Peaked at 56 in Sydney with the other stations on a combined rating of just 4. It broke the decades old record jointly held by a Melbourne Seekers concert broadcast by Seven in the 1960s and a Royal Charity Concert in the presence of the Queen and Prince Phillip from the Sydney Opera House broadcast by Nine in 1980. Both peaked at 53. I daresay that Opening Ceremony figure was boosted by the weather gods. Sunday was always spent at my grandparent’s house in those years and I remember being stuck inside all day because of the rain but being captivated by the very Hollywood inspired ceremony.
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30 July 2012 - Network TEN decided to cancel morning talk show, The Circle after 2.5 years on air due to financial reasons. The final Circle Show aired on 3 August 2012.
This show deserved to be axed - the show performed very badly beaten by The Morning Show, Mornings and ABC Children’s Shows.
Following the axing of The Circle, it was replaced by US Content.
Yet IIRC, it was building on Breakfast’s lead-in and could sustain itself through advertorials. It’s casting was screwed by the time it ended though.
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Although I’m sure this wasn’t the only reason why The Circle was axed, the late February 2012 controversy over the comments made by Yumi Stynes and George Negus about Corporal Ben Roberts Smith probably didn’t help the future of the show since they lost 11 sponsors or advertisers (including some major ones) in the aftermath of that fiasco.
I remember there were calls to get Stynes sacked from the show but 10 resisted.
When The Circle moved from 10am to 9am the ratings have dived and were constantly beaten by The Morning Show and Mornings and ABC.
Yeah it was screwed over by Chrissie and Denise bailing and the timeslot changes for Breakfast.
Well, guess what. On this day, 30 July 1984, Seven launched The Love Game - its rival to beat Perfect Match. The article mentions Denise Drysdale working on the show?
And launching a show during Olympic week when most attention is on Channel 10 was clearly a risky move. It didn’t pay off.
And, yes, Nine was also looking at a dating show, Dream Date, with the most unlikely hosting couple - husband and wife actors John Orcsik and Paula Duncan?!? I don’t think it ever happened…
Source: TV Week
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Denise was part of the celebrity panel that asked the contestants questions in order to determine compatibility and quizzed the couples when they returned from their dates. Other celebrities that featured on the panel included Peter Phelps, Terry Willesee, Noelene Brown, Andrew Clarke, Geraldine Turner, Red Symons, Gavin Wood, Jackie Trent and Tony Hatch.
Ten had Dexter the robot and The Love Game had “The Love Machine”, AKA “The Phallus Palace” or “Orgasmatron”. Once a match was made the contestants were led to “The Love Machine”. The machine measured how hot and sweaty their palms were via a heat sensitive plate to determine the value of the date they would be sent on.
Mark couldn’t match Ten’s top show. Holden was criticised for being wooden and having as much personality as a used dunny brush. He was replaced by Gavin Wood within a couple of months. I’m sure it was a complete coincidence that Wood was a Melbourne DJ like his counterpart on Ten’s Perfect Match. Wood was also familiar to viewers as the voice of Countdown and had been presenting a rock quiz segment on Hey, Hey It’s Saturday Night called “Beat Up” which he had to give up when he briefly became host of Seven’s dating show.
By September HSV 7 had given up on the show and returned The New Price Is Right to the 6pm slot. Management in Sydney had approved plans to move The Love Game to 5pm the following year and replace it with a five nights a week Grundy’s soap that was to be produced in Melbourne. That soap, originally called One-Way Street, went into pre production with the title Living Together but would undergo another name change before it made it to air. The theme song for that soap would be written by a duo who had appeared as celebrity panelists on The Love Game.
The Love Game languished in the 6pm timeslot in Sydney until October 19, 1984 when ATN 7 finally pulled the plug. It was replaced the following week by a failed American sitcom called Mr. Smith about a talking orang-utan.
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I remember little of The Love Game but I remember that.
I had no idea Gavin Wood took over from Mark Holden.
Fantastic write up of the show btw 
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I’m not sure how many, if any, of the Gavin Wood episodes made it to air in Melbourne. An article in “The Age” described the show as “pathetic” and HSV pulled it shortly after. No wonder poor Mal Walden’s news was rating abysmally. Obviously they saw the Melbourne produced The New Price Is Right as a better option for them at 6pm as a lead in to the news. That show was still airing late afternoons in Sydney but had already failed to deliver an adequate audience at 6pm for ATN. I’m baffled as to why they kept The Love Game around for so long considering it was rating so poorly for most of its run. Even more perplexing is that they replaced it with a show that had been axed the previous year in the USA after only thirteen episodes.
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If it was not until October they probably just threw in some filler to take them through to the summer season
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Looks like they gave up as ATN 7 went to one hour news starting at 6pm in December '84. Would’ve been interesting to see how Neighbours performed in the 6pm slot in Sydney had they stuck with the original plan.
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Many years ago I used to collect a little pocket-sized magazine called A-Z. It was basically a gig and entertainment guide for things that I was not old enough to attend, but I used to like it because (a) it was free, (b) it used grown up swear words which seemed very edgy to a 13 year old, and © it did have some reviews of radio and TV, although often quite brief.
This was their write up of The Love Game (plus Ten’s Olympics coverage and the new drama series Special Squad):
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31 July 2006 - Following it’s final episode of Wheel of Fortune on 7 (28 Jul 2006) (with Larry Emdur as host), Channel 7 began airing 20 unaired episodes from 2005 (with steve Oemcke as host) during the morning at 10am. Repeats of MASH returned in it’s 5pm timeslot. Followed by new eps of Deal or No deal.
MASH reruns were popular on 7 before moving to 10 Bold (Channel One) in December 2011
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After Channel ONE (then 10Bold) dropped MASH, they were moved back to Seven Network, this time on 7Two and now on 7Flix.
On 1.8.64 - Melbourne viewers are introduced to ATV-0. The first program to air is a Prelude hosted by newsreader Barry McQueen and children’s show host Nancy Cato. This was followed at 7pm by the variety special This Is It!. ATV-0 had been broadcasting test patterns since April 2 then special test programs from May 4. Since GLV-10 could be received by viewers in regional Victoria, ATV was allocated the ‘0’ signal.
The Bionic Woman premiered on TEN 10 on this day in 1976 with a two hour episode. The series, a spin off from the successful Six Million Dollar Man, had only premiered on American television eight months earlier.
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Fast tracking, 1976 style 