22 November 1956: The Opening Ceremony of the Melbourne Olympic Games is covered live by ABV2, HSV7 and GTV9. Film footage of the afternoon coverage was rushed to Sydney for broadcast there that evening.
22 November 1971: Mike Willesee hosts the first edition of A Current Affair. The show originally aired at 9.30pm before moving to 7.00pm later on.
22 November 1993: After 12 years, A Country Practice comes to an end on Seven, with the final two-hour episode followed by a special with former and present cast members, hosted by Stan Grant. Network Ten had already announced that it would be picking up the series to start over with production shifting to Melbourne in 1994.
23 November 1963: The assassination of US President John F Kennedy occurs early in the morning, eastern Australian time. TV channels begin their broadcast day with news of the shooting but no vision, as there was no direct link to the US. TV stations did rely on “radio pictures” that newspapers received for publication. Some stations broadcast obituaries and tributes during the day, using only file footage.
It was seen as an achievement that news film was able to be rushed to Australia for transmission within 48 hours, as overseas news film was usually known to take several days.
Rockhampton station RTQ7 somehow managed a scoop when it put to air a telephone interview with Deputy Chief of Police, Captain Glenn King, from Dallas to obtain an on-the-spot account of the event.
24 November 1987: Pulses of chain smoking, lonely old maids are about to start racing and sales of duct tape, paper clips and swiss army knives are set to soar when MacGyver premieres on Seven as part of their summer line up.
Sydney media reports describe MacGyver as a cross between Professor Julius Sumner Miller and Indiana Jones.
I know in the aftermath of the Whitlam dismissal Sydney stations extended their nightly bulletins to accomodate the interest in what was happening in Canberra. Seven was lauded for their coverage with portions of it being seen in New Zealand and on the BBC. TEN10 has Eyewitness Newshour listed from 17 November 1975 but I wouldn’t be surprised if it had actually started from the day of the dismissal and they just decided to continue with it. Sitcom Julia had been running in the 6.30pm time slot in the weeks before.
24 November 2005 - The new episode of Price is Right (which was produced via Studio Nine in Melbourne) went to air for the final time on Nine. During 2005, TPIR started to lose ground in ratings during its 5pm-5:30pm timeslot where it languished to 3rd place (IIRC). DOND dominated during its 5:30pm timeslot on 7 where it provided a boost to their news bulletins. This game show was a great show, but it was the end of Larry Emdur at Channel Nine (He would join Channel 7 to host WOF in 2006 where it was axed). Nine would run repeats of The Price is Right over the summer ratings period before retiring the show at the start of 2006 official ratings season to make way for Family Feud (which was hosted by Bert Newton).
24 November 2019 - After 11 years, Newsmagazine show, Sunday Night went to air for the final time. Mel Doyle reviewed the stories that have captured from the past 11 years. In 2019, Sunday night started to struggle in ratings where it was beaten by Nine on Sunday. However, repeats of Sunday Night continued to air during the summer holidays before retiring the show at the end of January 2020.
26 November 1976: RTS5A, serving Loxton and the Riverland region of South Australia, is officially opened. The market represents one of the smallest in Australia in terms of population size.
Today marks exactly 11 years since Ian Ross presented his final Seven News Sydney bulletin.
Chris Bath assumed his role and remained there until the end of 2013/start of 2014, before Mark Ferguson replaced her in January 2014 due to low ratings. The ratings haven’t improved much to date, and Mark remains in the chair.
27 November 1998–When Brian Naylor read his final bulletin at National Nine News Melbourne, he thanked all viewers for his support over The past few years. Peter Hitchener took over naylor. National Nine News Melbourne ratings were dominant from mid 1980s through to 2006.
Also on that day, Midday went to air for the final time on Channel Nine. Kerri Anne Kennerley thanked viewers over the past few years. During its show, Midday had different hosts including Ray Martin, Derryn Hinch, Grimshaw/David Reyne and then Kennerley.
