ell's blog

Well, today marks four months til Christmas is upon us again, and we all know what Christmas time means, presents, family, no news shows. Now will be the time that TVNZ and TV3 are beginning to lock in their summer schedules.

It seems archaic that in the 21st century when news can be accessed 24/7 no matter what time of year, online that the likes of Breakfast, Sunrise, One News at Midday and 3 News at 12, plus the nightly 7pm shows take summer breaks. Equivalent shows continue in Australia run right through (excluding a break for Christmas Day). The fact the surplus news services in the country shut down for a month or longer is ridiculous.

While it may be an expense to the networks to keep these shows running over the break, surely it would be more attractive to advertisers during that period rather than cooking shows or various other reruns filling that slot during the break.

I believe Breakfast/Sunrise/Midday news bulletins could have maybe a 1 week break. Maybe ending up the Friday before Christmas day and returning before New years Day, depending on the dates year to year. This year Breakfast was off for a month (Dec 21 ended, back Jan 21), Sunrise took 5 weeks off (Dec 21 – Back Jan 28).

In terms of TV One, We have seen from some of the hosts filling in for Paul Henry on Breakfast (Jack Tame, Martin Devlin) that they would be adequate replacements for Paul over Summer and Ali Mau already fills in as the female back up host. News presenters are abundant at TV One, Miriama Kamo, Rawdon Christie, Sonia Voigt + the rest of the TVNZ 7 team who could fill in the Breakfast news, Midday news, 6pm news and Late news ably.

TV3 has Ali Ikram, Jacqui Brown and Petra Bagust to call upon for Sunrise. Plus the likes of Kate Lynch, Simon Sheperd, Hamish Clark and Rebecca Singh for newsreading roles.

The 7pm shows do pose a greater problem with more reporting staff on board needing to churn out stories. So a longer break would make more sense for those shows. Then again, Australia manages to keep those shows going.

Does anyone else agree with me? Or am I just raving?

Poor ratings has seen changes to the TV3 schedule on Monday Nights immediately…

Women’s Murder Club moves to the slot following Sports Tonight on Monday nights (around 11:15-11:30pm).

The Unit pulled altogether… “Unfortunately, The Unit wasn’t performing as expected in the timeslot. TV3 will consider screening further episodes at a later date.”

Movies (The Bourne Identity on August 25 and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life on September 1) replace Women’s Murder Club at 8:30pm.

Andrew Saville tonight confirmed that Peter Williams will replace Tony Veitch on TV One’s 2008 Olympics evening anchoring and also will present the sports news during ONE News at 6pm from Beijing.

The first New Zealand version of the globally popular quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is coming soon to TV ONE.

TVNZ is calling for contestants from around New Zealand to be on the show by Clicking Here

Those selected will be flown to the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire studios in Melbourne where the series will be recorded in front of a Kiwi audience and fronted by a New Zealand host.

“TVNZ is thrilled and proud to bring Kiwi viewers the first New Zealand version of this phenomenally popular show,” says Andrew Shaw, TVNZ General Manager of Commissioning, Production & Acquisition.

“The opportunity to share the studio, set, lighting, computer system and production expertise of Channel 9 makes this New Zealand version possible,” says Shaw.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is the multi-award winning quiz format created by 2waytraffic. The show launched in the UK where it quickly became a ratings phenomenon. Since then the format has been licensed or optioned to every major territory in the world.

The format has unparalleled play-a-long-at-home appeal, with viewers either on the edge of their seats or with their head in their hands, hanging on to the contestant’s every answer!

Just looking through the Tv Guide and it seems that Home and Away isn’t on during the week of July 7-11, The Simpsons takes its place, with Malcolm in the Middle at 5pm and Hannah Montana at 4:30pm.

A couple of reasons for this spring to mind
1) It will be school holidays at the time – maybe TV3 has decided that ratings for Home and Away fall during the holidays?
2) Channel Seven in Australia will be taking a couple of weeks off when it screens the Beijing games.

Herald on Sunday confirmed today that Sportscafe will be returning from July 9th on TV2, after a two year absence.

Hi,

Does anyone have the ratings for Sunrise vs. Breakfast this week vs. last week or similar? With Paul being away I would be interested to see the ratings. Thanks!

Mark Sainsbury is joining the Breakfast team for a week long stint while Paul Henry is on holiday!

Mark is used to presenting Close Up at the other end of the day, but there is no doubt this seasoned broadcaster will have no problems charming Breakfast viewers in the same way he has helped make Close Up the top rating current affairs show on television.

Mark will join Pippa, Tamati, Peter and the rest of the Breakfast team for a week from Monday June 16.

Has anyone got the ratings for Underbelly last night?

Will it be axed this week?

Prime TV has decided not to renew their contract with Channel 9′s Today Show.

“Prime Television’s rights to Today expire at the end of this month. New Zealand viewers will see their last episode on Friday, April 25.

Today is made for the Nine Network is Australia and is frequently interrupted to accommodate events and sports coverage for the Australian audience. Because Prime plays Today live, its schedule is also interrupted, which causes many problems behind the scenes.

Today appeals to a very small audience in New Zealand. This fact, in addition to the programme’s problematic live nature, have led to the very difficult decision not to renew this series.

At this stage we have no plans to purchase rights to Channel 7′s show.”

- Sky Spokesperson