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Nine moves Sherlock premiere to Sunday

You blogged, they listened? Nine blinks and moves Sherlock to a much more deserving Sunday night premiere, and also holds off The Mentalist.

You blogged, they listened?

Nine has had a rethink on its programming of Sherlock, originally slated as a rather late Monday 9:30pm screening.

Now it will move to Sunday at 8:30pm October 17 for its first episode AND add its second episode to 8:30pm Monday October 18. As a two hour episode this means The Mentalist will no longer return on October 18. It will conclude Sunday October 24.

Giving Sherlock a 8:30pm Sunday slot is far more deserving of its merits, given the show was devised by Doctor Who writers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. Nine had originally slated a Get Smart movie in that time, which now moves to Friday night October 22nd.

Yesterday a number of TV Tonight readers agreed that Nine’s initial plans to show Sherlock at 9:30 on a Monday was late for a school night:

– “Had Sherlock been on the ABC it will be on Sunday 8.30pm for sure, and will attract as many viewers as Midsomer Murders.”

– “First Sherlock should have been on the ABC but that aside it’s a Sunday type show better suited to 8:30 as each of the 3 special at 2 hours long when Nine puts in the ads. It’s a solid series but Mondays at that time it’s just not going to rate, at least with just 3 eps it’s not likely to be moved or axed, is it?”

– “Channel 9, you are the most stupid F***ed up network, I’ve ever seen, you don not put a world class drama such as Sherlock which rated extremly high in the uk at 9.30, a move to 8.30 would of scored it 2 million”

– “I don’t understand why anyone at Nine would have thought that this fitted in with their audience, and then to put it on at 9:30 and worse, on a Monday just beggars belief. “

– “Way too much stuff on a monday, don’t know if I can fit Sherlock in, maybe if I watch it live but that never seems to work now that I am so reliant on my PVRs.”

A True CSI ep will now also air at 10:30pm Monday Oct 18.

27 Responses

  1. Love, love, love this show (through buying the DVD, nothing illegal there as far as I know). Suspect I’ll watch it anyway as I’m curious to see if it really is butchered…but anyway, what I really want to say is – give this a go, people! It is great and deserves an audience. Still wondering what it’s doing on Nine rather than ABC but let’s hope it pays off in eyeballs.

  2. @Jay Jay, How is downloading a foreign produced program destroying the local industry? A butchered add filled version or censored (Spartacus: Blood and Sand) or an uninterrupted, complete original version.
    Bring on NBN so I can watch product produced by the BBC/SciFi direct and not have to wait for a commercial station that cannot even tell the time when starting/finishing a program.

    1. Anything that diminishes eyeballs / revenue for local networks will impact on their capacity to invest in local production. NBN won’t make overseas web content run faster. They’re not replacing cables under the Pacific! ps. Nine played Spartacus as delivered to them by Starz.

  3. Yes good news to see all 3 episodes in one week hopefully nine doesn’t interrupt the series by bumping it to different time slots been hanging out for this one and it will be available to buy on DVD & Blu-rau November 18th.

  4. Great news. Thanks Nine, I’ll now be watching. Not ecstatic about the 2nd ep being show on the Monday, though. I see what you’re trying to do there, getting an early commitment and hoping that’ll convert into loyalty, but I’m already committed to The Event (and to not two-timing my TV shows). Could risk presuming that The Event will continue to be repeated on 7mate I suppose…

  5. @ David Knox- Again, ‘fastracked’? It looks like it says ‘fast racked’, perhaps you should add a â„¢ to the end of it?

  6. @jay jay – so if I pay for Austar but also download some shows earlier is that destroying the local industry, since I’m paying for that service?

    One question David, some have complained that Sherlock was meant to be fast tracked but clearly isn’t, did Nine every promises to fast track it?

  7. So how long do I have to wait for The Mentalist. Their “guess who’s back promo” was getting me excited for its return. So when will it arrive? Grrrrr!

  8. why doesn’t anyone mention that 7mate is in HD and none of 7’s shows are no longer be seen in HD either. It’s the same for everyone! No one moans about Ten which hasn’t had HD in over a year (besides sport). Each commercial network only has access to 2 x SD and 1 x HD channel. You either remain competitive with 3 channels or get left behind. If 9 hadn’t launched a 3rd channel you would all be whinging that 9 only has 2 channels. No one can win on this site.
    I personally don’t care if I watch something in SD or HD. I think you are all spoilt for choice.

    And if you choose to illegally download something from overseas, that’s on you. It’s illegal and only destroys the local industry.

  9. @timothy it could come down to money. They launched GO! with little to no budget and it is now the #1 multi-channel. 7 & 10 spend squillions in advertising and marketing but it doesn’t pay off.

  10. @timothy. it could have been nines ego. Once they learned that 7 was launching 7mate, they felt had to try and beat them to the punch. Not sure what the hurry was for either new channel. Why couldn’t they have waited ’till 2013? That way their big shows could still be seen in HD.

  11. Perhaps Nine should make all its programming decisions based on this site’s feedback, it works much better than the dartboard they use now.
    Now all we need is for them to actually advertise it on air, and not screw up or mislead the viewers taking each scene out of context.

    Another thing with Nine.. As far as I can see, I cannot find an official website for GEM on the ninemsn homepage. With a lack of web prescence, and minimal advertising prior to launch, this is pretty poor. Its like they knew people would not bother watching it anyway…
    TEN on the other hand launched the ELEVEN website the other week, made a big deal in regard to press release, and have a really good commercial advertising the new channel, and it is still 3 months from launch date. Now that is how to advertise a new channel…

  12. This is much better but of course there is the catch of The Mentalist being delayed a week but overall this is much better!

    That said why not just show them over 3 Sundays at 8:30?

  13. I wonder if they’ve changed this because the Underbelly telemovie they had planned has been stifled due to legal issues. I bet it works really well, challenging Offspring and the ABC on Sunday night – proving, not for the first time that Michael Healy has no idea about what drama works in what slots.

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