Go channel surfing with our rotating panel of couch potatoes as they share their views on the good, the bad and the ugly on our TV screens. We want to know what you think too, so sink into the sofa and share your comments. Time tinkering is messing with my head!
| our TV junkies
Here’s a TV pop quiz question for you: What do Damages, Weeds, Queer as Folk, Coupling and Six Feet Under have in common?
Answer: They’re all brilliant shows that have been pushed to the edge of our waking hours by network programmers who treat their audiences with the kind of contempt usually found only in an unruly courtroom.
Six Feet Under, for those of you who missed it because you couldn’t stay awake until 10.30 or 11pm, was a cracker black comedy revolving around a dysfunctional family which ran a funeral home.
It won several Golden Globe awards – including one for our own Rachel Griffiths – and was widely acclaimed for its quirky characters, offbeat plots (pun intended) and ability to take a humorous look at an issue which doesn’t usually raise many laughs.
Yet when it was shown here in Australia, Channel 9 chose to bury it in a late timeslot.
Perhaps the themes of homosexuality and drugs were the justification, or maybe it was the grave subject matter that really made the programmers twitchy.
But Six Feet Under wasn’t the first hot show to suffer the witching-hour timeslot treatment and it certainly wasn't the last. The latest victim is Nine’s edgy new drama Damages, which stars Glenn Close as an evil lawyer who pursues success at any cost and Rose Byrne as her tortured protege.
When the series started a few weeks ago, it was being shown at 9.30pm. Tonight (Wednesday) it’s been pushed back to 10.30, after what seems to be a new series of Without a Trace.
Fans – and I declare my own personal interest here – who have become hooked on the show have every right to be outraged that they will now be forced to stay up until 11.30 at night to see the episode through.
With the wicked black comedy Weeds airing at 10.40pm on Monday (also on Nine), I, for one, am starting to feel a tad sleep deprived.
And after a quick survey of my office, I know I’m not the only one. Torchwood, Coupling, Brothers and Sisters, and Queer as Folk are among the other shows fans have been disappointed to see pushed back to 10.30pm and later in the past.
Australian TV networks are allowed to show programs with adult subject matter after 9.30pm, so adult content is no excuse for the timeslot.
Another argument often used by programmers is that the ratings don’t justify prime-time viewing. But of course a program showing at 10.30 is not going to rate as highly as one shown at 8.30.
C’mon, TV folks – you’re messing with our heads! Isn’t it time you treated your viewers with a little respect?
— SUZANNE KEEN
What TV shows have you been cranky to see moved into late timeslots? Do you think there’s any justification for the networks’ programming decisions?
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Recent Comments
The best I can suggest is to get your VCR/digital hard drive recorder thing working even harder than it already is.
The only good thing about the Damages move was that it removed a horrific, cross-network scheduling clash that, for one truly tortuous week, meant we had to choose between Damages and Prison Break.
Which one to tape and which one to miss? It was hell (Prison Break won, only because of the comprehensive re-cap at the head of each Damages episode) Staying up to watch one and taping the other was out of the question - a late night in my household constitutes anything beyond 9.30pm - sad, but true.