Nine refuses to reveal The Carver
While Nine shuffles Season 4 of Nip / Tuck onto 9HD, viewers in Sydney & Brisbane are left wondering about the identity of The Carver.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Programming
As some readers on this site have commented, and as Andrew Mercado referenced in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph, viewers in Sydney and Brisbane are still – STILL – waiting to learn the identity of The Carver in the third series of Nip / Tuck.
As the major storyline of the entire third series, and arguably the peak of the show’s writing, The Carver mystery was the show’s very own “Who Shot JR?” or “Who Killed Laura Palmer?” Writer Ryan Murphy teased us with several candidates as to the mystery of the serial attacker. Fans in America were glued to their screens each week and buzzed with theories on messageboards.
In the US the big reveal gave the FX network its highest ever ratings for a scripted drama, and the largest demographic number for any single telecast in the network’s history. That was back in 2005!
But Nine has treated fans of the show with contempt, erratically scheduled across its guide over a period of more than a year. Most frustrated fans of the show have either downloaded the episodes or read the outcome online.
Viewers in some states finally got to see The Carver unmasked back in April, but repeats of Underbelly plus some NRL meant viewers in Sydney and Brisbane are still left in the dark. Now as the fourth series of the drama starring Australia’s Julian McMahon is shuffled onto 9HD, Nine has effectively skipped those episodes for those viewers.
It’s a lousy way to treat fans of the show.
Meanwhile the fifth series finished in the US last February….
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- Tagged with Nip / Tuck, NRL, Underbelly
17 Responses
It’s one thing to take it off air for low ratings. It’s another thing to bring it back and not pick up from the last point of story.
What a flimsy contract some of our networks have with viewers these days. And they wonder why loyalty is on the wane?
Its simple…its FREE to air television and not PAY TV. Simple answer you don’t pay for it…you don’t have a say… if you paid something for it then a whinge like all the comments above would be worthwhile…otherwise put up or shut up…thats what the programmers say and think…otherwise yes go out and pay your hard earned on buying the DVD and take down the TV aerial…as for content on the HD channel…buy a box or a Digital TV…theres only more content going to go on there and well its only a few years until the analogue signal goes bye bye…then what will you whinge…”no one told me this was happeneing”
Season 3 was fantastic but I was disappointed with the outcome.
I still can’t believe 9 are mucking people about! Their excuse would be “it doesn’t rate”. Well of course it won’t rate if they keep moving it and taking it off!
The Closer is another show that’s treated poorly. It hasn’t suffered as much as Nip/Tuck but I’m sure we won’t get season 4 until July and I simply can’t wait that long!
Seven is just the same, with their treatment of American Dad. According to here and here, viewers in the southern states didn’t get to see two episodes due to their AFL commitment, and I doubt that Seven will show these episodes in those states, so if you are a fan of the show, it is worth downloading these episodes.
As for Nip/Tuck, I am halfway watching the fourth season on DVD and it is the best season.
His book on Aussie Soaps is meticulously researched and a must-have for any fan of TV history.
knoxoverstreet, axing/ cutting a show that is underperforming is not necessarily the same as skipping crucial episodes and we all know that 9 has done their fare share of axing.
Andrew Mercado is still employed?! How????
i am so glad i never watched this show now coz this would really get my blood boiling if it happened to a show that i watch. yet another reason to not trust 9, i steer clear of any shows they get their hands on as much as possible, and the few i have taken the risk with have all resulted in frustration. they skipped episodes of invasion too that didn’t go to air in qld due to their own incompetance, and what did i have to turn to – BT. refusing to air episodes at all is one time when they really really do force you to download, not just coz your too impatient to wait for the fastracking or what ever, they really force you in this instance. i refused to download for a long time, but once i accidentally missed an episode and so had to figure out how to download and asked my brother to help me figure out why it wouldn’t work (codecs) but once you figure it out for one show you can do it for anything and will find yourself downloading more and more, so i bet 9 have just introduced a whole lot of new people to downloading.
What an absolute slap in the face. Is there not any kind of legislation for this kind of thing? If not, there should be some regulations about it.
Mark Seven are just as bad if not worse. I’m still waiting for Palin,Shark & Las Vegas to return 🙁 On top of that they started playing both Golden Girls and Home Improvement recently only to stop after one week. Thank god for BT!!
Yet another reason why tv networks are just asking us to watch our favourite shows on Channel BT. I have no need to watch the end of season 3, I’ve already seen series 5 🙂
You think Nine has treated its viewers in recent times anything less than lousy?
Yes series five is in two parts due to writers strike, which ended in Feb. Pt 2 is next Jan.
Just download or buy it. Fans of plenty of shows get shafted that’s the way it is with commercial tv. For me it’s Monk but I’ve long resorted to other methods!
The carver becomes the carved. lololololol
omg its on 9hd? wtf?!! put it on regular 9 and chuck a repeat of a show on 9hd!!!
David, you will find the 5th series did not finish last Feb, you have even said so yourself I am sure…it concludes in the coming months and will have the final series ‘6’ starting in the future.