TV Week Logie Awards: 10 years ago

All Saints star Georgie Parker was awarded the Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television at the 44th annual TV Week Logie Awards, held at Melbourne’s Crown Entertainment Complex on Sunday, 28 April 2002, and televised on the Nine Network.

It was Parker’s second Gold Logie, having also won the publicly-voted award the previous year.  She was presented with the award by Good Morning Australia host and four-time Gold Logie winner Bert Newton.

“This is a great personal thing for me, but it always reflects back to the show,” Parker told TV Week.  “Winning the Gold is exciting and weird at the same time.  I don’t really make myself accessible as a personality, so it’s interesting to get an award for Most Popular Personality.”

Her fellow nominees for the Gold Logie were Rove McManus (Rove Live), Ada Nicodemou (Home And Away), Libby Tanner (All Saints) and John Wood (Blue Heelers).

Comedian Wendy Harmer (pictured) was the host of the evening – the first female to ever host the Logies presentation solo – but as a number of other Logies hosts have found, it is one of the toughest gigs in television.  Reviews of Harmer’s performance were harsh to say the least, but even the host herself later accepted that it was not her finest work, as she told The Age in 2010:

''One of the things that happened to me was that I'd been doing radio in Sydney for so long that when I came down to talk to an audience who are in Melbourne doing TV, they basically said, 'What does she know about what we're doing?' And fair enough, in retrospect.''

''And here's the interesting dilemma. Where do you learn to do something like that? You only learn it in the doing of it.''

''Some of the advice I got from the producers was really bad. The funny part about it is that I think I would now know how to do it.''

As well as Parker’s Gold Logie it was a big year for All Saints, with the show also winning two Silver Logies – one for Most Popular Program and the other for Libby Tanner as Most Popular Actress.

After more than twenty years on television, dating back to classic soaps The Restless Years and Sons And Daughters, actor Peter Phelps from Stingers (Nine) collected the Logie the Most Popular Actor. “This is just fantastic… totally unexpected,” he told TV Week. “The Logie means people respect your work and that’s really the best thing you can possibly have as an actor.”

Network Ten’s drama series The Secret Life Of Us (cast pictured) also scored well with two Logies to its credit – Most Outstanding Drama Series and for Deborah Mailman as Most Outstanding Actress.  And with the Big Brother craze at the height of its popularity, the Network Ten show took out the Logie for Most Popular Reality Program.  As Big Brother conducted its live eviction shows on Sunday nights, the show’s host Gretel Killeen accepted the award via a live cross to the Big Brother set on the Gold Coast.

In accepting Rove Live’s award for Most Popular Light Entertainment Program, host and producer Rove McManus (pictured) dedicated the award to his “partner in life and partner in crime”, actor and TV presenter Belinda Emmett. 

Seven’s current affairs program Today Tonight had finally scored its first Logie for Most Popular Public Affairs Program – a category that its main rival A Current Affair had dominated since the category was launched in 1989, having lost out only once to Today Tonight’s predecessor Real Life.  “It’s testament to the fact that we’ve plugged away for so many years,” host Naomi Robson said.  “All the hard work has paid off.  I want to thank Seven for sticking with us.  There was a point a few years back where people were starting to say, ‘Are they going to make it?’ But here we are.”

Nine Network host Eddie McGuire (pictured) had his two shows, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and the AFL-based The Footy Show, win Most Popular Game Show and Most Popular Sports Program respectively. 

For SBS current affairs program Dateline it was a double celebration, with the show winning two awards for Most Outstanding Special Report In A Current Affairs Program.  Two stories, The Dirty War and See No Evil, were equal winners in the industry-voted category. 

ABC reporter Geoff Thompson was awarded Most Outstanding News Reporter and ABC News won Most Outstanding News Coverage for its reporting of events surrounding the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.

Veteran television journalist, producer and presenter Mike Willesee was inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.  He was presented the award by his brother, fellow journalist Terry Willesee.

Adding to the glamour of Logies night in 2002 were performances by Colombian pop star Shakira, the legendary Sir Elton John and US trio Destiny’s Child.

Other international guests on the night included The Bold And The Beautiful star Ronn Moss and Frankie Muniz from sitcom Malcolm In The Middle.

Publicly-voted Awards:

Gold Logie – Most Popular Personality On Australian Television: Georgie Parker

Silver Logie – Most Popular Program: All Saints (Seven)
Silver Logie – Most Popular Actor: Peter Phelps (Stingers, Nine)
Silver Logie – Most Popular Actress: Libby Tanner (All Saints, Seven)

Most Popular New Male Talent: Ditch Davey (Blue Heelers, Seven)
Most Popular New Female Talent: Lisa Chappell (pictured) (McLeod’s Daughters, Nine)
Most Popular Lifestyle Program: Backyard Blitz (Nine)
Most Popular Light Entertainment Program: Rove Live (Ten)
Most Popular Reality Program: Big Brother (Ten)
Most Popular Game Show: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (Nine)
Most Popular Sports Program: The Footy Show – AFL (Nine)
Most Popular Public Affairs Program: Today Tonight (Seven)

Industry-voted Awards:

TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall Of Fame: Mike Willesee (pictured)

Most Outstanding Actor: William McInnes (My Brother Jack, Ten)
Most Outstanding Actress: Deborah Mailman (The Secret Life Of Us, Ten)
Most Outstanding Drama Series: The Secret Life Of Us (Ten)
Most Outstanding Mini-Series/Telemovie: Changi (ABC)
Most Outstanding Children’s Program: Round The Twist (ABC)
Most Outstanding Comedy Program:  The Micallef Pogram (ABC)
Most Outstanding Sports Coverage: Bledisloe Cup (Seven)
Most Outstanding News Reporter: Geoff Thompson (ABC)
Most Outstanding News Coverage: ABC News
Most Outstanding Special Report In A Public Affairs Program: “The Dirty War” (Dateline, SBS) and “See No Evil” (Dateline, SBS).
Most Outstanding Documentary/Series: Australians At War (ABC)

Source: TV Week, 27 April 2002.  TV Week, 11 May 2002. The Age, 1 April 2010.

Another year gone… already…?

It doesn’t seem that long since we welcomed 2011!

Australian television reached a number of milestones this year: Ten years of digital TV; 40 years of Sesame Street on the ABC; Mal Walden celebrated 50 years in broadcasting and Tracy Grimshaw reached 30 years at Nine; Play School turned 45; Four Corners turned 50; TV turned 40 in Darwin; David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz celebrated 25 years together on television; and it was 50 years since the launch of regional stations GLV10, BCV8 and GMV6.

Ratings-wise, it was all about Seven, winning their fifth year in a row.  There was little they could do wrong, while at Network Ten there was not much that they could get right – even MasterChef took a battering – with Nine falling somewhere in between.

ABC’s Spicks And Specks made a dignified exit off the stage, while Ten’s Video Hits was pushed off the stage – after 24 years – in a bout of cost cutting.  ABC put the axe to Collectors, The New Inventors and Arts Nation.

Showbiz stalwarts Denise Drysdale and Kerri-Anne Kennerley signed off from their respective daytime programs.

Network Ten launched its new digital channel Eleven, and attempted to raise the bar in current affairs reporting with 6PM With George Negus (later 6.30).  It was a tumultuous year at a management level for Ten with the dismissal of CEO Grant Blackley and the appointment of interim CEO Lachlan Murdoch before James Warburton, a former Seven Network executive, takes over the role in January.  Under Murdoch’s watch, sports channel One HD was re-worked into a general entertainment and special interest channel, Ten News suffered a number of format changes, budget cuts and staff departures (including Deborah Knight and George Donikian), while Late News and 6.30 With George Negus were both axed.  Newspaper columnist and blogger Andrew Bolt was given his own show, and the network walked away from AFL after ten years.

Nine’s A Current Affair revisited some TV classics during the year, including Young Talent Time (pictured) and Big Brother (coincidentally both programs are to make a comeback in 2012).  ACA also took a trip to Wandin Valley to remember A Country Practice.  Meanwhile, Today Tonight took ‘70s sex symbol Abigail to task for no good reason.

There were cosmetic changes made to ABC1, ABC2 and ABC 4 Kids, and SBS appointed a new Managing Director.

Karl Stefanovic (pictured) won the TV Week Gold Logie, and veteran political journalist Laurie Oakes was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

After a quiet few years in drama, ABC made a stellar comeback this year with Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo and The Slap both receiving critical acclaim and good ratings.  The broadcaster also launched a new legal drama, Crownies.  SBS scored a hit with its reality-documentary series Go Back To Where You Came From, triggering a wave of social commentary on what has always been a controversial topic.

Regional Victoria and Regional Queensland made the final switch from analogue to digital television – while remote area networks Imparja and Southern Cross have only now switched on to digital transmission and Regional WA is now seeing the roll-out of the digital multi-channels from the commercial networks.

Millions watched the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton – it was an event that was hard to miss with saturation coverage on free-to-air and multiple pay-TV channels.

So what will 2012 bring?

Network Ten will hope for a better, more stable year with a new CEO and News Director on board.  Last year the network took a gamble with George Negus and more News bulletins.  This year Ten is taking a gamble with launching a new breakfast show up against Sunrise, Today and ABC News Breakfast – will this risk pay off?  And will the re-named and expanded The Project lead to improvement in Ten’s embattled 6.30 timeslot?

Also, will MasterChef be able to knock out the few dents it copped in its armour this year?  And how will Young Talent Time fare with its return after 23 years off our screens?  As Hey Hey It’s Saturday and more recently It’s A Knockout have shown, the nostalgia factor can bring high ratings but the novelty can wear off pretty quickly. 

Nine had something of a late-year resurgence this year with The Block winning ratings in its new 7.00pm timeslot and Celebrity Apprentice also bringing in strong figures.  The success of these will see Nine delve further into the reality genre in 2012 with another series of The Block, the return of Big Brother and an Australian version of singing contest The Voice.

In Aussie drama there will be more Neighbours, Home And Away, Packed To The Rafters, Offspring and Winners And Losers.  Nine will launch a new series, Tricky Business, and is set to present another instalment of the Underbelly franchise as well as its dramatisation of the Beaconsfield mine disaster of 2006.  Nine will also relive former owner Kerry Packer’s 1970s challenge to the cricket establishment with Howzat! – The Kerry Packer Story.  Ten will have a mini-series Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms as well as an updated adaptation of the book Puberty Blues.  The network is also to launch a new series, Reef Doctors, starring Lisa McCune.

Andrew Denton and Shaun Micallef are set to return to ABC with new programs – and there will be another series of Adam Hills In Gordon Street Tonight.

In sport, Seven becomes the sole free-to-air broadcaster of AFL for the first time since 2001, while sharing the rights with Foxtel – while Nine and Foxtel are off to London for the Olympic Games.  It will be Nine’s first coverage of the Summer Olympics since 1976.

2012 will mark 50 years of television in regional New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and in Canberra.  Analogue television will be switched off in regional New South Wales and the ACT.

The ground-breaking drama of the 1970s, Number 96 (pictured) will have its 40th anniversary commemorated with another DVD release of episodes – this time revisiting some of the few black-and-white episodes to still be in existence, as well the episodes surrounding the bomb-blast storyline of 1975.

And right here we will be continuing the theme of documenting the TV year of 20 years ago as reported in the pages of TV Week.

Happy New Year to you all and best wishes for the year ahead!

Seven wins ‘11

No surprises for anyone to read that the Seven Network has come out as the overall winner in the 2011 ratings battle – its fifth annual win in a row.

Seven ends the year (Weeks 7-48, excluding Easter, 6pm-12mn, 5 cities) with a 31.0% share, followed by Nine (26.3%), Ten (21.4%), ABC (15.9%) and SBS (5.4%).  For Seven it’s an increase from last year’s share of 28.7% while Nine, ABC and SBS recorded drops compared to 2010, and Ten rose only slightly from 21.2% as it launched its new channel Eleven this year and revamped former sports channel One.

Broken down to individual channels, Seven (23.0%) was ahead of Nine (19.5%), Ten (15.8%), ABC1 (12.4%), SBS One (4.6%), 7TWO (4.6%), GO! (4.0%), Eleven (3.5%), 7mate (3.4%), Gem (2.8%), ABC2 (2.3%), One (2.1%), SBS Two (0.8%), ABC News 24 (0.7%) and ABC3 (0.6%).  The growth in the multi-channel audiences has seen all primary channels recording a decline on 2010’s numbers.

7TWO overtook Nine’s GO! as the top-rated multi-channel, while Ten’s new youth-themed channel Eleven ends its first year in third spot.

It was a year where Seven could do little wrong, achieving a clean sweep of 40 overall prime-time wins out of 40 weeks, due to a strong early evening line-up of Seven News, Today Tonight and Home And Away and its reality portfolio – The Amazing Race: Australia, Dancing With The Stars (pictured), My Kitchen Rules, Australia’s Got Talent and a revamped The X Factor – all performing well giving the network a massive lead up to mid-evening.  Thursday nights got a boost with Beauty And The Geek, and the long-running Better Homes And Gardens gave Seven a boost on Fridays.

Seven also scored a massive hit on Sunday nights with British series Downton Abbey.

Drama series Packed To The Rafters was still a standout performer but didn’t rate quite as well as in 2010, having lost a number of key cast members in the last year, and with some risky scheduling by Seven that saw the series given a lengthy mid-season break and then winding up the 2011 series prematurely.  But the mid-season break for Rafters saw it replaced by the new series Winners And Losers, a strong ratings performer though not a match for Rafters.

In the morning battle, Sunrise is still dominant in the breakfast timeslot nationally but Nine’s Today is performing stronger in Sydney and Melbourne.  The Morning Show continues to rule the mid-morning timeslot, claiming victory over Nine’s Kerri-Anne (which was cancelled last week) and The Circle.

But not everything quite went Seven’s way.  The network’s new period drama Wild Boys, featuring Daniel MacPherson and former Rafters star Zoe Ventoura, got off to a strong start but failed to maintain an audience and will not return in 2012.  Game show Deal Or No Deal, once a dominant performer at 5.30pm, is fading against Hot Seat, and drama series City Homicide went out with a whimper.  And last week’s special Kyle And Jackie O’s Night With The Stars was presented with a lead-in of two million viewers (with the “winner announced” on The X Factor) but saw viewers switch off in droves.

New imported series No Ordinary Family, Detroit 187, Teen Wolf, Suits and Law And Order: LA all failed to click with viewers. 

For the Nine Network the year started confidently, with promises that the network would be the “home of comedy” in 2011.  It was soon apparent, however, that the only ones laughing were the other networks.  The supposed flagship of the new comedy line-up, Ben Elton Live From Planet Earth, was a spectacular dud, even leading to a public apology by Elton himself, and was axed after only three weeks.  New US shows $#*! My Dad Says and Mike And Molly also failed.

The once dominant US sitcom Two And A Half Men was on the decline on the back of the Charlie Sheen scandal and his subsequent sacking from the series, but The Big Bang Theory – ironically from the same producer as Men – became a strong performer, to the point where Nine has become somewhat over-reliant on its popularity, ended the ratings year with 14 episodes scheduled in prime-time over five nights.

The multi-million dollar deal which saw Hamish Blake and Andy Lee come across from the Ten Network saw their new series Hamish And Andy’s Gap Year start to a strong ratings result but overall popularity waned as the series progressed, although it rated well in younger demographics.

The Joy Of Sets with Tony Martin and Ed Kavalee promised a humourous and affectionate look at the various aspects of television, but viewers didn’t take to it at all with later episodes playing out in a late-night timeslot.

Nine’s first half of the year was also not helped by lack lustre performances by new Eddie McGuire vehicles Million Dollar Drop, Between The Lines and a revival of This Is Your Life.

Nine had some smiles, however, by strong ratings for the ongoing Underbelly franchise, with a series of telemovies and the 1920s-themed series Underbelly: Razor rating well. 

The TV Week Logie Awards rated well (1,323,000, over four hours) up against the series return of MasterChef Australia (1,569,000, 90 minutes), while the NRL State Of Origin series returned excellent figures with all three games well exceeding the 2 million viewer mark.

But while the first half of the year was not a great one for Nine, its second half was  somewhat better and can be largely attributed to adopting the reality genre in the stripped 7.00pm timeslot, starting with a new-look The Block which became a ratings hit.  Some strategic coding by Nine in the ratings system has seen The Block – The Winner Announced claim the #1 program of the year – all seven minutes of it.

(Such coding of programs, a tactic employed by all three commercial networks, have made a mess of the Top 20 list – as below – where individual episodes of series and specific segments of special events are singled out to give them higher or multiple positions in the rankings.)

Nine then used the 7.00pm timeslot for its late-year series Celebrity Apprentice, also returning strong results. The popularity in the reality genre for Nine will see it launch an Australian version of singing competition The Voice, and reviving Big Brother in 2012.

But while it was a year that Seven could do little wrong, for Network Ten it was a year where there was little they could get right.  The network’s heavy investment in expanding its news and current affairs portfolio saw 6PM With George Negus (later 6.30) fail to maintain any audience traction up against the tabloid opposition, although the network should at least be credited for attempting to lift the bar in the standard of prime-time current affairs reporting and giving the show a fair run before finally axing it in October.

The 6.30pm Ten Evening News failed to click with viewers and was axed after two months, and Ten’s subsequent extension of the 5.00pm bulletin to a 90-minute format saw its numbers drop considerably.  The mess of the network’s weekend newscasts, which saw the national 5.00pm newscast dropped and then re-instated and the 6.00pm state-based bulletins launched and then dropped in favour of an extended national news bulletin, has not done it any favours either. 

The 7PM Project has now been extended to an hour, and re-named The Project.  Its overall average has dropped as a result and it is to be seen if the expanded format can build on its numbers in 2012.

Ten’s reality giant MasterChef Australia was back for a third series this year.  Although the program continued to rate well, the mood of the audience was well down on previous years and the show’s finale – split into two shows to ‘force’ viewers to sample The Renovators sandwiched in between – rated well lower than the two previous season finals and its Junior MasterChef spin-off also failed to maintain a strong audience.

The new show The Renovators (pictured) promised to do for home makeovers what MasterChef did with cooking – crank the challenges, production values and the budget to the hilt, and to saturate the schedule.  The problem was that viewers didn’t take to The Renovators as they had come to adopt MasterChef, therefore dragging down Ten’s entire schedule.  It will also be no coincidence that Nine’s revamped The Block made its debut just prior to The Renovators and hence stole much of its thunder.

Ten’s drama slate has looked somewhat depleted this year, with Neighbours being moved across to Eleven.  Ten’s second series of Offspring was a strong performer and will be back next year, but action-packed police drama Rush again failed to gain a decent audience and will not appear in 2012.

Apart from MasterChef’s two-part finale, Ten’s only appearance in the year-end Top 20 was the AFL Grand Final, ending the network’s ten-year association with the league as the free-to-air rights next year go solely to Seven.

Ten’s re-working of comedy show Good News Week into Good News World was a critical and ratings disaster, while the new topical discussion show Can Of Worms got a modest audience response but was not helped by some erratic scheduling.  The second series of the Australian version of Undercover Boss also failed to rate with viewers.

The network did have better results with the return of The Biggest Loser and Talkin’ ‘bout Your Generation.

Imported shows Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-O, The Defenders and Ringer have also returned poor results, while the big-budget series Terra Nova – filmed on location in Australia – started strongly but has failed to maintain viewers’ interest.

Over at ABC ratings are not of primary concern but the ABC1 channel has scored some critical and ratings hits during the year.  The two-part series Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo (pictured) was a ratings hit in April, while the eight-part adaptation of the book The Slap was widely acclaimed and received strong Thursday night figures for the broadcaster.

The long-running Spicks And Specks also rated well during the year with its final-ever episode last week scoring over 1.5 million viewers.  The Gruen Transfer and its spin-off Gruen Planet were also popular on Wednesday nights.

Highlights for SBS during the year included Cadel Evans’ victory in the Tour de France (704,000), followed by documentary series Go Back To Where You Came From (pictured), where six Australians were taken on a reverse journey of those taken by refugees that have landed at our shores.

In digital multi-channels, the most-watched broadcast was Day 9 of Wimbledon on 7TWO, attracting 737,000 viewers, followed by movies Transformers and 2012 on GO!.  Neighbours was a consistent performer for Eleven, often winning nightly digital channel rankings but its average over the year saw it ranked at the 10th most popular program on digital channels for the year.

But the biggest TV event of the year is one that fell outside of the official ratings survey.  The April wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, with coverage across four free-to-air networks and a number of pay-TV channels, was watched by millions but took place during the two-week ratings break taken around Easter so its numbers are not included in the year-end tally.

From today networks go into summer non-ratings mode, though viewing data is still collected and reported to networks over the non-ratings period.

The 2012 ratings year begins on 12 February and continues through to 1 December, with a two-week Easter break in April.

Seven wins 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007

Free-To-Air Top 20 Programs (Rank, Title, Network, Duration, Audience (five cities)):

1 THE BLOCK -WINNER ANNOUNCED (Nine) 0:07:06 3,370,000
2 AUSTRALIA'S GOT TALENT-THE WINNER ANNOUNCED (Seven) 0:10:06 2,980,000
3 UNDERBELLY: RAZOR -EP1 (Nine) 1:01:21 2,794,000
4 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - THE WINNER ANNOUNCED (Ten) 0:16:00 2,745,000
5 THE BLOCK -AUCTION (Nine) 0:45:50 2,736,000
6 THE 2011 MELBOURNE CUP CARNIVAL: MELBOURNE CUP-THE RACE (Seven) 0:06:05 2,667,000
7 TEN'S AFL FINALS 2011: GRAND FINAL COLLINGWOOD V GEELONG (Ten) 3:02:30 2,641,000
8 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE QLD V NSW 3RD - MATCH (Nine) 1:50:58 2,492,000
9 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - FINALE NIGHT (Ten) 1:01:34 2,402,000
10 UNDERBELLY: RAZOR -EP2 (Nine) 1:01:16 2,352,000
11 THE BLOCK -GRAND FINAL (Nine) 1:07:10 2,309,000
12 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE QLD V NSW 1ST - MATCH (Nine) 1:41:24 2,245,000
13 RUGBY LEAGUE GRAND FINAL (Nine) 1:51:01 2,172,000
14 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE NSW V QLD 2ND - MATCH (Nine) 1:44:00 2,165,000 
15 MY KITCHEN RULES-WINNER ANNOUNCED (Seven) 0:10:00 2,127,000
16 THE X FACTOR - THE WINNER ANNOUNCED (Seven) 7 0:08:00 2,026,000
17 THE 2011 MELBOURNE CUP CARNIVAL: MELBOURNE CUP-RACE PRESENTATIO (Seven) 0:33:27 1,967,000
18 AUSTRALIA'S GOT TALENT-TUE (Seven) 1:34:32 1,936,000
19 THE 2011 GRAND FINAL PRE GAME (Ten) 0:20:58 1,914,000
20 DOWNTON ABBEY (Seven) 1:11:48 1,906,000

Free-To-Air Digital Multi Channel Top 20 Programs (Rank, Title, Channel, Duration, Audience (five cities)):

1 WIMBLEDON 2011 - DAY 9 (7TWO) 1:37:11 737,000
2 TRANSFORMERS -EV (GO!) 3:00:14 486,000
3 2012 -EV (GO!) 3:14:57 441,000
4 AUST FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2011 - RACE (One)2:00:00 428,000
5 WIMBLEDON 2011 - DAY 7 (7TWO) 2:46:45 408,000
6 SURVIVOR: REDEMPTION ISLAND -EV TX1 (GO!) 0:58:00 371,000
7 HEARTBEAT-SAT (R) (7TWO) 1:07:09 350,000
8 JONATHAN CREEK (7TWO) 1:07:32 349,000
9 SURVIVOR: REDEMPTION ISLAND -EV (GO!) 1:36:15 344,000
10 NEIGHBOURS (Eleven) 0:30:35 343,000
11 M-FIRST BLOOD (7mate) 2:00:51 338,000
12 PAUL BLART: MALL COP -EV (GO!) 1:56:36 337,000
13 HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE -EV (GO!) 3:20:46 337,000
14 DOC MARTIN-EP.2 (7TWO) 1:02:01 335,000
15 HEARTBEAT (R) (7TWO) 1:06:18 330,000
16 HEARTBEAT-EP.2 (R) (7TWO) 1:05:31 325,000
17 THE VICAR OF DIBLEY-TUE (R) (7TWO) 0:49:38 322,000
18 HEARTBEAT-SAT EP.2 (R) (7TWO) 1:02:40 315,000
19 HEARTBEAT-WED (R) (7TWO) 1:08:04 314,000
20 DOC MARTIN (7TWO) 1:03:09 308,000

Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2011. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) without the prior written consent of OzTAM.

Obituary: Sean Flannery

Veteran journalist Sean Flannery has died after a battle with cancer at the age of 69.

Born in 1942, Flannery started his radio career at 2SM but later became known for his work on the 2UE program Night Watch that aired every Sunday morning.

He later joined the Ten Network in Sydney and also read the news for Ten and Seven in Adelaide. 

Former colleague David Richardson has written a tribute to Flannery on the Today Tonight website:

“Sean Flannery was a character in the truest sense of the word.  A larrikin in the ultimate Australian sense.  A bloke who loved a beer, he was the epitome of the old school journo from the days of copy boys, cadets and hard-drinking, hard-playing journos – a bloke who was just full of life.”

News Limited CEO and chairman John Hartigan also paid tribute:

"Sean was one of the great characters of radio and TV reporting.  Funny, smart – one of the last swashbucklers of journalism."

Sean Flannery will be farewelled at a funeral in Sydney on Tuesday.

Source: Daily Telegraph, Today Tonight
YouTube: d0nkeyshines

Time’s up for 6.30

The Ten Network has pulled the pin on its current affairs flagship 6.30 With George Negus.

Perceiving some public frustration with the often-tacky, high-rotation style of journalism employed by long-running programs Today Tonight and A Current Affair, Ten last year hired veteran journalist George Negus to front the new show that promised a more substantial style of reporting.  Also signed up for the program were reporters Hamish Macdonald and Hugh Riminton.

6PM With George Negus was launched in January to a modest public response – attracting 606,000 viewers across the five cities on its first night – but failed to maintain any sort of positive ratings momentum and its figures would continue to fall.  A timeslot and name change to 6.30 failed to make any significant gains against the Seven and Nine network giants and even at times struggled to keep above the ratings of Neighbours, the program that it replaced that had been shifted to digital channel Eleven.

Last night 6.30 With George Negus was watched by 340,000 viewers compared to A Current Affair’s 875,000 and Today Tonight’s 1,143,000.  Neighbours on Eleven was watched by 295,000.

The final edition of 6.30 With George Negus goes to air on 28 October.  Starting the following Monday will be an expanded one-hour format for The 7PM Project – now to start at 6.30pm and be re-named The Project.

Negus will continue to work in an advisory role with Ten’s news and current affairs programs and will return to his former role as a regular panelist on The Project.

In a media statement released today Negus said:

“Working on 6.30 has been incredibly fulfilling. From reporters to production crew, we have worked together to bring viewers a high quality, soil-breaking program and some of the year’s biggest stories and interviews. We are immensely proud of all we have achieved. The truth is that unfortunately a program like 6.30 was ahead of its time, but who knows about the future?”

“Though sadly 6.30 has come to an end, I’m looking forward to getting back with my mates at The Project. They’ve also broken new ground with their irreverent approach to what’s going on around us, it’s my kind of tongue-in-cheek program.”

The cancellation of 6.30 With George Negus comes after the recent axing of Ten Late News and the stand-alone edition of Sports Tonight.  The network has also axed its long-running music program Video Hits and walked away from any further commitment to broadcasting AFL.

Ten has a new CEO, James Warburton, and News Director, Anthony Flannery, starting in the new year.

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.

Hazel Phillips has got Talent

It was a brief stroll down memory lane on tonight’s edition of Seven’s Australia’s Got Talent when actress, performer and former TV host Hazel Phillips entered the stage.

Phillips dates back to the earliest days of television, appearing in a TV talent quest before TV officially launched in Australia.  She concedes she didn’t win the contest but the ones that did have not been heard of since!

She went on to appear in early variety programs including the Revue variety series and the original Beauty And The Beast, both from Sydney’s ATN7.

But it was as the host of the 0-10 Network’s daytime variety show Girl Talk that Phillips scored the TV Week Gold Logie for Most Popular Female Personality on Australian Television in 1967.  In the same year she also won the Logie for Most Popular Female Personality in New South Wales.

Phillips also appeared in The Mavis Bramston Show and The Barry Crocker Show and dramas including Boney, Number 96, Ryan, Chopper Squad, Until Tomorrow, GP, Brides Of Christ and A Country Practice.

In 1989, Phillips appeared alongside fellow female Gold Logie winners Lorrae Desmond, Pat McDonald, Denise Drysdale, Jeanne Little and Rowena Wallace in the opening number of the TV Week Logie Awards:

Prior to the Australia's Got Talent appearance, Today Tonight screened a preview of Phillips' audition:

Her entrance onto the Australia’s Got Talent stage was met with warm affection and after her performance received a standing ovation.  And for Phillips, it was as if her career had gone full circle – “I thought well as I started with a contest maybe I can go out with one!,” she quipped.

And good news is she passed her audition and now progresses to the next stage in the competition.

Australia’s Got Talent. Tuesday and Wednesday, 7.30pm.  Seven/Prime7

Source: IMDB, Australia’s Got Talent 
YouTube: scottphillips55, oztvheritage

Ten moves George Negus to 6.30

Two months to the day since launching its radical news overhaul, Network Ten has today made some significant changes in response to poor ratings figures.

The network knew from the January launch that the ratings would be a struggle but had perhaps not quite expected them to settle where they have.  In last night’s ratings, 6PM With George Negus was watched by 335,000 viewers across the five major capitals, compared to Nine News (974,000) and Seven News (1,190,000).  The Evening News was watched by 337,000 compared to A Current Affair (921,000) and Today Tonight (1,144,000). 

From Monday 4 April, 6PM With George Negus moves to the 6.30pm timeslot (and re-titled accordingly) as the 6.30 news half-hour essentially moves to 6.00pm as an extension of the existing 5.00pm news hour.

The change will now see the serious George Negus (pictured) program placed directly up against tabloids Today Tonight and A Current Affair – two programs whose ongoing rivalry hit new lows this week as each program accused the other of pinching footage, a public battle that could well end up in the courts after ACA played an interview conducted by TT without any attribution or commentary.

The changes to Ten’s 6.00pm hour will not result in any job losses as the newsreading roster will be adjusted accordingly – in particular, Melbourne’s 6.30 newsreader Mal Walden goes back to the 5.00pm bulletin while Sydney’s Sandra Sully (pictured) moves back to the national late night bulletin.

Ten’s programming chief David Mott said in a media release that the change is due to audience response to the news line-up:

“We are making this alteration in the early evening news schedule based on feedback from viewers who value competitive, intelligent and incisive news and public affairs programs.  We are strong supporters of quality news, comment and analysis and believe that Network Ten should remain a leading player in this space.”

Earlier this month Ten was forced to reinstate its 5.00pm national news bulletin on weekends after it suddenly moved the bulletin to 6.00pm, leading to rival Nine starting up its own 5.00pm weekend bulletin to fill the gap.

The changes may be seen as a premature panic move – inspiring changes to news viewing habits requires a lot of time and Ten had previously promised its commitment to this line-up “for the long haul” – but the audience appears to have spoken and Ten have taken that on board.  Now it will be up to those viewers to justify the changes that have been made.

Source: Ten Network

TV battle over Abigail

Australia’s first TV sex symbol Abigail (pictured) has unwittingly become fodder for  the ongoing battle between the 6.30pm ‘current affairs’ programs.

On Wednesday night’s Today Tonight, Abigail and her husband, actor Adrian Wright were depicted as ‘squatters’ living in a church hall – the story featuring blurry hidden-camera-type images of the former sex symbol, who shot to fame in controversial ‘70s soap Number 96 and later appeared in Sons And Daughters in the ‘80s and Chances in the ‘90s, as it sought to shame her as a reclusive hermit.  The story did acknowledge that the couple were living in the church building with the permission of the Uniting Church minister as the result of their own home being repeatedly damaged by flood, but attempted to portray them as a drain on the charity of others and the wider community.

The outrage that followed, with editorial and comments on TV Tonight, led to A Current Affair taking the opportunity on Thursday night to set the record straight on the former star’s situation – as someone who is seeking nothing more than a quiet life in the country, after years in the television spotlight, and like many others wanting to re-build after the devastating floods but not seeking any special treatment or fame or wanting to be known as a ‘sob story’.  The story featured supportive comments from close friend, producer Posie Graham-Evans, showbiz commentator Peter Ford and TV presenter and soap opera historian Andrew Mercado. 

But, not to let ACA get away with the story, Today Tonight sought to rake together a ‘response’ to its own story from the previous night.  While TT’s initial story set out to shame the former TV legend, the follow up was overflowing with sympathy from John Michael Howson and actor John Orcsik as well as former Number 96 colleague Joe Hasham.  There were also more comments from Mercado, who also appeared in the initial TT story but perhaps not aware of the angle that the story was to take.

In its follow up, Today Tonight sought to link the plight of Abigail to a nostalgic tribute to another soap opera, Prisoner – a series that the actress had no significant link to at all, though her husband Wright was a cast member.  It was a curious story that really only appeared to serve as a retort to the A Current Affair story on Abigail as well as a catch-up to ACA’s tribute to Prisoner that went to air some weeks ago when the cast reunited to promote the show’s debut on pay-TV channel 111 Hits.

It is sad to see that Today Tonight has sparked this story in an attempt to shame someone so fondly remembered by the public whose only ‘crime’ is to innocently seek a private, peaceful retirement and to re-build from the devastation of the recent Victorian floods.  It is a sad contrast to rival ACA who have taken a more nostalgic approach in its recent revisiting of former TV favourites.

Source: Today Tonight, A Current Affair, Today Tonight, TV Tonight

US stars head to Telethon

US actors John Travolta (pictured) and Carrie Fisher head the list of guest stars to appear at this year’s Telethon, taking place this weekend in Perth.

Travolta, in Australia for Qantas’ recent 90th anniversary, and Fisher, who’s been performing her play Wishful Drinking across Australia, will be joined by stars from various Seven Network programs, including Packed To The Rafters, Sunrise, The Morning Show, Home And Away, City Homicide, Dancing With The Stars and My Kitchen Rules, for the 43rd annual telethon which raises funds for children’s charities in Western Australia.

Also appearing will be Justice Crew, the winners of this year’s series of Australia’s Got Talent, Marcia Hines, Jessica Mauboy, Potbelleez, Kate Ceberano, Damian Leith, Stan Walker, Wes Carr, Mark Vincent and Amy Meredith.

Local Seven Network personalities taking part in Telethon include Seven News’ Rick Ardon, Susannah Carr, Basil Zempilas, Natalia Cooper, Emmy Kubainksi, Sally Bowrey and Adrian Barich and Today Tonight’s Monika Kos.

Last year’s Telethon raised $6,374,775 which was distributed to over 20 charities. Since its launch in 1968, Telethon has raised around $94 million so this year should bring the grand total to over $100 million.

Telethon, being held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, begins tonight (Saturday) at 6.30pm (WST) and continues through to 8.30pm Sunday and will be broadcast through Seven in Perth and the Golden West Network in regional WA.

EDIT @ 14.47 AEDST 14.11.2010: John Travolta has had to withdraw from his planned appearance at Telethon after his pregnant wife, Kelly Preston, went into labour. He was intended to appear in the closing stages of Telethon tonight but is now heading back to the US to be with his wife. Seven's Perth general manager Ray Waldrop has told media: "Whilst we are obviously disappointed that John can't come to Perth to appear on Telethon, we completely understand that his family comes first. Channel Seven, and I am sure everyone in Western Australia, send our best wishes to John and his family.''

UPDATED @ 23.57 AEDST 14.11.2010: Telethon has signed off for 2010 with a record total of $9,237,539.  This now pushes Telethon’s total fundraising amount over 43 years past the $100 million mark.

Source: Telethon, PerthNow

Hey… who would have thought…?

When Hey Dad! finished up production back in 1994, who would have ever imagined that 16 years later the show would become the biggest topic on tabloid current affairs shows, newspapers and all over the internet… and would spark a police investigation?

The Hey Dad! controversy started a couple of weeks ago when Sarah Monahan, then a child star in the series (pictured), spoke to Woman’s Day about her time with the show, and in particular one person who she alleged was acting inappropriately towards her – including gestures such as touching her and exposing himself. Ms Monahan did not name the perpetrator involved in her initial interview – but it wasn’t long before A Current Affair took it that step further.

The revelation from ACA prompted a feeding frenzy, in particular between ACA and its Seven Network equivalent Today Tonight. Both shows pursued the issue with great enthusiasm – and were not afraid to use dirty tricks, either. In particular Today Tonight, no doubt miffed at ACA’s scoop, brazenly took footage that ACA had taken of the alleged offender, zoomed in the picture to remove those pesky “ACA” logos splashed all over the image, and then whacked their own “Exclusive” tag onto it.

ACA also scored a coup – an interview with the show’s producer, Gary Reilly. Mr Reilly, who also co-produced other comedies for Seven including Kingswood Country, The Naked Vicar Show and Daily At Dawn, has claimed he was not aware of the incidents that Ms Monahan referred to, but did concede that there had been other complaints made by another cast member.

ACA also managed to score interviews with many of the show’s former cast members who gave varying perspectives on the saga – including former cast member Simone Buchanan (pictured), who gave an account of her own experiences behind-the-scenes that weren’t too dissimilar to Ms Monahan’s, and Ben Oxenbould, who claimed to have witnessed an incident between the accused and Monahan.

Another former child star from the series, Angela Keep, who replaced Monahan in the role of Jenny Kelly, has also reportedly sold her own story to Woman’s Day.

The public accusations have now triggered a NSW Police investigation and Monahan has reportedly flown back to Australia, from her home base in the US, to make a statement to police.

Police are also expected to take statements from Buchanan and others involved in the series at the time.

At this stage no charges have been laid.

Hey Dad! debuted on the Seven Network in 1987. The half-hour sitcom, based on the family of a single father, ran for seven years and 293 episodes – making it one of the longest-running sitcoms in the world, out-ranking US sitcom giants like Seinfeld (180 episodes), Happy Days (247 episodes) and MASH (251 episodes).

Ian Ross signs off for the last time

Sydney newsreader Ian Ross has tonight presented his last news bulletin, ending a career spanning over 50 years.

Starting his career in radio at Sydney stations 2GB, 2SM and regional station 2MW, Ross made the move to television, to Sydney’s TCN9, in 1965.  He then went to the United Kingdom for two years at news agency UPITN.  Upon returning to Australia in 1974, Ross returned to Nine – and would stay at Nine for the next 38 years.

For many years, “Roscoe”, as he was nicknamed, gained a national profile as the newsreader on Nine’s breakfast show, Today, before going into semi-retirement.

In December 2003, the Seven Network scored a coup by signing up Ross to replace Ross Symonds and Ann Sanders as the chief newsreader for Seven News in Sydney.  Ross’ arrival at Seven came a year after the ever-popular Brian Henderson had retired from rival National Nine News after forty years, and it marked a significant change in Sydney’s news viewing habits, as Seven News, forever the runner-up in Sydney’s fierce TV news battle, had become the city’s top-rating news service.

The dominance of Seven News in Sydney, coupled with the increasing popularity of breakfast program Sunrise, saw the Seven Network finally challenge the Nine Network’s long held standing as Australia’s most popular news source.  Seven News now convincingly wins over Nine News, Sunrise wins over Today, Today Tonight wins over A Current Affair, Weekend Sunrise claimed victory over Nine’s long-running Sunday program last year, and Sunday Night has taken a lot of the shine off 60 Minutes.

In retiring from Seven News, Ian Ross hands over the nightly bulletin to weekend newsreader and Sunday Night co-host Chris Bath.

Source: Seven News, DanNews, Sydney Morning Herald

The Year That Was... #8: Reality check

The lights may have faded a bit on reality TV's ratings this year but the genre still has some life left in it.

Network Ten's big name franchises The Biggest Loser, Big Brother and Australian Idol all came back for more this year.

The Biggest Loser largely followed the formula of last year but this year added the twist of introducing two "intruders" half-way through the series - with one of the intruders, Chris Garling, going on to win the series. The series final also scored an audience of over 2 million, not an easy feat in this era of declining free-to-air audiences.

Big Brother (pictured) returned for its seventh series but in the wake of intense criticism last year over the "turkey slap" incident, this year's series was shown to be a lot more restrained. Gone was the adults-only Big Brother Uncut program, and despite producer's claims that the incoming housemates were all more "worldly" than their predecessors, the group of housemates appeared to be a fairly pedestrian slice of white Australia. Despite the apparent lack of diversity among the housemates there were some exceptions - such as Turkish belly dancer Demet, fiery Brazilian Daniela and Melbourne corset maker Zach Douglas.

There were some new twists in this year's Big Brother; the concept of the "white room", where potential housemates were kept in a sensory-deprived environment, was met with criticism, while other twists such as housemate couple Andrew and Hayley whose relationship was initially kept secret, and was also tested when producers introduced Billy, a former boyfriend of Hayley's, into the house.

The producer's also copped criticism and headlines when housemate Kate Gladman was forced to confront the trauma of a miscarriage when the housemates were given the task of looking after baby dolls. More headlines followed when the father of housemate Emma Cornell had passed away while she was in the house but producer's decided against advising her of his death, in accordance with the wishes of Cornell's family and of the dying wishes of her father.

Producers also copped a serve from none other than the Mexican Government when one of its Friday Night Live games had contestants hurling goo-filled balloons at an upside-down Mexican flag.

Then after one of the longest Big Brother finales on record, due to a close vote between Cobram hairdresser Aleisha Cowcher and self-confessed 'drama queen' Zach Douglas, 21-year-old Cowcher won the series with a prize-money of $450,000.

But Big Brother's biggest twists came after the finale, with announcements that host Gretel Killeen (pictured) is to be replaced next year by Sydney radio hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O, the adults-only "uncut" series will be back, and that Big Brother Up-Late with Mike Goldman won't return in '08.

Ten's Australian Idol returned for a fifth series, though the spotlight - or at least the headlines - seemed to be on the judges rather than the contestants. With ratings down in comparison to earlier series, it was probably no coincidence that a lot of the reported 'tensions' between judges appeared in the Sunday newspapers, giving the show ample media exposure leading up to the regular Sunday night show.

The series final of Australian Idol, which saw Melbourne's Natalie Gauci win the title, appeared to be dogged by technical hitches which wouldn't have helped its ratings - scoring only 1.4 million viewers compared to last year's finale watched by 2.1 million.

Over at Seven, they continued to mix the reality genre with variety with two more series of Dancing With The Stars (hosts Daryl Somers and Sonia Kruger pictured), another series of the singing contest It Takes Two, and the new Australia's Got Talent.

Coupled with US import Ugly Betty, Australia's Got Talent spearheaded Seven's Sunday night schedule early in the year. While the program is actually an adaptation of an overseas format, viewers could have confused it as a one-hour version of the Red Faces segment from Hey Hey It's Saturday - also as one of the show's judges was Red Faces icon Red Symons. The series was to be won by 12-year-old singer Bonnie Anderson.

Dancing With The Stars scored controversy from within its own network when Today Tonight ran a report questioning that funds raised by the show's SMS voting were being properly funneled to their respective charitable causes. Despite the stories, Dancing scored very well in the ratings, though did not match the numbers of previous series. Celebrity winners were Kate Ceberano in series six, and actor Bridie Carter in series seven later in the year.

Following the end of series seven of Dancing, host Somers decided it was time to move on. There were media reports that Somers had left after being refused some pressing demands on Seven and the show's producer Granada International. Other reports suggested that there was still some unease at Somers working for Seven chief David Leckie, the same executive that axed Somers' long-running Hey Hey It's Saturday at Nine in 1999. A replacement host has yet to be found for Dancing, though rumours suggest that former Home And Away actor Tim Campbell (also a former Dancing contestant, and host of National Bingo Night), Deal Or No Deal host Andrew O'Keefe or even Somers' former sidekick Sonia Kruger could take the coveted role.

In between Dancing With The Stars' two series this year was another series of It Takes Two which ran very successfully last year on Sunday nights, and continued to score well for Seven this year. The singing competition, hosted by former Sunrise weatherman Grant Denyer and Gold Logie winner Kate Ritchie, was won by All Saints actor Jolene Anderson (pictured).