800 Words

Promo for second half of season 3 shown tonight during House Rules.

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Season 3 Episode 9 Tuesday 14 August at 8:45PM

Final season?

I hope it’s not the final season because it means Seven will not have any Australian drama left on its stable apart from Home and Away.

Seven just announced a new drama

They should hang their heads in shame if all they can commission is spinoff ABC products.

random question here - why does Seven have a habit of airing split seasons of their Dramas in recent years? First, they did it with Packed to the Rafters, then did it with Winners & Losers (seasons 3 & 4), and now with 800 Words since it began in 2015.

Because they waited too late in the year to screen them and then had too many episodes to screen before ratings finished.

fair enough. Makes sense now. Thanks

I agree it would be nice if Seven could have some original ideas instead of spinoffs, but I think they’re hoping for some in built audience on something so expensive. Though I’m quite looking forward to the spinoff. It has loads of potential and it’s something really different, so for that I think Seven should be commended.

After watching Olivia I hope Seven has the budget to fully realise the 60s though and I worry that the telemovie/telemovie miniseries format is out of fashion as they haven’t rated well lately.

I also hope this isn’t the final nail in Doctor Blake’s coffin.

It is, well the last half of a season anyway. The crew were informed late last year that Seven would not be commissioning a fourth series. Why I have no idea, except as usual Seven was gearing up for a costly Sports Rights battle, so whenever that happens Australian dramas that rate okay suddenly seem to vanish.

The audience for 800 Words dwindled and the prospects weren’t good for a recovery. I understand the decision to axe it but they should be upfront about it and confirm they have other projects in the pipeline. They’ve sort of done the latter with their ABC spinoffs but they should promote it as a final season.

You’re right the ratings did dwindle, but nowadays they aren’t going to get much better and it was a co production filmed in New Zealand, so cheaper than most fully Australian productions. Splitting the season in half also probably didn’t help much.

I also think they should have played out the final half of the season to make their final decision on a renewal. You never know, the ratings could have improved if aired in a different slot in a different part of the year.

Definitely agree with you on Seven should have been upfront, as it was I read about the axing in a New Zealand article.

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Surely they will find another project for Erik Thomson. Audiences love him in family drama.

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Apart from this drama being cancelled for low audiences.

To be fair he’s had a pretty good run in Australian tv. Four years in All Saints, five years on Packed to the Rafters, two years on 800 Words. That’s a really good run. Really only Gary Sweet can rival that.

I also don’t think you can blame him for its decreasing ratings. The storylines and erratic scheduling pretty much sealed its fate and he did his job of initially drawing in eyeballs. No actor can keep a show running when the storylines aren’t there or the network has lost confidence.

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Yeah in retrospect a bit unfair. Sorry @ryan1890. I do like Erik!

Three seasons shown over four years.

Will 800 words do ok airing after Dance Boss I wonder…

What about Paul Cronin? 6 years on Matlock Police and Solo One, 7 years on The Sullivans.