28 August 1967: ABC premieres serial drama Bellbird. Set in a fictional country town of the same name, Bellbird went on for ten years, becoming a popular evening viewing habit particularly in country areas.
28 August 1968: New TV Station — GSW9, Albany, Western Australia
28 August 1990: Beyond 2000 presents a 90-minute special edition, 20th Century Syndrome, looking at some aspects of our modern-day lifestyles and whether they are actually killing us.
28 August 2002: SBS debuts weekly drama series Twentyfourseven, based around the editorial offices of a magazine of the same name. Each episode was scripted and produced within the same week and allowed viewer interaction in determining the future of storylines. The concept was largely adapted from the previous SBS series Going Home, which operated to a similar production model but on a weeknightly basis. Twentyfourseven included cast Jenny Apostolou, John Atkinson, David Callan, Hayley McElhinney, Josh Lawson, Rockell Williamson and Caroline Brazier.
28 August 2008: As the 16th anniversary of the infamous special Australia’s Naughtiest Home Videos was approaching, Nine had Bert Newton host a largely uncensored screening of the show that Nine chairman Kerry Packer abruptly ordered to be pulled off air midway during its original airing in 1992.
28 August 2009: VH1 presents the special ARIA Hall Of Fame, inducting John Paul Young, Kev Carmody, Mental As Anything and The Dingoes. The presentation is replayed the following day on the Nine Network.
29 August 1981: ATV10’s annual Deafness Appeal Telethon raises funds for the Nerve Deafness Foundation. Featuring throughout the day are Network Ten personalities including stars of Prisoner, Holiday Island, The Restless Years, Good Morning Australia, Young Talent Time, Search For A Star, Fat Cat And Friends, Simon Townsend’s Wonder World and Eyewitness News.
YouTube: aussiebeachut0
29 August 1994: Network Ten premieres children’s series Ocean Girl, starring Kerry Armstrong and Marzena Godecki. The series ran for three years and sold well overseas.
29 August 1996: The special If You Have A Heart (Nine) looks at the work of Sydney’s St Vincent’s Heart Transplant Unit and follows two patients waiting for heart donors.
29 August 2015: The Seven Network launches new channel Racing.com
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.
Wouldn’t get away with having personalities from all the networks on the same telethon these days. Unless it was something extraordinary like the telethon for the Indian Ocean tsumani.
Great show, always a great start to the day when it was repeated in the morning.
According to who you talk to, John Safran is the one to thank for us qualifying for the World Cup in Germany. Apparently he got the curse lifted.
Also, Seven updates it’s News theme and presentations for the first time since May or June of 1999 with the production of National news programs (Such as Sunrise) shifting to Martin Place in Sydney City in New South Wales.
I think one reason why the Ten season tanked badly in 2005 was because viewers had (at that point in time) had enough of the reality TV singing format, this coming only months after the second season of Australian Idol wrapped.
But glad Seven revived it and turned it into a ratings smash, after Ten axed Idol at the end of 2009.
Altian Childs would Go On to be the First X Factor Winner Under the Over 25’s Judge Ronan Keating and Score a Recording Contract with Sony Music on Monday the 22nd of November 2010. Defeating Sally Chatfield Under the Watchful Eye of the Under 25 Girls Judge Natalie Imbruglia, Andrew Lawson Came in 3rd Place Under the Watchful Eye of the Under 25 Boys Judge Kyle Sandliands and Girl Group Mahogany Came in 4th Place Under the Watchful Eye of X Factor Groups Judge Guy Sebastian.
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.
I remember as part of the promotion, Nine produced fake news bulletins with Peter Overton and Mike Bailey… wouldn’t mind seeing them again if anyone’s saved them.
Perhaps best remembered for a radio interview Durie did before the premiere where he took a swipe at The Outdoor Room’s timeslot competition, Domestic Blitz.
Only after Ten axed Idol due to declining ratings.
I remember there was a joke going around that to watch a new reality singing contest, you only needed to change the channel (the first season of X Factor to air on Seven did so at a similar time of year that Ten’s final season of Idol aired the previous year).
The Ten iteration brought about the first group to win the franchise worldwide (Random in 2005), but the most successful winner/s in the Seven iteration were Samantha Jade and Dami Im in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
I also remember a promo in 2013 that said that Dami would perform first on a live show.
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.
