geoffrey Robertson’s Trials Of Oz, a 90-minute dramatisation of the controversial 1971 obscenity trial surrounding the publication of the satirical Oz magazine – starring Peter O’Brien with Hugh Grant, Nigel Hawthorne, Simon Callow and Leslie Phillips.

Friday:  In Neighbours (Ten), thieves in Ramsay Street cause trouble for Brad (Scott Michaelson). 

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  12 October 1991.  Southdown Press

Ten News gets a new boss

The Ten Network has announced the appointment of Anthony Flannery to head its News and Current Affairs division, effective in the new year.

He replaces Dermot O’Brien, who had been in the role since Jim Carroll stepped down earlier this year.  O’Brien now takes on the role of network editorial manager and continues as Ten’s Melbourne news director.

Flannery is currently the head of News and Current Affairs for the New Zealand national broadcaster, TVNZ, but had previously worked at the Nine Network on A Current Affair, Today and Nine News.

In his new role at Ten, Flannery will be reporting directly to new chief executive officer James Warburton, who also joins the network in January.

The News and Current Affairs portfolio will no doubt give its new boss some challenges as it has taken some battering this year.  Starting confidently back in January with its new 6PM With George Negus and Ten Evening News, lack lustre ratings saw the Negus program moved to 6.30pm, the 5.00pm weeknight newscast expanded to 90 minutes, and the hastily-reinstated 5.00pm news bulletin on weekends.  All have continued to receive ordinary ratings numbers.

The Late News has recently been axed after twenty years on air and the weekend newscast has adopted a national 90-minute format, which debuted to poor ratings last Sunday.

Melbourne newsreader George Donikian has resigned after twenty years with the network, and Ten is also set to farewell veteran newsreader Ron Wilson – after more than three decades with Ten – when his contract expires later this year.  Newsreader Deborah Knight has also been moved from her role as co-presenter of the 5.00pm newscast in Sydney.

The News department was also subjected to staff redundancies as Ten undertook a strategic review of its entire operation.

However, on a slightly more positive note, a new breakfast show is set to debut early next year to take on ratings giants Today and Sunrise.  The show is to be presented by Dr Andrew Rochford – a contributor to The 7PM Project and currently a Sydney breakfast radio presenter – and a female presenter to be appointed.

Source: The Australian, The Australian

Obituary: Ray Taylor

Ray Taylor, host of Australia’s first breakfast TV program, has died in Sydney at the age of 83.

Born in Yorkshire, Taylor came to Australia in the early 1950s with his new Australian wife, Lesley.  With a media background that only entailed a few minor roles with Canadian broadcaster CBC, Taylor enrolled in an announcer’s course and landed a job at radio station 2GN, Goulburn.

By the end of the decade the presenter with the cheeky streak was in Sydney, as host of ATN7’s breakfast program Today.  It was the first early morning show on Australian TV.

Taylor was later sacked from the show.  He told TV Times in 1964 that he was given no reason for the sacking but Sydney press reports at the time indicated tensions between him and the channel.

Today was cancelled three months after the sacking.

He then came to Melbourne in 1964 to join the lineup for new channel ATV0.  He hosted the channel’s opening night special, This Is It!, before launching a weekly late night variety show, The Ray Taylor Show.  The show, initially screening on Saturday nights, promised a more sophisticated alternative to the popular In Melbourne Tonight as well as an open-ended format.  “If our guests want to talk to 2.00am, and they are interesting enough, we will stay with them,” he told TV Times.

The Ray Taylor Show proved to be a frustrating experience – with Melbournians seemingly not warming to Taylor’s more mature style of humour and commentary.  “So many viewers here still aren’t mature enough to have a laugh at themselves or hear sex discussed without getting flustered.  It’s all too parochial,” he told TV Times early in 1965.

The show had also endured four different producers and a number of timeslot changes as the channel sought to gradually turn the show around into an In Melbourne Tonight-style clone.  Its last timeslot change saw it move to Monday nights directly up against IMT.

The Ray Taylor Show eventually wound up in March 1966.  The axing came just as Taylor was rehearsing for a role in an upcoming ABC play, Ashes To Ashes.

Taylor and his second wife, singer Annette Klooger, then went to the US where he was invited by a former ATN7 colleague, Digby Wolfe, to join the writing team for The New Bill Cosby Show.  He went on to then write for other American shows including All in the Family, Barney Miller, Dinah! and Cher.

He returned to Melbourne in the mid 1980s, to take on the early evening shift on radio station 3AW.  He then went to Sydney in 1987 to ABC station 2BL to present the breakfast program before retiring from broadcasting in 1990.

Ray Taylor is survived by wife Annette.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald.  TV Times, 5 August 1964.  TV Times, 24 March 1965.  TV Times, 15 December 1965.  TV Times, 30 March 1966.

Ten to tackle Today and Sunrise?

The Ten Network is reported to be looking at reworking its early morning timeslot with plans to launch a breakfast news program.

Just a week ago the network announced it was cutting its workforce by around 100 while it continues to undertake a strategic review of its on-air offerings.  It has axed weekend stalwart Video Hits and, while nothing has been formally announced, is believed to have also cut Sports Tonight.  The network has also recently walked away from AFL coverage beyond the end of this season and has been re-working its high-definition channel One away from a purely sports-oriented format.  But despite the cuts there is hope that a revitalised early morning timeslot will tap into additional advertising revenue while utilising news resources already in place at the network.

Ten currently presents one-hour bulletins at 6.00am and 9.00am each weekday but the proposed new program – tentatively titled AM – appears set to replace them both and may provide an improved lead-in to talk show The Circle.

But Ten’s planned new venture is entering into what is already a crowded marketplace – with Sunrise and Today leading the morning ratings and ABC News Breakfast and Sky News’ First Edition and AM Agenda providing an alternative.

The network is believed to have Today co-host and TV Week Gold Logie winner Karl Stefanovic (pictured) at the top of its wish list for hosting the new program, though this is unlikely to come to fruition given his apparent desire to move away from breakfast television and the prime-time exposure he has gained at Nine – through A Current Affair, 60 Minutes and Nine News coverage.

Breakfast news television is not exactly new at Ten.  In 1981 the network launched Good Morning Australia, a program that re-ignited the format in Australia several years after the Seven Network had axed its Today show in the mid-1970s.  The launch of Good Morning Australia was later followed by Nine launching The National Today Show (now Today) in 1982, with Seven launching TVAM in the late ‘80s and then Sunrise which has continued in various formats since the late ‘90s. 

Good Morning Australia continued until it was axed at the end of 1992 and the name was then re-assigned to Bert Newton’s mid-morning chat show.

Source: The Australian

Tracy Grimshaw’s 30 years at Nine

A Current Affair last night presented a tribute to host Tracy Grimshaw to commemorate her 30 years at the Nine Network.

Starting at Nine as a reporter for National Nine News in Melbourne, Grimshaw later gained a national profile as a daytime newsreader and guest presenter on Graham Kennedy’s Coast To Coast.

In 1995, Grimshaw and actor David Reyne were an unlikely pairing for the revamped Midday as the show returned in a new format after a year hosted by Derryn Hinch.

The Midday experiment failed – with Kerri-Anne Kennerley replacing the pair, presenting a revamped variety format in 1996 – but Grimshaw then moved to the early morning Today, co-hosting for many years with Steve Liebmann and then Karl Stefanovic.

She left Today to take on hosting ACA in 2006.  While the story mix on ACA and its rival Today Tonight generally skew towards an almost identical lineup of lightweight topics such as grocery prices, diet fads and retail promotions, Grimshaw’s journalistic background has given ACA some point of difference in that she is allowed the occasional opportunity to interview certain newsmakers or people in the spotlight – winning a Walkley award for television interviewing in 2009, a year which saw her conduct a number of exclusive interviews on the program, including an interview with disgraced former footballer Matthew Johns after details of a group sex scandal had emerged.

The video of last night’s tribute can be found at the ACA website.

1991: June 1-7

Hollywood comes down under!
It’s been three years in the making, but Hollywood comes to the Gold Coast this week with the opening of Warner Bros Movie World – and Nine Network programs Hey Hey It’s Saturday, Today and The Bugs Bunny Show will be presenting special episodes this week from the movie theme park.  Located 67 kilometres south of Brisbane Airport, Movie World has cost around $120 million to build and will employ around 400 staff.  Sophie Lee, Daryl Somers and Jo Bailey (pictured) visited the theme park to preview the opening for TV Week.

‘I was too nervous to read the script…’
Neighbours’ most controversial romance ever reaches crisis point this week.  With the rest of the Robinson family away for the weekend, daughter Lucy Robinson (Melissa Bell) and long-lost half-brother Glen Donnelly (Richard Huggett), who have long been fighting their feelings for each other, end up alone and a romantic dinner ends up in the bedroom.  “When I got the script I put it away and for weeks I didn’t touch it because I was just too nervous to look at it,” Bell told TV Week.  “I kept thinking, ‘I’ll have to be really careful with this’.” 

No news is good news
Seven’s Melbourne newsreader Jennifer Keyte (pictured) has been saying little to the media about her recently-ended romance with Sydney advertising identity Siimon Reynolds.  “Nice try,” she said to TV Week when questioned.  The newsreader is more enthusiastic at talking up the Melbourne-based Seven Nightly News which is enjoying ratings growth in the face of increased competition from Ten’s revamped one-hour bulletin with David Johnston and Jo Pearson.  “Our ratings are steadily improving as is our news service,” she said.  On suggestions that she may be leaving her post as newsreader on the late-night Tonight Live, Keyte says anything is possible.  “Sitting here now, I would probably say, ‘No, I won’t do a third year’, but who knows?”

Briefly…
A fifth series of popular comedy Mother And Son is scheduled to go into production in September for ABC.  Seven episodes will be made for the new series, which will again feature Ruth Cracknell, Garry McDonald, Henri Szeps and Judy Morris.  The new episodes are expected to go to air next year, while re-runs of earlier episodes are currently screening, to high ratings, on Network Ten.

John Waters and Jon English have been friends for 20 years, but this week the two are appearing together for the first time with Waters making a guest appearance in All Together Now, starring as Lochlan Burns, a member of Bobby Rivers’ (English) Seventies band Still Waters.

E Street star Malcolm Kennard has dropped a bombshell on the show’s producers by announcing he will be leaving the show.  His departure comes at a time when his character, Harley, is involved in an affair with the older Sheridan Sturgess (Kate Raison) and gets addicted to cocaine.  Kennard’s departure from the series comes just prior to the return of former series regular Marcus Graham, who will reprise his role as Wheels.

John Laws says…
”The rise and rise of Miss Sophie Lee (pictured) demonstrates that even in its present chronically-unsound economic condition, the TV industry still offers just about anyone the chance of being a “star”.  Miss Lee’s case is a classic example of what can happen if you’re in the right place at the right time – in her case landing the job of introducing Bugs Bunny cartoons on the Nine Network.  Now she not only continues to host The Bugs Bunny Show (whose bright idea was it to have a host, anyway!), she has become an actor, and is making her mark in the rock’n’roll music world.  She is satirised on Fast Forward.  She appears in The Flying Doctors, plays saxophone and does backing vocals for her band The Freaked Out Flower Children.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, June 1-7):
Saturday:  Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Nine) is presented live from Warner Bros Movie World on the Gold Coast.  Network Ten starts re-runs of a classic ABC drama, Patrol Boat, starring Andrew McFarlane and Robert Coleby.  ABC crosses to the Sydney Football Stadium for live coverage of The Big Match soccer match between the Socceroos and England.

Sunday:  Seven crosses to the Sydney Cricket Ground for live coverage of AFL, Sydney Swans versus Brisbane Bears, followed by highlights of the match between Footscray and Carlton.  Ten presents a half-hour special, Cry For Help: World Vision 40-Hour Famine, hosted by Greg Evans and Vince Sorrenti.  Sunday night movies are Hands Of A Murderer (Seven), Dead Ringers (Nine) and Dog Tags (Ten).

Monday:  Today (Nine) is presented live from Warner Bros Movie World to commemorate the official opening of the movie theme park.  In A Country Practice (Seven), Dr Harry Morrisson (Andrew Blackman) risks his life to operate on Lynda Shelley (Joy Miller), Terence Elliott’s (Shane Porteous) former lover.

Tuesday:  In Beyond 2000 (Seven), reporter Simon Reeve meets a French doctor using electricity to reduce the effects of cellulite, and Andrew Carroll reports on a Vegemite taste test in Tokyo.

Wednesday:  In Hey Dad! (Seven), Betty (Julie McGregor) decides to become a ventriloquist and enters the Lions Club talent quest.

Thursday:  Terry Serio (pictured), who portrayed Johnny O’Keefe in the mini-series Shout!, appears this week in ABC’s Embassy in a very different role – as a drug trafficker sentenced to death by firing squad in Ragaan.

Friday:  Rex Mossop, Debbie Spillane, Karen Tighe and Elle McFeast (Libbi Gorr) join Andrew Denton on ABC’s late-night sports-comedy show Andrew Denton: Live And Sweaty.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  1 June 1991.  Southdown Press

The 53rd TV Week Logie Awards

Today host Karl Stefanovic (pictured) was last night awarded the TV Week Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television at this year’s presentation of the TV Week Logie Awards.

It is the Nine Network’s first Gold Logie win since Ray Martin last won the award in 1996.

Stefanovic’s Gold win comes on the back of an aggressive marketing campaign by Nine which encouraged viewers to send in SMS votes to get him over the line.  Other nominees Rebecca Gibney, Jessica Marais, Chrissie Swan, Adam Hills and Asher Keddie were also promoted by their respective networks, but Nine’s “Vote for Karl” campaign was certainly the most prolific.

The Today host even mentioned the campaign in his acceptance speech.

The campaign attracted some criticism as being a “tacky” stunt as opposed to having talent judged on its own merits.  Seven news chief Peter Meakin told Crikey, “Karl’s a really nice guy, I regard him as a mate. But I just think this was tacky.”

Stefanovic’s Gold was his second Logie on the night.  Earlier in the evening he’d been awarded the Silver Logie for Most Popular Presenter, and in accepting that award made mention of his wife, remarking that '”she's also got the best arse I've ever seen.”  Not the most elegant of acceptance speeches.

The Nine Network also scored three Logies for last year’s Underbelly instalment, Underbelly: The Golden Mile, including Most Outstanding Drama and Firass Dirani walking away with the two New Talent awards.

Seven’s popular Packed To The Rafters won Most Popular Drama, and actor Hugh Sheridan was awarded Most Popular Actor. 

The Seven Network was also awarded Most Outstanding Factual Program for the special Trisha And Krishna: The Quest For Separate Lives, and the long-running Better Homes And Gardens won Most Popular Lifestyle Program.

Seven News won the Logie for Most Outstanding News Report for its coverage of the New Zealand mine disaster.

Ten’s reality hit MasterChef Australia, which returned for its third season last night up against the Logies, not surprisingly won the award for Most Popular Reality Program.  Ten also picked up awards for Bondi Rescue for Most Popular Factual Program, and Offspring’s Asher Keddie for Most Popular Actress. 

Ten’s morning show The Circle won Most Popular Light Entertainment Program, while co-host Chrissie Swan (pictured, far right, with colleagues Denise Drysdale, Yumi Stynes and Gorgi Coghlan) may have missed out on the Gold but did take the Most Popular New Female Talent award.

ABC collected a number of awards this year.  Richard Roxburgh won Most Outstanding Actor for his role in Rake, and Claire van der Boom won Most Outstanding Actress for her role in Sisters Of War.  ABC3’s Dance Academy won Most Outstanding Children’s Program, and Spicks And Specks won Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Program.  The Four Corners story “Struggler’s Paradise” won Most Outstanding Public Affairs Report.

Jana Wendt appeared on stage to induct former colleague Laurie Oakes (pictured) into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.  There were congratulatory messages from Prime Minister Julia Gillard, opposition leader Tony Abbott, former prime ministers John Howard and Kevin Rudd and ABC presenter Kerry O’Brien.

Performer Eddie Perfect and comedy trio Tripod presented a moving tribute to those in the television and showbusiness industries that have left us over the past twelve months.

Other music performances on the night came from Katy Perry, Maroon 5 and Jessie J. 

Megan Gale, Andre Rieu and Rachel Griffiths were among the guest stars to hand out awards.

Credit to Shane Bourne for courageously taking on the role as host that invariably draws criticism, and succeeding to lead the night with good humour and without wearing out his welcome.

One aspect of the telecast that did wear out its welcome, however, was the “Logies Minute” segment which appeared at various stages of the night as advertorials for the telecast sponsors but came across as awkward and unnecessary and mostly went beyond their promised “Minute” of airtime.  Said sponsors might have got more value by the network just running their commercials.

Across the five major capitals the awards presentation averaged a preliminary overnight rating of 1,323,000 viewers over four hours – including both the red carpet arrivals and the Awards themselves – while the return of Ten’s MasterChef averaged around 1,569,000 viewers over its 90 minutes.

Nine won the night overall with a rating of 28.2 per cent, followed by Ten (18.9%), Seven (18.7%), ABC1 (11.8%), SBS1 (3.6%), GO! (3.5%), GEM (3.3%), 7mate (3.1%), 7TWO (2.7%), Eleven (2.4%), One (1.7%), ABC2 (0.9%), SBS2 (0.6%), ABC3 (0.4%) and ABC News 24 (0.4%).

TV WEEK GOLD LOGIE – Most Popular Personality on TV
Karl Stefanovic (Today, Network Nine)

TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE – Most Popular Actor
Hugh Sheridan (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE – Most Popular Actress
Asher Keddie (Offspring, Network Ten)
TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE – Most Popular Presenter
Karl Stefanovic (Today, Nine Network)

MOST POPULAR NEW MALE TALENT
Firass Dirani (Underbelly: The Golden Mile, Nine Network)
MOST POPULAR NEW FEMALE TALENT
Chrissie Swan (The Circle, Network Ten)
MOST POPULAR DRAMA SERIES
Packed To The Rafters (Channel Seven)
MOST POPULAR LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM
The Circle (Network Ten)
MOST POPULAR LIFESTYLE PROGRAM
Better Homes And Gardens (Channel Seven)
MOST POPULAR SPORTS PROGRAM
The Footy Show (AFL) (Nine Network)
MOST POPULAR REALITY PROGRAM
MasterChef Australia (Network Ten)
MOST POPULAR FACTUAL PROGRAM
Bondi Rescue (Network Ten)

OUTSTANDING AWARDS

TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE – Most Outstanding Drama Series, Miniseries or Telemovie
Underbelly: The Golden Mile (Nine Network)
TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE – Most Outstanding Actor
Richard Roxburgh (Rake, ABC1)
TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE – Most Outstanding Actress
Claire van der Boom (Sisters Of War, ABC1)
GRAHAM KENNEDY AWARD FOR MOST OUTSTANDING NEW TALENT
Firass Dirani (Underbelly: The Golden Mile, Nine Network)
MOST OUTSTANDING NEWS COVERAGE
“New Zealand Mine Disaster” (Seven News)
MOST OUTSTANDING PUBLIC AFFAIRS REPORT
“Smugglers' Paradise” (Four Corners, ABC1)
MOST OUTSTANDING LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM
Spicks And Specks (ABC1)
MOST OUTSTANDING SPORTS COVERAGE
The Ashes 2010 First Test - Day One at the Gabba (Nine Network)
MOST OUTSTANDING CHILDREN’S PROGRAM
Dance Academy (ABC3)
MOST OUTSTANDING FACTUAL PROGRAM
Trishna & Krishna: The Quest For Separate Lives (Channel Seven)

TV WEEK LOGIE AWARDS’ HALL OF FAME
Laurie Oakes

Source: TV Week, Crikey

Laurie Oakes for Logies’ Hall of Fame

The Nine Network’s political editor Laurie Oakes is to be inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame when the annual awards presentation takes place early next month.

With a background in radio and newspaper reporting, Oakes made his television debut in the 1970s on the Willesee At Seven program.  He later became political correspondent for the Ten Network before joining the Nine Network in the mid-1980s.

At Nine, Oakes regularly led the media’s news agenda with his weekly political interviews on the Sunday program.  Even after the demise of Sunday in 2008, Oakes continued to present his interviews on its successor programs Sunday Morning News and Weekend Today.

Earlier this month, Oakes announced that after 26 years he was stepping back from his Sunday morning commitments but will continue to report for Nine.

The Hall of Fame Logie is the third major award for Oakes in recent times.  He was also recently awarded the Gold Walkley and the Graham Perkin Journalist of the Year, following his breaking of significant stories during the recent Federal Election campaign.

The TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame was initiated in 1984 as a means of recognition of those who have made an outstanding or sustained contribution to the Australian television industry, either on screen or behind the cameras.  Past recipients have included Hector Crawford, Paul Hogan, Reg Grundy, Johnny Young, James Davern, Bert Newton, Don Lane, Graham Kennedy, Maurie Fields, Bruce Gyngell, Michael Willesee, Mike Walsh, Ruth Cracknell, Garry McDonald, Sam Chisholm, Steve Irwin, Brian Naylor, Bill Collins and Bryan Brown.  Long-running programs Four Corners, Neighbours and Play School have also been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The 53rd annual TV Week Logie Awards will be held at Melbourne’s Crown Casino on Sunday 1 May.  The awards presentation will be hosted by Shane Bourne and broadcast via the Nine Network.

Source: The Australian, Ninemsn

TV Week Logie Awards – race for Gold begins

TV Week has announced the nominations for the upcoming 53rd annual TV Week Logie Awards.

This year saw an increase in the amount of votes received for the Awards due to the voting process being held entirely online and over a longer period than in previous years.

The night’s major award, the Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television, will be contested by representatives of all three commercial networks plus ABC.

And although Packed To The Rafters continues to appear numerous times amongst the award nominees, Network Ten’s new drama of 2010, Offspring, has also snared a number of nominations in both the publicly-voted and industry panel-voted categories.  Nine’s Underbelly: The Golden Mile and ABC1’s Sisters Of War and Rake have also received multiple nominations, as has Ten’s The Circle and Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation.  SBS also received a rare Most Popular nomination for Who Do You Think You Are?

TV Week is yet to announce this year’s inductee into the Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.

Full list of nominations:

GOLD LOGIE
Most Popular Personality on Television*
Adam Hills (Spicks And Specks, ABC1)
Asher Keddie (Offspring, Network Ten)
Chrissie Swan (The Circle, Network Ten)
Jessica Marais (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Karl Stefanovic (Today, Nine Network)
Rebecca Gibney (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
(2010 winner: Ray Meagher, Home And Away)

* Voting for the Gold Logie from the list of nominations is now open to the public up until the day of the event.  Voting for other categories is now closed.

SILVER LOGIES
Most Popular Actor
Callan Mulvey (Rush, Network Ten)
Don Hany (Offspring, Network Ten / Tangle, Foxtel [Showcase])
Erik Thomson (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Hugh Sheridan (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Michael Caton (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
(2010 winner: Hugh Sheridan, Packed To The Rafters)

Most Popular Actress
Asher Keddie (Offspring, Network Ten)
Jessica Marais (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Margot Robbie (Neighbours, Network Ten)
Rebecca Gibney (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Zoe Ventoura (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
(2010 winner: Rebecca Gibney, Packed To The Rafters)

Most Popular Presenter
Adam Hills (Spicks And Specks, ABC1)
Chrissie Swan (The Circle, Network Ten)
Hamish Blake (Hamish & Andy 'Specials', Network Ten)
Karl Stefanovic (Today, Nine Network)
Shaun Micallef (Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation, Network Ten)
(2010 winner: Shaun Micallef, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation)

Most Outstanding Drama Series, Miniseries or Telemovie
Hawke (Network Ten)
Packed To The Rafters (Channel Seven)
Rake (ABC1)
Rush (Network Ten)
Sisters Of War (ABC1)
Underbelly: The Golden Mile (Nine Network)
(2010 winner: East West 101)

Most Outstanding Actor
Erik Thomson (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Hugh Sheridan (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Jason Gann (Wilfred, SBS)
Richard Roxburgh (Hawke, Network Ten)
Richard Roxburgh (Rake, ABC1)
(2010 winner: Don Hany, East West 101)

Most Outstanding Actress
Asher Keddie (Offspring, Network Ten)
Catherine McClements (Rush, Network Ten)
Claire van der Boom (Sisters Of War, ABC1)
Justine Clarke (Tangle, Foxtel [Showcase])
Kat Stewart (Offspring, Network Ten)
(2010 winner: Claudia Karvan, Saved)

Graham Kennedy Award For Most Outstanding New Talent
Emma Booth (Underbelly: The Golden Mile, Nine Network)
Firass Dirani (Underbelly: The Golden Mile, Nine Network)
Richard Davies (Offspring, Network Ten)
Ryan Corr (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Sarah Snook (Sisters Of War, ABC1)
(2010 winner: Matt Preston, MasterChef Australia)

LOGIE AWARDS
Most Popular New Male Talent
Charles Cottier (Home And Away, Channel Seven)
Eddie Perfect (Offspring, Network Ten)
Firass Dirani (Underbelly: The Golden Mile, Nine Network)
Manu Feildel (My Kitchen Rules, Channel Seven)
Ryan Corr (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
(2010 winner: Luke Mitchell, Home And Away)

Most Popular New Female Talent
Chrissie Swan (The Circle, Network Ten)
Emma Booth (Underbelly: The Golden Mile, Nine Network)
Hannah Marshall (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)
Julie Goodwin (Home Cooked! With Julie Goodwin, Nine Network)
Poh Ling Yeow (Poh's Kitchen, ABC1)
(2010 winner: Carrie Bickmore, The 7PM Project)

Most Popular Drama Series
Home And Away (Channel Seven)
Neighbours (Network Ten)
Offspring (Network Ten)
Packed To The Rafters (Channel Seven)
Rush (Network Ten)
Underbelly: The Golden Mile (Nine Network)
(2010 winner: Packed To The Rafters)

Most Popular Light Entertainment Program
Good News Week (Network Ten)
Hey Hey It's Saturday (Nine Network)
Sunrise (Channel Seven)
Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation (Network Ten)
The Circle (Network Ten)
(2010 winner: Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation)

Most Popular Lifestyle Program
Better Homes And Gardens (Channel Seven)
Domestic Blitz (Nine Network)
Getaway (Nine Network)
Grand Designs Australia (Foxtel [The Lifestyle Channel])
Ready Steady Cook (Network Ten)
(2010 winner: Better Homes And Gardens)

Most Popular Sports Program
Before The Game (Network Ten)
The Footy Show (AFL) (Nine Network)
The Footy Show (NRL) (Nine Network)
The Matty Johns Show (Channel Seven)
Wide World Of Sports (Nine Network)
(2010 winner: The Footy Show (NRL))

Most Popular Reality Program
Dancing With The Stars (Channel Seven)
MasterChef Australia (Network Ten)
The Biggest Loser Australia (Network Ten)
The Farmer Wants A Wife (Nine Network)
The X Factor (Channel Seven)
(2010 winner: MasterChef Australia)

Most Popular Factual Program
Bondi Rescue (Network Ten)
Bondi Vet (Network Ten)
RPA (Nine Network)
Undercover Boss Australia (Network Ten)
Who Do You Think You Are? (SBS)
(2010 winner: Bondi Rescue)

Most Outstanding News Coverage
"Afghanistan Rocket Attack" (Ten News)
"Election 2010" (Sky News)
"Laurie Oakes Election Leaks" (Nine News)
"New Zealand Mine Disaster" (Seven News)
"Pakistan Floods" (ABC News)
(2010 winner: Victorian Bushfires, Seven News)

Most Outstanding Public Affairs Report
"Brothers In Arms" (Sunday Night, Channel Seven)
"Hey Dad..! Scandal" (A Current Affair, Nine Network)
"Iraq's Deadly Legacy" (Dateline, SBS)
"Smugglers' Paradise" (Four Corners, ABC1)
"The Condemned" (Dateline, SBS)
(2010 winner: “Code of Silence”, Four Corners)

Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Program
Hamish & Andy's Caravan of Courage: Great Britain & Ireland (Network Ten)
Luke Nguyen's Vietnam (SBS)
Spicks And Specks (ABC1)
Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation (Network Ten)
Yes We Canberra! (ABC1)
(2010 winner: Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation)

Most Outstanding Sports Coverage
2010 AFL Grand Final (Channel Seven)
2010 Melbourne Cup (Channel Seven)
Rugby League - 2010 State Of Origin - Game One (Nine Network)
The Ashes 2010 First Test - Day One at the Gabba (Nine Network)
XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi (Foxtel)
(2010 winner: V8 Supercars: Supercheap Auto Bathurst)

Most Outstanding Children’s Program
Camp Orange: Castle Mountain (Foxtel [Nickelodeon])
Dance Academy (ABC3)
Dead Gorgeous (ABC3)
Hi-5 (Nine Network)
Prank Patrol (ABC3)
(2010 winner: My Place)

Most Outstanding Factual Program
Bondi Rescue (Network Ten)
Miracle in the Storm (ABC1)
RPA (Nine Network)
Such Is Life: The Troubled Times Of Ben Cousins (Channel Seven)
Trishna & Krishna: The Quest For Separate Lives (Channel Seven)
(2010 winner: Law And Disorder)

Shane Bourne will host the TV Week Logie Awards from Melbourne’s Crown Casino on Sunday 1 May, to be telecast on the Nine Network.

Source: TV Week

Ten takes on the News giants

For many years Network Ten’s news offering has been dismissed as a poorer cousin to the brash, high-profile Seven and Nine news portfolios.  While Seven and Nine throw money into resources and promotion, each of them keen to get an edge over the other while almost mimicking each other, Ten has kept a somewhat more modest profile – largely due to staying out of the traditional 6-7pm news hour, keeping a lower profile in the competitive breakfast timeslot, and reducing its weekend news output largely to ‘national’ Sydney-based bulletins.  And, when a major news story would be breaking or there is an election to cover, chances are it would be Seven, Nine or ABC that would pull all stops to cover it live, while Ten maintained its long-held mantra of providing an alternative option for viewers.

There have been exceptions to the rule, of course.  It was Ten News that first broke the news to Australians of the September 11 attacks in the US and, like its rivals, maintained a level of continuous news coverage in the days that followed.  The network maintained its serious Sunday morning Meet The Press interview program despite it sitting awkwardly amongst children’s programs and Video Hits, and while Nine replaced the serious Sunday with the more casual Weekend Today and Seven expanded its chummy Sunrise to the timeslot.  Ten has also maintained its 10.30pm Late News while both Seven and Nine abandoned their late night news programs.  And while the 5.00pm bulletin was avoiding the prime-time battle, it gradually built up its audience to the point where it dominated that hour, despite the high-profile late-afternoon game show battles between Seven and Nine, and both networks launching their own 4.30pm national news bulletins.

But, as time progressed, it became apparent that Ten was perhaps tiring of having the lesser of the three commercial networks’ news profiles and the impact of not having a News presence at 6.00pm.  The network was seeing its viewing numbers drop dramatically at 6.00pm after Ten News has signed off, while Seven and Nine’s 6.00pm bulletins continued to sit at the top of the nightly ratings reports, with The Simpsons and Neighbours – while they might have represented a sound viewing alternative in the 6.00pm hour many years ago – clearly no longer attracting the numbers they once did.  There were reports in 2009 that Ten was considering the idea of expanding the 5.00pm bulletin to 90 minutes – thirty years after it led the way as a network with the one-hour newscast as opposed to the traditional half-hour format.

Then, last year, Ten announced its bold move.  The network was bumping The Simpsons and Neighbours from their long-held timeslots to its new digital channel, Eleven.  This one-hour gap in the schedule was now going to be filled by two additional news programs – one national and one local – to sit between Ten News and The 7PM Project.  Ten also announced plans to reinstate state-based weekend news bulletins at 6.00pm.  It marks the first major shake-up of commercial television news coverage since Ten moved its evening bulletin to 5.00pm almost twenty years ago.

In implementing this expanded news profile, Ten – a network not often known for lavish spending – was investing big money, reported to be $20 million, in infrastructure and hiring new staff, most notably the signing up of veteran journalist and presenter George Negus.  With a journalistic background dating back to This Day Tonight and the founding days of 60 Minutes and Foreign Correspondent, and more recently as host of SBS’ Dateline, Negus presents a credible identity.  His more recent appearances as a weekly commentator on The 7PM Project have also endeared him to the network and its viewers.  Ten’s new venture also gained credibility with the signing of former ABC journalist Chris Masters as a consultant to the network.

With the expenditure and high-profile signings, it was clear that this news revamp was going to be far more than just splashing a coat of paint on the news desk or changing the logo on the network’s car fleet – this was going to be a serious shake-up of the evening news and giving viewers a decent alternative to the lookalike news and current affairs programs of Seven and Nine.  For the first time in over twenty years, Ten was now gearing up to take on its two commercial rivals – who have cosily had the 6.00pm hour all to themselves for too long – in a big way. 

So, after months of waiting and speculation – some of the latter prompted by James Packer’s surprise investment in the Ten Network with media discussing his rumoured plans to tear down the news revamp – Ten’s ‘news evolution’ finally comes to fruition tomorrow (Monday) evening. 

Essentially, the ‘First at Five’ Ten News remains intact but there are some changes in personnel and production.  The Adelaide newscast now moves back to being produced entirely from Adelaide – after being largely based at Ten’s Melbourne studio for several years – and follows the return of the Perth newscast to the Perth-based studios in 2008.

The Adelaide 5.00pm bulletin is now being fronted by Belinda Heggen, replacing George Donikian and Rebecca Morse, while the Perth bulletin is now read by former ABC journalist Craig Smart, replacing Narelda Jacobs.  Donikian now replaces Mal Walden at the Melbourne 5.00pm newsdesk, sitting alongside Helen Kapalos.  The significance of the Greek heritage of both Donikian and Kapalos (pictured) in presenting the news together in the largest Greek city outside of Greece has not gone unnoticed. ”It's not just revolutionary, this is the first in the world,” Donikian told Melbourne-based Greek newspaper Neos Kosmos.

Walden, Morse and Jacobs now move to presenting the new 6.30pm Evening News in their respective capital cities – providing a local news-based alternative to the tabloid offerings from Seven and Nine in that timeslot.

Former Late News presenter Sandra Sully (pictured) will be reading the Sydney-based Evening News bulletin, and Brisbane newsreader Bill McDonald will be presenting Brisbane’s Evening News as well as co-anchoring the local 5.00pm bulletin with Georgie Lewis.

Bill Woods and Deborah Knight will continue to present the 5.00pm Ten News in Sydney.

The 6.00pm timeslot now becomes home to 6PM With George Negus – a national program offering an in-depth analysis of the news.  As well as being hosted by the experienced and popular Negus, 6PM also boasts a strong line-up of journalists including Hugh Riminton, formerly of the Nine Network and CNN, and Hamish Macdonald, an Australian journalist formerly working in the United Kingdom and also a former correspondent for the Al Jazeera English channel.

With Ten’s new intentions, and the recent arrival of ABC News 24 as Australia’s first free-to-air dedicated news channel, if Seven and Nine are panicking at the prospect of the intense competition they are not showing any signs of it.  It appears to be ‘business as usual’ for the two top-rating networks, with little changing in their portfolio of news and current affairs programs.

According to Seven’s Melbourne newsreader Peter Mitchell: “Nothing changes for us," he told the Herald Sun.  "We know what we've got to do. We've always prided ourselves on being local." – a swipe at 6PM’s national focus.

Nine’s Brisbane news director Lee Anderson, talking to the Courier Mail, questions Ten’s ability to cover the big local stories on the back of its stilted response to coverage of the Queensland flood crisis: "When Brisbane faced its biggest natural disaster Ten obviously found it difficult to cover the emergency effectively, so I hope for them this will mean their network bosses start to take local operation seriously."

Seven’s Brisbane news director Rob Raschke was a little more flippant in his comments, labelling Negus as ‘a worthy successor to Homer Simpson’. 

“And, like Homer, his focus won't be on Queensland,” Raschke told the Courier Mail.

It appears that Ten’s rivals are quick to criticise the national focus of 6PM while failing to acknowledge Ten’s local approach at 5.00pm and 6.30pm against their own national programs.

But Ten and Negus (pictured with Melbourne newsreader Walden) have no illusions that the new line-up will be an instant hit with viewers.  News viewing habits are well-entrenched and rarely turnaround to a new competitor in an instant.  But the network has shown with The 7PM Project that it has the ability to be patient and to persevere with a new venture even if it doesn’t pay immediate dividends.

Ten News, 6PM With George Negus, Evening News, The 7PM Project.  Weeknights, from 5.00pm, starting 24 January.  Network Ten, Southern Cross Ten, Tasmanian Digital Television, Darwin Digital Television, Ten Mildura, Ten West.

Source: Herald Sun, Courier Mail, The Age, Neos Kosmos.