On This Day

TV History
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22 March 1991: Andrew Denton’s new late-night sports/comedy show Live And Sweaty debuts on ABC.

22 March 1993: Simon Townsend, formerly of children’s program Simon Townsend’s Wonder World fame, returns to TV with a new ABC series, TVTV, presenting reviews, news and analysis into the world of television.

22 March 1994: Nine has a delayed telecast of the 66th Academy Awards from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Los Angeles Music Centre, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.

22 March 2003: Nine begins nightly coverage of the Australian Swimming Championships from the Sydney Aquatic Centre. The week-long contest serves as the selection trials for the FINA World Championships. Commentators include Ray Warren, Nicole Livingstone and Duncan Armstrong.

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24 March 1971: GTV9 axes Tonight With Stuart Wagstaff and The Ugly Dave Gray Show — the two remaining spin-offs from the former In Melbourne Tonight.

24 March 1990: ABC, Seven and Nine all devote most of Saturday evening to coverage of the Federal Election from the National Tally Room in Canberra. Andrew Olle heads ABC’s coverage, with Dennis Grant and Derryn Hinch on Seven, and Jim Waley and Ray Martin on Nine. Ten’s election coverage is limited to fifteen minutes after Bill Collins’ Golden Years Of Hollywood movie, and SBS presents brief updates in between regular programs throughout the evening.

24 March 1993: The story of Ronald Ryan, the last man to be hanged in Australia, is told in the ABC documentary-drama The Last Man Hanged, through the eyes of journalist Keith Willey, who covered the 1967 execution and the political machinations leading up to it.

24 March 1998: Nine has a delayed coverage of the 70th Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal from the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles .

24 March 2005: ABC debuts Collectors, a series that looks at the things that Australians are passionate about collecting.

24 March 2010: The debut of Seven‘s football show The Bounce, hosted by Peter Helliar, Matthew Richardson and Leigh Matthews.

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Unfortunately ended with a personalities own perverse collection.

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25 March 1966: New TV Station — SES8, Mount Gambier, South Australia.

25 March 1977: Bert Newton hosts the 19th annual TV Week Logie Awards from the Southern Cross Hotel, Melbourne. International guests included film star Burt Lancaster, Susan Seaforth and Bill Hayes from Days Of Our Lives and British actors Robin Nedwell and Geoffrey Davies.

25 March 1991: Network Ten presents a two-hour Eyewitness News special, War In The Gulf.

25 March 1997: Nine screens a delayed telecast of the 69th Academy Awards from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Hosted by Billy Crystal.

25 March 2002: Nine screens a delayed telecast of the 74th Academy Awards from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.

25 March 2005: ABC debuts its new interview series Talking Heads, hosted by Peter Thompson.

25 March 2009: Comedian Lawrence Leung debuts his new series Lawrence Leung’s Choose Your Own Adventure on ABC.

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26/3/2010 ITV announces it has axed The Bill. The final episode goes to air on Tuesday 31 August the same year.

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26 March 1991: Nine has a delayed telecast of the 63rd Academy Awards from the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. Hosted by Billy Crystal.

26 March 1995: Nine‘s live coverage of the Australian 500cc Grand Prix is hosted by Darrell Eastlake, Barry Sheene, Alan Jones and Ken Sutcliffe, joined by former 500cc Grand Prix rider Kevin Magee.

26 March 1996: Nine has a delayed telecast of the 68th Academy Awards from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. Hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.

26 March 1999: WIN expands into regional Western Australia as the second local commercial TV broadcaster, up against former monopoly broadcaster GWN.

26 March 2001: Nine has a delayed telecast of the 73rd Academy Awards from the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. Hosted by Steve Martin.

26 March 2006: Nine‘s coverage of the XVIII Commonwealth Games from Melbourne comes to an end with the Closing Ceremony. Telecast hosted by Ray Martin.

26 March 2009: Network Ten launches its new multi-channel, One HD, presenting an all-sports format

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And in 2011, it turned into an drama, men’s lifestyle and adventure channel, but it still airs sports.

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From memory… Sports themed Movies crept into the schedule around 2010.

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28 March 1966: Melbourne’s GTV9 presents a special featuring Welsh pop singer Tom Jones, filmed during his recent Australian visit. Later, In Melbourne Tonight includes a guest appearance by visiting stars from the UK series Coronation Street. This is up against the final episode of ATV0’s variety show The Ray Taylor Show. The program began in August 1964 as a Saturday night program but failed to gain a significant audience with numerous timeslot and producer changes.

28 March 1971: All networks host an interview with Prince Philip, Duke Of Edinburgh, direct from Adelaide. The Prince is touring Australia to commemorate the golden jubilee celebration of the Royal Australian Air Force. Reporters representing each network in the interview are Robert Moore (ABC), Bruce Webster (Seven), Tim Hewat (Nine) and Geoff Raymond (0-10). Seven and Nine both follow up the interview with a simulcast screening of the special Now Or Never, a documentary focusing on conservation, narrated by Prince Philip.

28 March 1983: Radio personality Tedd Bull and former STW9 presenter Jenny Seaton host the new morning chat show The Late Late Breakfast Show for TVW7, Perth.

28 March 1990: ABC presents the first episode of World War II mini-series Come In Spinner, starring Lisa Harrow, Kerry Armstrong and Rebecca Gibney.

28 March 1995: David Letterman hosts the 67th Academy Awards in Nine‘s delayed telecast from the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles.

28 March 1996: Comedians Julia Morris and Jimeoin are among the cast of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala (Seven) from Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne.

28 March 2010: The Australian Formula One Grand Prix from Albert Park, Melbourne, is live on Ten with a simulcast and extended telecast, including the post-race presentation, on One HD.

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I think this is around the time Leigh Diffey (who had taken over from Bill Woods as host - Woods now co presenter of News At Five in Sydney with Deb Knight) left the network. After this event and went to the States where he’s been a NASCAR caller and star, even did some Tokyo Olympics.

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28/3/2002 Channel Nine televises its first AFL premiership match between Collingwood and Richmond at the MCG. The 2002 season is the first year in a five-year broadcasting deal between the AFL and Nine/Ten/Foxtel.

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30 March 1982: Seven screens a delayed via satellite telecast of the 54th Academy Awards, held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, and hosted by talk show host Johnny Carson.

30 March 1983: The final episode of soapie The Young Doctors airs on Nine, bringing the long-running series to an end after a record 1396 episodes.

30 March 1989: Nine presents a delayed telecast of the 61st Academy Awards from the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. In a departure from the usual format, the awards presentation did not have a host.

30 March 1989: At midnight tonight, the first stage of regional market aggregation launches, with Prime (Orange, Dubbo, Wagga Wagga) extending its coverage into Wollongong and Canberra, while Wollongong incumbent WIN extends into Canberra, and Canberra’s Capital Television expands into Wollongong — giving Wollongong and Canberra a choice of commercial channels for the first time. WIN and Capital would expand into Prime’s coverage areas in December, giving the combined area a choice of three commercial channels.

30 March 1993: Billy Crystal hosts the 65th Academy Awards in Nine’s delayed telecast from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles.

30 March 1994: Richard Stubbs hosts the ARIA Awards on Nine. Neil Mercer hosts the debut of current affairs show The Times on Seven.

30 March 1997: Bill Woods hosts the debut of Ten’s new motor racing series RPM.

30 March 2008: ABC debuts six-part drama series East Of Everything, starring Richard Roxburgh, Susie Porter, Tom Long, Gia Carides, Steve Bisley, Liana Cornell, Nick Tate and Craig Hall. The Seven Network launches a revival of the sports game show Gladiators, hosted by Tom Williams and Zoe Naylor.

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31 March 1964: GTV9, Melbourne, debuts one of Australia’s first situation comedies, Barley Charlie, starring Ed Hepple, Sheila Bradley, Robina Beard and Stewart Weller. The series is based on two sisters who inherit a rundown service station, and its clueless mechanic. Sydney’s TCN9 debuted the series two weeks later.

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31 March 1979: The first episode of Parkinson In Australia (ABC) features Ita Buttrose, Mike Willesee and Sir Robert Helpmann.

31 March 1989: The first full day of programming following aggregation affecting Southern NSW and Canberra. New arrivals Prime and WIN launch their first Canberra-market news bulletins, competing with Canberra’s Ten News on former incumbent Capital Television.

(WIN’s debut bulletin in Canberra was not its finest effort!)

YouTube: Tasmanian Life

31 March 1991: Ten crosses to Bathurst for coverage of the James Hardie 12-Hour Race, hosted by Tim Webster. Coverage starts at 6.00am for an hour, then resumes at 2.00pm for the next three-and-a-half hours.

31 March 1992: Nine presents a delayed telecast of the 64th Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal at the Los Angeles Music Centre.

31 March 1995: Seven’s new football entertainment program Four Quarters is hosted by Sandy Roberts, Wayne Carey, Tim Watson, Brigitte Duclos and Michael Veitch.

31 March 1998: The ABC documentary The Fame Game, co-directed and written by Oscar-winning costume designer Lizzie Gardiner, looks at the rise and fall of some of TV’s popular stars. The documentary features interviews with former soap stars Ashley Paske, Bruce Samazan, Isla Fisher, Melissa George and Tempany Deckert — some of whose fame has continued, while others have faded out of the spotlight.

31 March 2008: The Nine Network debuts game show Power Of 10, hosted by Steven Jacobs. The show was axed after two episodes due to poor ratings.

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Only lasted one season. I still think this show was axed prematurely.

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5 April 1963: The Federal Government announces that it has awarded licences to United Telecasters Sydney Limited and Austarama Television Pty Ltd (Ansett Transport Industries) to operate the third commercial channels in Sydney and Melbourne, respectively. There were nine applicants for the Sydney licence and six for Melbourne.

5 April 1965: TEN10, the new channel operated by United Telecasters Sydney Limited, is officially opened by the Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies. The opening night schedule is highlighted by TV Spells Magic, a musical production telling the story of the building of the TV station.

5 April 1983: The Nine Network debuts its new soap Starting Out, based on a group of first year medical students.

5 April 1984: Bill Hunter stars in the new ABC drama The Keepers, a nine-part series based around the private and professional lives of two fisheries and wildlife officers.

5 April 1995: Andrew Denton hosts The Melbourne International Comedy Festival Charity Gala (Seven) from Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, including performances by Magda Szubanski, Steady Eddy, Flacco, Rachel Berger, Anthony Morgan and Emo Phillips.

5 April 2006: Network Ten launches improvisational comedy series Thank God You’re Here.

5 April 2010: Paul McDermott hosts Melbourne International Comedy Festival Presents The Comedy All-Stars Cabaret on Ten.

5 April 2020: The Nine Network launches reality channel 9Rush.

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So Melbourne International Comedy Festival events have aired (at different stages) on Seven, 10, ABC and even SBS Viceland, but not on Nine, even though the latter is now a media partner of the festival.

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And have made a deal with Discovery Channel to launch it

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Another one of Nine’s failed soap operas. Took until 1989 to air all 85 episodes.

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They had a few game shows they were launching during the second half of the 2000s that all kind of flopped.

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6 April 1978: Melbourne’s ATV0 debuts action drama Chopper Squad, based on the rescue services of a Sydney surf club, starring Dennis Grosvenor, Robert Coleby, Eric Oldfield and Rebecca Gilling. The series made its Sydney debut the following week.

6 April 1984: Bert Newton hosts the 26th annual TV Week Logie Awards from the Hilton Hotel, Melbourne. Telecast on the Nine Network.

6 April 1991: ABC launches it new late-night music program Racket, hosted by James Valentine with Stephanie Lewis, Toby Creswell, Joanne Corrigan and Tim Ritchie.

6 April 1992: Tonight Live With Steve Vizard (Seven) begins a week of shows presented live from London.

6 April 2002: Simone Kessell hosts Seven‘s new series Dog Eat Dog, featuring regular Australians facing mental and physical challenges.

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