WITH many regular television programs signing off last month, viewers are already being served up second-rate fare.
But
come January, things will only get worse. The reason the networks
abandon viewers for two months over Christmas is because their revenue
drops.
Advertising agencies pay about half the rates they pay for spots
during the 40-week ratings season, which ended last Saturday, so the
networks alter their schedules accordingly.
Conversely, sponsorship of sporting events is big business and some
networks have used the summer season to promote their schedule for the
new year.
Seven, of course, did this to great effect when launching Lost and
Desperate Housewives during the Australian Open in January 2005.
Seven’s best offering this summer is the Emmy award-winning comedy
series 30 Rock, which stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin, who won a Golden
Globe for his role as a brash network TV executive.
The title 30 Rock comes from a nickname for 30 Rockefeller Plaza,
also known as the GE Building, home of NBC’s New York City studios.
Ten is running yet another singing competition, which sounds exactly
like Nine’s Joey Fatone-hosted The Singing Bee. Don’t Forget the Lyrics
is a million dollar challenge to remember the words to popular songs.
Well, the money is a little better than on The Singing Bee.
Ten is offering another reality show, this one called Kid Nation,
which features 40 kids aged between eight and 15, and which is being
investigated by New Mexico authorities for violating various child
labour laws.
Nine has a swag of first-run series including The Big Bang Theory,
Waking the Dead, Sensing Murder, Hotel Babylon, ER, Moonlight and
Survivor China, which premiered to 15 million viewers in the US.
But, ultimately, households without pay TV will have difficulty
finding anything to watch, unless daily reruns on Ten of 1990s sitcom
Friends is your idea of entertainment.
Foxtel uses the non-ratings season to improve its profile and
recruit subscribers, and it will release two new Australian-made dramas
during summer.
Last night a new Foxtel channel, Showcase, launched a very adult
drama called Satisfaction. It is set in an expensive brothel and each
episode examines the private lives of one of the prostitutes.
Foxtel will also premiere the second series of Stupid Stupid Man, starring Wayne Hope, Bob Franklin and Matthew Newton.
Foxtel’s UKTV has the truly awful reality show I’m a Celebrity Get
Me Out of Here!, which has a high profile in Britain but has never been
seen here.
Fans of American Idol, which used to be on Ten, will be pleased to
see it back on air after a long break, this time on Foxtel. Judges
Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul make for fascinating TV and
the singers are very talented.
The ABC can always be relied on for daggy Christmas specials and
Collectors Christmas Special on December 23 is a perfect example.
Host Andy Muirhead and the team gather around the tree in Hobart’s
historic town hall with musician Martin Plaza of Mental as Anything to
talk about suitcases. For the children, there is a Charlie and Lola
special on Aunty on Christmas Eve at 4pm titled How Many More Minutes
to Christmas?
On Christmas Day the ABC presents a special episode of Compass
guest-hosted by JTV and Triple-J presenter Robbie Buck, who meets three
families from different faiths.
By the time Christmas is over there will be plenty of sport to
choose from, including the Hopman Cup XX from the Burswood Dome in
Perth on ABC. Seven has the golf Australian Open, the Sydney-Hobart
Yacht Race and the Summer of Tennis, all the big tournaments headlined
by the Australian Open tennis.
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