On this morning in 2002, the Commonwealth Games wrapped up in Manchester (due to the time difference, it was August 4 in the UK).
Seven would not televise the event again until Gold Coast last year.
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The 1,000th episode of The Young Doctors goes to air own Nine at 6pm on this day in 1981. It would become the longest running serial in Australian television history the following year and would hold the title until 1989 when A Country Practice would surpass the milestone.
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On this day 14 years ago, the best newsreader the world has ever had IMO Peter Jennings died from lung cancer.
The last time we ever saw him:
This was a prerecorded message at the end of World News Tonight in April 2005.
I was too young to remember hearing about his death, but after watching coverage on YouTube of him over 9/11 and other instances, his unique way of telling events sets him apart from everyone else. Did the news make it in Australia? I’m not sure, but I know Matt Lauer’s firing made news here.
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On the Sunday after his death, the final segment of Sunday was devoted to Jennings.
Jana acknowledged that although Jennings wasn’t that well known in Australia, he had covered (and in some cases, been present at) so many notable events over the past 40 years.
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He was the best news anchor of all time. Nice touch for Sunday to devote the final segment that day to Jennings.
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On this day in 2003, Amrozi was sentenced to death for his role in the Bali bombings. Would anyone have any media coverage (from an Australian perspective) of this event?
August 8, 1985- A tradition of mid-evening talk/variety television on Nine comes to an end when Mike Walsh announces at the start of The Mike Walsh Show that Nine had axed the show and it wouldn’t continue beyond that night. The revelation made front page news in both The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age the following day.
After thirteen successful years on daytime television Walsh moved the show to evenings in February 1985. It had been averaging 13 in the ratings when Nine brought the curtain down in a climate of financial pressure and changing audience attitudes.
Walsh’s production company, Hayden Productions, had been producing Ray Martin’s Midday throughout 1985. Walsh sued Nine when they ruthlessly repudiated the agreements to utilise his talents and produce Midday and was awarded $7.5 million in August 1987. It was found Nine had traded on the expertise and experience of Walsh by taking over the format of his show and acquiring the experienced production team he had established.
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Must’ve been up against good shows if the ratings were that low.
it was doing better than that at midday before hand!
Did they think that if moving to prime time worked for Hey Hey it would work for Mike Walsh, too?
August 8, 2008 - the start of the Beijing 2008 Olympics with the Opening Ceremony the most watched TV program that year with an audience of 3.3 million people tuning in from 9.50pm to just after 2.30am (next day) AEST.
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You’d think Walsh would’ve seen the writing on the wall and realised viewer tastes were changing considering Nine had axed The Don Lane Show, The Daryl Somers Show, Bert Newton Tonight and The Ernie Sigley Show in the few years before he moved to prime time.
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Ikr, all the warning signs were there.
And this meant Friday Night Football between Melbourne and Geelong that evening had an unusual start time of 7:05pm.
Interesting to see what Seven and the AFL do on July 24 next year (Round 18).
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AFL wasn’t shown in Sydney and Brisbane that day with a Beijing preview showing airing at 8.00pm AEST in these markets
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I think it may have been shown the following morning (at 8:00am) instead. This was also the case for Port Adelaide vs Collingwood in round 20 and Essendon vs Western Bulldogs in round 21.
August 9, 2009: It was time to “Get ready to GO!” with the Nine Network launching their first fulltime digital multichannel, GO! at 6.30pm. First programs to ever air on the channel were Wipeout, a two hour Big Bang Theory marathon (at a time before the program became really big in Australia) and Aliens In America.
Of course, GO! was slightly rebranded as 9Go! in November 2015 as part of the major branding realignment which took place across the entire Nine Network around that time to coincide with the launch of 9Life and the launch (or return, depending on your point of view with this one) of Nine HD.
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Yes GO! was a game changer for the market. Tripling ONEs shares in the first week on air.
I very much enjoyed the earlier schedule the channel offered in the early days.
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2015 actually.
Also, when GO! launched, Seinfeld was part of the channel’s schedule, which it since went to 7mate, 7flix & now 10 Peach.
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Corrected, not sure why I had this year in mind while typing that post out! 
And geez, Seinfeld has been around the networks. Weren’t repeats also shown on Nine’s main channel (or maybe Nine HD during the final days of breakaway programming in 2009) at one point?
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Yes, they were.
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