The lone season on Ten failed spectacularly in the ratings and was probably launched on the back of the success that Idol was generating (FWIW, Mark Holden was a mentor on The X Factor, and led Random to glory - they were the first group to ever win the franchise worldwide) for the network.
After Ten axed Idol in 2009/10, citing declining ratings, Seven was quick to purchase the rights to the X Factor franchise and turned it into a ratings juggernaut until it too copped the axe in January 2017. Its seven seasons aired at roughly the same time Idol would’ve on Ten.
One of the best late night sports show on Australian TV. It was not just a rehash of stories that aired on Ten News’ 5pm bulletins but also included a wrap of the night’s sporting action and feature interviews.
Loved watching Sports Tonight though I was only able to watch the Friday night one because of school and all that but if anything that was probably the best of the late-night offerings because of the Friday night AFL/NRL. Though I pretty much always watched the 5:30 Saturday and Sunday shows. This had to be the closest thing Australia had to SportsCenter.
Per the web site of the main current Freeview/Sky offering, ie: Shine TV:
Shine TV began as Freedom TV, an independent local Christchurch station, in November 1997. In June 2002 Freedom TV signed a contract to provide a 24-hour Christian channel for SKY Television’s digital platform, and in August 2002 transferred its operations to Rhema Media.
Shine TV had been formed in 1999 by a coming together of Freedom TV, United Christian Broadcasters, Alpha Video Trust, and Dove Ministries.
UCB, of course, was a related but slightly separate group to Radio Rhema, set up to evangelise outside New Zealand (incl. to Australia but also to the Pacific).
…it got on Sky in December 2002. Expanded to satellite version of NZ Freeview in 2011 and onto Freeview HD (terrestrial) in late 2016.
I’m sorta grappling with that, yes, there was a Christchurch religious station on air that is able to be traced back from the current Shine TV - but that wasn’t the UCB network, and that did not get on air before it was sold to Prime.
I remember there was some uproar/furore when Ten merged its late night news and Sports Tonight into a 45-minute combined bulletin in 2006, however I could understand why the Friday edition remained as a stand-alone - it was so that they could recap the night’s AFL/NRL action.
More often than not, though, the Friday edition would air around midnight mostly due to the movie finishing late (and therefore delaying the Late News that would follow). I also think it was also not to spoil the footy results as the matches on Seven (AFL) and Nine (NRL) were mostly delayed (and in the case of the NRL, the second of their Friday night double headers between 2007-11) at the time.
I also used to watch the early editions on Saturdays, while on Sundays they wouldn’t reveal the results of the footy as matches would’ve also been delayed on Seven (AFL) and Nine (NRL).
31/8/1997 not sure if this is the right thread for it but an AFL match on Channel Seven is interrupted by Peter Mitchell who delivers the news that Princess Diana had been killed in a car crash in Paris.
Over on Nine, a swimming event is interrupted by Tracy Grimshaw with the news that she had been injured and “the news was not good”.
Sounds about right - the announcement of her death came at a news conference at around 2pm AEST. Although I didn’t watch that, I do remember the initial reports… I was watching Sunday at the time and they ran a scroll when the first reports came in at about 10.30am. Might’ve brought a newsreader in to do a proper newsflash at the next ad break or possibly not until 11am.
The fact that pre-empting Sunday while Kerry P was around was probably blasphemous aside, can certainly see how things were treated back then compared to how it would’ve been treated in 2023, with things being faster and more connected than they were in 1997.
1 September 1974: The Paul Hogan Show special airs on Seven in Sydney and Melbourne, featuring guest stars Kate Fitzpatrick and Bert Newton and performances by Leea Vlahos, William Shakespeare and The Executives.
YouTube: FrozenDoberman
1 September 1990: Seven starts its celebrity-led assault on the top-rating Hey Hey It’s Saturday with two new shows, Celebrity Family Feud and Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune.
1 September 1994: The debut of ABC‘s legal drama Janus, a spin-off from the former crime drama Phoenix. Janus followed the notorious criminal family, the Hennesseys, after four members are acquitted of the shooting of two young policemen in a bungled bank heist, triggering widespread shock in the community.
1 September 2004: Former Blue Heelers star Lisa McCune hosts a new documentary series, Forensic Investigation. Each episode unfolds the drama minute-by-minute showing viewers the tireless work of detectives, and the scientific procedures required to solve crimes.
1 September 2008: Network Ten‘s new dating show Taken Out makes its debut.
It was an Australian creation. The concept was sold overseas and was hugely successful in at least 33 countries. But it was one of those shows that just didn’t work in Australia (twice).
Speaks volumes as to its success or lack thereof, that more people in Australia likely associate the format with the Chinese version that was picked up by SBS than either of the Australian versions.
Maybe for people with Chinese heritage but otherwise it isn’t well known at all. Coincidentally I was just flicking through channels and noticed the Seven version hosted by Joel Creasey is bring repeated on 7flix on Saturday mornings.
