Durie vs Durie blitz

Jamie Durie will go head to head with… Jamie Durie, in a blitzing network programming move between Seven and Nine.

Nine is screening old episodes of Backyard Blitz, the show it has axed after describing the gardening genre as “exhausted.” Seven, who has since signed Durie, will screen Australia’s Best Backyards in the same 6:30pm Sunday timeslot from July 29.

Nine’s Durie vehicle has been getting healthy ratings around 1.3m, a bitter irony given some of its other premium shows would be happy with that figure.

Seven’s scheduling of the new show following the finale of Where Are They Now will doubtless capitalise on the “support act” programme that Nine has been screening. It always struck me that Nine should have buried the Durie show (pardon the pun) rather than keep interest in Durie alive when Seven was set to launch their own show.