27 February 2000 - The Mole premieres on Channel Seven. James Douloudis (spelling?) goes down as the first ever contestant to be eliminated.
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I’m assuming this strategy didn’t last long?
It lasted until November 8. Nine announced in late October 1984 that the show had been axed. Bert’s style was considered old hat and it wasn’t attracting younger viewers. Shortly after Nine announced Mike Walsh would be leaving daytime to do a night time variety show.
Willesee was considered to be a success. National Nine News was moved to 6pm in 1985 and Willesee took the 6.30pm Monday to Friday slot- the start of Nine’s news and current affairs hour that would dominate the ratings for decades.
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at what time did it air before that? I’m assuming 6:30pm?
Yes. Sitcom repeats would usually air at 6pm in those days. Happy Days occupied the slot on TCN9 throughout most of 1985.
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I’m also made to believe that because National Nine News was too strong at 6:00pm (even in Perth), this forced Seven to air its nightly news bulletin at 6:30pm.
Anything Seven tried to do in that period would not work against the bulletproof Nine News until 2005 when Peter Meakin was brought in to turn around their news fortunes.
Even in 2005, Nine News still won the first week of the ratings season, and it was looking like it would be another long year for Seven News.
I’m not so sure about other cities, because there are variations, but in Melbourne Seven and Nine both had news at 6.30 for years (although Nine dabbled at 6.00 briefly in 1976 around the time of the Olympics). Nine moved to 6.00 in 1985 to get a head start on Seven which stayed at 6.30 (which also conveniently suited the regionals that had their local news at 6.00 and then relaying Seven news at 6.30), until new management shifted it to 6.00 in 1987. It didn’t work so Seven soon moved back to 6.30 in 1988 for about 18 months before going back to 6.00 up against Nine and they’ve both been at that timeslot ever since.
if they thought Bert was skewing too old I’m not sure how they thought Mike Walsh would do any better. His style of show didn’t exactly attract a young crowd.
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Yep. That had me scratching my head, too. I don’t remember there being too much difference between the style of variety show both men did at that time. The only difference I can see is that Walsh’s show would only air twice a week. I do recall watching Bert’s show but it beats me how he managed to fill four hours of live television a week. There seemed to be a revolving door of the same old faces reciting tired old anecdotes on those shows back then. Patti and the kids must’ve been on a lot.
Brisbane was traditionally 6pm on all 3 commercial channels. TVQ started one hour news at the beginning of 1985 to match TEN in Sydney and Melbourne. Seven shifted to 6.30 at the beginning of 1988 which was a disaster - moving back to 6pm by mid year. BTQ moved to one hour in April 1987 which basically gave away their good ratings to QTQ from then on in.
The QLD regionals prior to 1988 traditionally had their news at 5.40pm. It wasn’t until the late 80’s they went to 6pm and delayed the Brisbane news until 6.30pm.
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TVQ’s first news service “News Watch” originally was at 6.30pm to avoid the long running Seven and Nine bulletins. The timeslot also meant it could show national and international news from TEN 10’s 6pm news that was not shown on 7 and 9 until the next day.
Edit: The Price Is Right with Garry Meadows followed at 7pm
I don’t think I ever really watched it but I seem to recall it featured regulars like Derryn Hinch, Molly Meldrum and Bettina Arndt, who back then was TV’s regular go-to sex therapist but IIRC was nowhere near as divisive as she has become in recent times.
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28 February 1975: Australians are counting down the hours until colour television officially launches at midnight.
28 February 1984: Days after Lindy Chamberlain loses her High Court appeal against her conviction for the murder of her baby daughter, TEN10 rushes to air a dramatised re-enactment of key events in the saga. The Disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain airs over two hours from 8.30pm with John Hamblin (Play School’s Funny John) as Michael Chamberlain and Elaine Hudson as Lindy.
28 February 1989: Melbourne’s thriving stand up comedy scene comes to the small screen when Tuesday Night Live: The Big Gig debuts on ABC-TV at 9.30pm. The show, hosted by Wendy Harmer, gives national prominence to comedy performers such as Jean Kittson (Candida/Veronica Glenhuntly), Glynn Nicholas (Paté Biscuit/Sergeant F’ckn Smith), Anthony Morgan, Anthony Ackroyd, Denise Scott, Judith Lucy, The Empty Pockets (The Lager Boys) and The Doug Anthony All Stars.
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Did regional TV stations also switch to Colour at midnight on 1st March 1975 or were they already closed down for the night?
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Good question. The Sydney stations did all night movie marathons to celebrate. Don’t know what the regionals did. I’ll see if I can find some regional listings to find out if they also stayed on air through the night.
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Most had probably shut down for the night before midnight.
Even GTV9 after the midnight switch, closed at 2.30am. The other 3 channels stayed on all night.
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ITQ-8 (now Seven Central) switched over to color in May 1975 while NTD-8 were off-air until October.
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Unlike the ABC, CTC-7 in Canberra seemed to make little fanfare and opted to close down just after midnight if the TV listings in the 28/2/1975 edition of The Canberra Times (via Trove) are anything to go by.
Meanwhile WIN-4 Wollongong (who’s listings were included in The Canberra Times during Summer, for the benefit of Canberra people holidaying on the South Coast) was running an all night telethon which of course, was in colour from midnight.
It’d be particularly interesting to know whether or not NBN-3 Newcastle (as the sole commercial station in what was then Australia’s largest regional TV market) stayed on all night for colour. Wouldn’t overly surprise me if most of the smaller regional stations closed before midnight and had the next day’s transmission as their first in colour though!
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Looks like the regional stations in Victoria all shut down as usual on this day in 1975.
Interesting to note HSV7 presented a 90 minute special called Black and White Nostalgia at 9pm that highlighted some of the shows the station had produced at the Dorcas Street studios during their first nineteen years on air. They followed it up with a five minute Opening of Colour presentation before airing a colour episode of Homicide.
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1 March 2016 (1 leap year ago): WIN relauches their HD simulcast, alongsides 9Life. Nine’s Northern NSW affiliate, still known on-air as NBN did the same thing that day.
It wouldn’t be until a few months later when the infamous “channel swap” would happen and confuse viewers, alongside the removal of 9Life to WIN areas for about 17 days.
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And some areas like in the South East & Riverland in Regional SA, haven’t had 9Life since.
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