30 August 2004 - Seven News underwent its first major refresh since Q2 1999 to coincide with the move to Martin Place. Sunrise, National and state bulletins and Today Tonight all had new looks plus a remixed version of “The Mission” which lasted for many years.
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30 August 1980: ATN7’s telethon for the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Sydney features guest appearances by personalities from all three commercial networks — including stars from Skyways, Cop Shop, Kingswood Country, Shirl’s Neighbourhood, The Sullivans, The Young Doctors, The Restless Years, Sale Of The Century, Eyewitness News and Simon Townsend’s Wonder World.
30 August 1993: Network Ten premieres late night sports round-up Sports Tonight.
30 August 1997: Network Ten premieres lifestyle shows What On Earth, a series about shopping and bargain hunting, hosted by Gaynor Wheatley, Simon Fenner and Steve Williams; and Australian Good Taste, featuring Lenore Smith with Craig Bennett, Darryl Anderson, Lyndey Milan and Tania Lacy.
30 August 2004: SBS premieres eight-part documentary series John Safran Versus God.
30 August 2005: ABC premieres four-part documentary series Real Life Water Rats.
30 August 2010: The Seven Network revives reality music franchise The X Factor, following a single season on Ten in 2005. The new series was hosted by Luke Jacobz with judge/mentors Kyle Sandilands, Guy Sebastian, Natalie Imbruglia and Ronan Keating.
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The series were John tried to get a fatwa put on Rove McManus.
That 10 season you mentioned tanked badly in the ratings, and we thought it would never return.
But after the same station axed Australian Idol in January 2010, citing declining ratings, Seven was quick to purchase the X Factor franchise and turn it into a ratings hit for the seven years they had the show.
Also, original host Matthew Newton was replaced at very short notice by Luke Jacobz.
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1997 - More than 16 hours too early, but at 1:00 pm AEST, Tracy Grimshaw was probably the first TV presenter on Nine to announce the passing of Princess Diana during the WWOS Swimming Coverage. Peter Mitchell was the first TV Presenter on Seven to do so during the AFL Coverage (Pies vs Roos @ MCG or Dons vs Crows @ Princes Park or was it both matches?). I know at 6:00 pm that evening there was special coverage on Seven nightly news in NSW and Nine’s programming schedule changed that evening as well as the 60 minutes episode. Nine had more coverage in the Late Night weekend national update presented from Victoria by Peter Hitchener
When the passing was announced by the French Government, ABC did have Indiria Naidoo to announce the death live to Australia and the only thing 10 did was probably did not have any coverage until the 5:00 pm National Weekend News Bulletin with George Donikian.
2002 - More than 70 hours too early, but at 6:00 pm local time, Nine underwent a major revamp in its On-air presentation with the launch of 7 different logo colours of the iconic logo for the 7 days of the week. This look lasted until February of 2006 (Another set of Idents were used Late 2004 and right throughout 2005) when the dots were removed (Later reinstated Early 2008).
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Was apparently seen at the grounds of both matches.
ABC also had a national 7pm bulletin, with the first 10 minutes presented from London.
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31 August 1979: Melbourne’s ATV0 presents its annual telethon for the Deafness Foundation of Victoria. Newsreader Bruce Mansfield introduces the telethon at 7.30pm Friday, with Annette Allison in the phone room. The telethon continues overnight, with movies filling the hours between 2.00am and 8.00am Saturday morning. The telethon continues through until midnight Saturday night.
31 August 1998: The Seven Network premieres sketch comedy series Something Stupid, starring, written and produced by former Fast Forward stars Marg Downey, Magda Szubanski, Jane Turner and Gina Riley. Like Big Girl’s Blouse before it, Something Stupid featured a series of sketches centred on suburban characters Kath and Kim, that would later evolve into a top-rating stand alone series.
31 August 2008: Nine screens the telemovie Scorched, set in the year 2012 and depicting Sydney as being in the grip of an extended drought, a water supply crisis and multiple bushfires threatening thousands of residents. Scorched stars Cameron Daddo, Anita Hegh, Georgie Parker, Libby Tanner, Bob Morley, Rachael Carpani and Vince Colosimo. On the same night, Seven premieres lifestyle series The Outdoor Room with Jamie Durie.
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Perhaps the most notable thing about The Outdoor Room is the interview Durie did before the show’s launch where he took a shot at its timeslot rival on Nine, Domestic Blitz.
More specifically, he said “The great thing about this show is that you don’t have to be sick to be on it”.
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I’d imagine Rex Hunt and co got very somber on 3AW upon hearing Peter Mitchell break the news during the Dons vs Crows @ Princes Park (i’d guess that’s the match 3AW covered, or maybe it was Pies vs Roos @ MCG?)
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I wonder who else was at Princes Park besides 7 and 3AW that day, 5AA for sure and ABC too. I wonder if MMM was there too or at Pies vs Roos @ MCG?
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September 1 2002: 6:00 pm local time these Idents premiered along with the another set of Seven Idents highlighting a scheduled program and featuring a Nine personality as well as the coloured emblem along as a voiceover of “This is Channel Nine’s [Day of the Week]”. This would last until August 29 of 2004 when another version of these Idents premiered and went on to be used until January of 2006.
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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.
1 September 1990: The Seven Network 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: ABC premieres 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 1997: ABC premieres six-part comedy series The Adventures Of Lano and Woodley.
1 September 2004: Former Blue Heelers star Lisa McCune hosts a new documentary series, Forensic Investigators. 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 premieres dating show Taken Out.
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One of my favourite idents
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Celebrity Wheel of Fortune used the same theme music as used by the New Zealand version of Wheel of Fortune. And the same camera angle with the wide studio shot at the beginning as used in New Zealand.
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2 September 2000: The AFL Grand Final, Essendon versus Melbourne, is telecast live on Seven.
2 September 2004: The Nine Network premieres Body Work, hosted by Suzie Wilks, featuring a range of plastic surgery procedures, from medical reconstruction to the pursuit of perfection.
2 September 2008: Network Ten premieres police drama Rush, starring Callan Mulvey, Rodger Corser, Catherine McClements, Samuel Johnson, Josef Ber, Nicole da Silva, Claire van der Boom and Ashley Zukerman.
2 September 2010: The Nine Network premieres police drama Cops LAC, starring former Home And Away star Kate Ritchie with Gary Sweet, Martin Dingle-Wall, Denise Roberts, Damien de Montemas and Roy Billing.
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IIRC, Megan Gale replaced Wilks for the second series.
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3 September 1979: Simon Townsend’s Wonder World debuts on Ten in Sydney, with Melbourne’s ATV0 following a week later with the show eventually on stations covering much of the rest of Australia. The magazine show aimed at children was an ideal fit for the newly-launched “C” classification mandated for commercial networks between 4.00 and 5.00pm. The show continued for over 2000 episodes, running until 1987.
3 September 1990: Tonight Live With Steve Vizard starts a week of shows presented live from London.
3 September 1992: Sydney radio personality Doug Mulray hosts the special Australia’s Naughtiest Home Video Show, featuring some of the risqué tapes that are too naughty to feature in the family-friendly Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show. The show caused an uproar from none higher than Nine chairman Kerry Packer, who bluntly demanded Nine take the show off-air while still in progress. Although Packer died in 2005, it wasn’t until 2008 that Nine broadcast a largely-unedited version of the show, taking into account that some of Mulray’s dialogue from 1992 would not fly with a more modern audience.
3 September 2008: ABC premieres comedy series Very Small Business, starring Wayne Hope and Kim Gyngell.
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1992: Ah yes the infamous “Get That Shit off the air” moment. After drawing a blank for so long i finally discovered that NBN that night showd some Charles Wooley special. For some reason for a long time i had a gut feeling that they may have shown a replay of the Newcastle Knights vs Canberra Raiders game from the previous Sunday. The Knights win that day cemented their first apoerance in the semi finals.
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