Programming tactics to leave you Mortified

We’ve all seen shows popping up on one channel that used to belong to another. Friends, Seinfeld, The Nanny -even Neighbours originally started on Seven.

More recently the ABC has picked up familiar shows, buying Wild at Heart (formerly on TEN) and Stupid Stupid Man (TV1). Now it’s set to repeat the Channel Nine’s kid series, Mortified.

Of course the ABC is not alone in acquisitions that have previously screened on other channels. Seven is targeting the ABC’s own Vicar of Dibley against the ABC’s Saturday night audience, Nine has Ladette to Lady, Bad Lads Army, Hell’s Kitchen while last night’s Bear: Spy in the Woods even screens on the ABC this Friday morning at 2:30am (bet that doesn’t get 1.38m!). TEN picked up I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and America’s Next Top Model. Dexter is also poised to debut on TEN.

An ABC spokesperson told TV Tonight that ABC had often acquired childrens’ television that had screened elsewhere, to maximise audiences that differ from commercial networks.

“They don’t give the push that we do for childrens, so everybody’s very excited when we take it on because it has a whole other life, perhaps different from the commercials.”

Similarly, Wild at Heart is expected to find a new home, despite having screened already on TEN.

“Wild at Heart works on a Saturday night because it’s family viewing. Stephen Tompkinson is really well-known to our audience from Ballykissangel,” the spokesperson said.

The audience for Saturday was 690,000, well down on Bed of Roses finale (961,000) and the 1.5m finale of Doc Martin. But the ABC expects the show to be “a grower.” It will follow the first series with the second, which includes UK actress Hayley Mills.

“Originally we were outbid by Channel TEN however they only broadcast series one at 6:30 on a Sunday. They did not show series two.”

Mortified airs on the ABC from Thursday, July 3 at 4:55pm. Nine, which is repeating the series at 9:30am Saturdays, will conclude its reruns on June 28.

Press Release:

On the brink of adolescence a girl’s got a lot to deal with; a changing body, a flood of hormones, relentless judgement by her peers, the stirrings of a first, unrequited crush, and the total embarrassment of her parents.

In Mortified Taylor Fry (Marny Kennedy) is confronted by the lot. She’s a lively, smart-lipped kid with plenty of courage and attitude, but the truth is she feels as if she doesn’t belong. She’s an outsider in her own wacky family…(and with a father known locally as “The Underpant King”, who could blame her?).

The idea for Mortified came about five years ago for series creator, Angela Webber. “My then 10-year-old daughter was dancing, spiritedly, to some music and she looked as if she was having a lot of fun. On the spur of the moment I leapt to my feet and joined in. She stopped dancing and stared at me in horror.” said Webber. “She was mortified…(and) until that moment, I had completely forgotten that awkward, childhood feeling of being embarrassed by one’s parents.

Episode 1: Taylor’s DNA Thursday, July 3 at 4:55pm on ABC1

Taylor is sure she will die of shame when her parents, Don (Andrew Blackman) and Glenda (Rachel Blakely) enter a parents’ talent quest at her school. Not one to back away from a challenge, Taylor (Marny Kennedy) drags Hector (Nicolas Dunn) along on a crusade to prove via DNA analysis that Don and Glenda are in fact not her parents, and therefore can’t enter the talent quest. But as the time of the performance draws ever closer, Taylor is forced to prepare herself for humiliation, until she is granted an extraordinary last-minute reprieve.