We had a 0 on our one!
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Is Steven Peacock in everything? He has a show on 7, 9 and 10 and now this on ABC
He was on this last season of The Newsreader as well as RFDS and Five Bedrooms. It’s Human Error that is new. I think they’re all hiring him just to score some free publicity from TV Week. 
Episode 1 Sunday 10 September 8.30pm
It’s one year on and Helen and Dale are now established as ‘The Golden Couple of News’. It’s Election Night 1987 - Hawke vs Howard. Competitor Geoff Walters is also making a well-publicised comeback on a rival network.
A year on from the events of series one, we meet Helen Norville (Anna Torv) and Dale Jennings (Sam Reid), now established as ‘The Golden Couple of News’… To the outside world, they present a glowing image of success and romance… But the truth is more complex.
As 1987 rolls along, global stocks will soar and crash, Australia will prepare to celebrate its Bicentennial year, and Helen and Dale grapple with who they really want to be in life… And whether that path can be together…
It’s July 1987, Dale (Sam Reid), Helen (Anna Torv), and the rest of the News at Six team are working perhaps the most critical night since Dale ascended to the desk— election night 1987. Hawke versus Howard.Dale and Helen are going to jointly co-host the election night coverage— almost six hours, unbroken, on air.
Adding additional pressure, their direct competition is none-other than Geoff Walters (Robert Taylor), now making a well publicised ‘comeback’ on a rival network.Production credit: A Werner Films Production for the ABC. Major production investment from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in association with VicScreen. Worldwide distribution is managed by Entertainment One (eOne). Created by Michael Lucas. Written by Michael Lucas, Kim Ho, Adrian Russell Wills and Niki Aken. Directed by Emma Freeman. Produced by Lucas and Joanna Werner. Executive Producers Werner, Stuart Menzies and Emma Freeman. ABC Executive Producers Brett Sleigh and Sally Riley.
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Episode 2 Sunday 17 September 8.30pm
The country is rocked by a shock mass shooting in the heart of Melbourne. When Helen races to air with confronting footage of the aftermath, she is seen as exploiting the tragedy, and public sentiment shifts against her.
A year on from the events of series one, we meet Helen Norville (Anna Torv) and Dale Jennings (Sam Reid), now established as ‘The Golden Couple of News’… To the outside world, they present a glowing image of success and romance… But the truth is more complex.
August 1987 – the Hoddle Street Mass-Shootings
The News At Six, and indeed the country, is rocked by a shocking, unprecedented event— a mass shooting in Clifton Hill. A huge and consequential story, it activates everything that compels Helen about the job. She wants to be first to cover the event from every angle— the details, the timeline, the gun-rights debate, the motivations of the shooter.
But when she races to air with confronting early footage of the aftermath, the News At Six is seen as exploiting the tragedy.
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Ahead of the ABC premiere, the BBC announced today that it had bought season 2 from distributor eOne.
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The owner of the network features prominently in this season’s early episodes and then episode 3’s big story is the global financial crisis caused by the October 87 stock market crash and the implications for media owners (without giving away the story 
).
Episode 3
Sunday 24 September 8.30pm
A global crisis is escalating— the stock market is in freefall. Parallel to that, Helen (Anna Torv) is plunged into personal free-fall when the office is contacted by a gossip columnist, who is planning to print an expose about Helen’s troubled past - her teenage institutionalisation, and her subsequent estrangement from her family.
Feeling hunted, Helen knows that the one person capable of shutting down the story is the embattled CEO, Charlie Tate (Daniel Gillies).
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New Zealand channel Eden will show season 2 at 8.30pm Wednesdays from September 13.
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Episode 4
Sunday 1 October 8.30pm
As Australia’s 1988 Bicentennial approaches, Helen is determined to interview a fiery Aboriginal activist. Meanwhile Dale quietly plans an elaborate marriage proposal.
The hype is building for 1988 Bicentennial.
As the News At Six shoots an elaborate, patriotic ad, Geoff (Robert Taylor) hosts a telethon supporting the first fleet re-enactment. When Geoff’s coverage is interrupted by a striking protest, it thrusts Aboriginal activist Lynus Preston (Hunter Page-Lochard) into the spotlight.
Helen (Anna Torv) is convinced that Lynus will make for great television and could provide a vital Aboriginal voice amidst the pageantry. Needless to say she is met with fierce opposition from Lindsay (William McInnes), until Dale (Sam Reid) pitches a compromise— for every minute of Lynus, he pledges to deliver three minutes of Princess Diana coverage…
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Fantastic first episode tonight.
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Agree! Even better than series 1. (Which was fantastic).
I found it a bit slow for the first half but it got better by the end.
The set designers have (again) done a fantastic job at placing this back to 1987. Even the fridge magnets were right on point 
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I didn’t see the fridge magnets, what did I miss?
Interesting to see from the show’s creator Michael Lucas that the “7.45 guarantee” promo was based on a real-life promo from Channel Ten:
https://twitter.com/MrMichaelLucas/status/1700824424122040623
But, you know, the media nerd that I am, a couple of things irked me:
- There was talk that the 1969 election was called early, like 8pm? In those days, voting booths didn’t close until 8.00.
- The news team were shown waiting for ratings results on Monday morning immediately after the election. While I am sure that there was some level of phone polling done of audiences to get an informal result, the actual ratings were all based on paper diaries and for the week ending on Saturday the results wouldn’t be known until the following Wednesday. (Peoplemeters for data collection didn’t begin until the early '90s)
- They talked about ratings numbers in the millions. Generally in those days ratings were reported as shares/percentages.
I get that the general audience don’t give a toss about what are really minor details, but this being a media forum we’re going to notice these things
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Did they specify it was a Monday morning though?
Could have been any day during the week.
the slide at the beginning of the scene specifically said “Monday 13 July 1987”
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Must have missed that. Are you enjoying it though?
Great show. I’m just nitpicking. Like I said these are essentially details that the general audience wouldn’t give a thought to and could well have been deliberate creative choices to make it relatable to a contemporary audience. Shows like these are not documentaries, after all, but dramatisations and of course there is some creative licence taken.
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