Well Said
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ISTR that all that appeared on the blank screen was the 7 watermark - not sure what the technical reason was that the watermark could be broadcast but nothing else could.
Seven News Melbourne opener from March 11, 2002.
This was the first bulletin to be produced from the Docklands studio, and unlike other markets, the Melbourne set had the newsroom as the backdrop, which to many was kinda boring.
Also that evening was the episode of The Weakest Link in which the nine remaining contestants from The Mole were blindfolded and put on set, much to their surprises. While there is no video of that episode on YouTube, the $14,100 they raised (which was later rounded up to $15,000 and placed into the kitty on The Mole) was the lowest amount ever won on TWL.
That episode gained a national audience of 1,312,000, but Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, aired an hour later on Nine, gained 1,510,000 viewers. I wonder what Millionaire did that night to counter.
Credit: matt01video
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The solid red logo can be seen in the background which would be used on the network’s on-air presentation in September 2003 and beyond
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In 2003, CHannel Seven only had one weekly win, thanks to the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final (which drew strong ratings in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth market). Nine won 39 weeks.
2004 was the annus horribilis where Channel Seven didn’t have any AFL or NRL. However, Channel Seven had the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens where the ratings helped the network earn at least one weekly win. Channel Seven finished 2nd over 10 by a very slim margin (In terms of primetime shares) at the end of 2004.
In early 2005, Channel Seven started off exceptionally well with the Aus Open Final and new shows like Desperate Housewives, Lost and DWTS. Seven News also managed to overtake Nine News during that year. Luring Ian Ross to the Seven News Sydney helped the ratings grow. However, Nine still won the 2005 ratings year.
In 2006, Channel 7 continued its ratings surge where they managed to win more weeks over Nine. However Nine just won the year in terms of primetime shares. During that year, Channel 9 started to lose momentum during the 2nd half of 2006 with failures and the network ending its AFL rights deal after 5 years.
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Who could forget this:
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Well before Weekend Sunrise, Seven had a Sunday morning breakfast program called “Sunday Sunrise” (it seems there is no video of that show on YouTube). Chris Bath (and later Chris Reason) were the show’s presenters throughout its history.
In April 2005, after poor ratings against Sunday, the show was revamped and renamed “Weekend Sunrise”, with Lisa Wilkinson and Chris Reason as the co-presenters, Simon Reeve the newsreader and Kylie Gillies the sports presenter.
The poor ratings for WS continued until Andrew O’Keefe temporarily replaced Reason, after which ratings improved, leading to his promotion as permanent co-host. O’Keefe would remain in his position until resigning in December 2017.
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How did AOK get to “temporarily” replace Chris Reason?
Did he become sick again after battling cancer in 2002/03?
From memory, I think Chris Reason went on leave (not through illness) and AOK was brought on to temporarily co-host with Lisa Wilkinson. But after improved ratings, O’Keefe’s position was made permanent and Reason returned to full-time reporting for Seven News.
However, Reason has appeared on Sunrise/Weekend Sunrise every now and then - in 2015 he read the news while Nat co-hosted with Sam, did about three days co-hosting with Sam in November 2016 and co-hosted with Monique in November 2018 while Basil was in Melbourne covering the Spring Racing Carnival.
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Can’t go past the unique The Night Cap on 7HD
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That was a shocker! Lasted only a few weeks before being axed.
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Seven also launched a new game show called The Master, which was shelved after just one episode.
YouTube credit - Ben Croker (the user himself is featured as a contestant in this video)
The show was eventually burnt off during the 2006-07 summer period, airing Monday nights at 7:30pm up until the week before the Australian Open.
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He got to keep his winnings as stated in the comments after the show’s cancellation after the series premiere.
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The Weakest Link was another show that disappeared from the Seven schedule mysteriously. On (what many didn’t know at the time was) the final episode aired on 22 April 2002, Cornelia said something among the lines of “We’ll be back later in the year” at the end of the show and it never returned after that.
There was also talk of a 2008 revival hosted by Gretel Killeen (who by the way just turned 57), but it didn’t come to fruition.
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It actually also got repeated late last year on 7TWO during the afternoon.
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Yeah I do vaguely hear something about The Master being repeated on 7TWO at some point over the past decade, not just last year as you mentioned.
Another Seven flop, Million Dollar Minute, is also replayed frequently on weekday mornings/afternoons, as is old episodes of Deal or No Deal. The second season of The Mole (in which Michael Laffy was the Mole) was also replayed on late nights/early mornings in November 2011.
7TWO should have also shown repeats of The Weakest Link in its early life too, IMO.
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Was it a flop?
DOND definitely wasn’t.
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Well I’d certainly say that The Chase Australia has enjoyed more ratings success, considering that it’s still on air after four years while Million Dollar Minute only had two years (maybe slightly less) and two different co-hosts during that time.
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I didn’t explicitly say that DoND was a flop, though it did start to wane in the ratings by late-2009, which resulted in no new episodes being produced after October 2013 and the launch of MDM, which lasted only twenty-four months.
It’s worth remembering that the abbreviated version of DoND was launched in an attempt to provide a strong lead-in to Seven News, which continued to lag behind Nine News (and Ten News in Sydney and Melbourne) going into 2004.
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Deal or No Deal launched in mid-2003 shortly after “The One to Watch” was replaced with “See things Differently” as a primetime show on Sunday nights. Nathan Cochrane won $516,000 on the show’s second ever episode.
Although the show lasted only one season, DoND became a successful weeknight show at 5:30pm from 2004 until its axing in 2013.
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