★★★★★ 0/5

Credit where its due

It's shameless plug day today. Channel TEN and Nine borrow a few words from TV Tonight to promote their shows.

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Ok, this is a shameless plug.

In the last two weeks both Channel TEN and Channel Nine have borrowed quotes from TV Tonight in on-air promos for two of their dramas, Life and Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Whoever said they weren’t paying attention?

Using such quotes is clearly a win / win. It gives the shows a snappy critique and it gives this site a little extra exposure. Nine even went one better than TEN and listed the full address with the .com.au (cheers guys!).

TV Tonight has long been aware that industry execs read this blog, but now here’s proof. Of course, it also means they’re monitoring your comments on this very site.

In fact the comments for Secret Diary of a Call Girl were actually those of readers (congrats to Sway Slayer and Matt). That’s a little on the cheeky and wicked side in itself, but I’ll let it slide on this occasion.

TEN’s quote is from a review in 2007. I stand by what I wrote, the show is still smart and stylish….

For the record, networks are welcome to borrow unedited quotes from Reviews on this site, including the star rating, with the full address tvtonight.com.au

All other quotes should be sourced upon request. Reader comments should not be used.

25 Responses

  1. Congrats David. I been visiting this site daily since July last year. Very well deserved. For what it is worth your reviews also form part of some the television related articles over on Wikipedia where I am one of the Australian administrators. Your reviews of Underbelly and Rush being two examples.

  3. The show sucks but we will tell you it is great – please watch it, even when we move it to 3 other timeslots in the next month.

    Or do we get the normal…

    “Brilliant, amazing, best show of the year..

    Both could easily fit in with Canal Road and The Strip lol

  4. Congrats David.
    Is that a smirk on your face ?

    Can’t wait till the networks usethe following in a promo and get more honest..

    Cue sickening music
    [i]Here is our brand new recycled show and this is a shameless plug…

    The show sucks but we will tell you it is great – please watch it, even when we move it to 3 other timeslots in the next month.[/i]

    Or do we get the normal…

    “Brilliant, amazing, best show of the year..

    Yep, just take one or two words ‘out of comments and make it look good

    P.S.At least with this site, most people tell it how it is without the BS> .

  9. They actually care what we think? Interesting. And these are the same networks who openly refuse to lend talent to one another for different shows? Example, Underbelly.

    Fanger, that’s the art of contradiction. I think artists should do what’s best for them, artists in every category, musicians, directors, etc. It just makes the artist look like an idiot if they keep bagging out major labels and a week later sign onto them. If it were me, I’d go for any opportunity I could grab onto, no matter the cost or price, I would jump as high as I could, so I can get to where I wanna be.

  10. Damn I just lost 20 bucks, looks like C9 execs can read. :/

    And Neon! What is a review anyway? Just some outsiders opinion.
    A lot bigger problems in this world than wondering if using a blog readers comment is legal or not lol.

    I’ve always noticed the people who generate negative feedback against the networks are the first ones to say how high when they ask you to jump.
    Like the Musiz Biz, everyone despise labels and claims they rip everyone off and pride themselves on independent labels but as soon a s a major comes knocking there the first ones bragging and scrambling to sign 🙂

    heh remember when we were kids and the kid that teased and pulled the girls hair was really in love with them and would do anything for them! 🙂

    Good Work Dave! 🙂

  11. I have to agree with Neon Kitten on the topic of twisting negative comments to make a snappy three-word glowing review. I think it was The Australian that pointed out that a negative review that it published about National Nine News was later re-worked by Nine to make a cute caption (which was then attributed to coming from The Australian) for a news promo.

  12. It’s funny but scary too…. using blog comments I mean, not TV Tonight or you.

    There’s really nothing to stop someone from ch7 or a production company posting a comment here as a user and then quoting it back to promote their own show. Not that anyone believes those review comments they put up anyway, do they? You can always find someone somewhere who will say something nice about the most horrible trash.

  14. I wonder why Seven hasn’t taken advantage of this site’s wonderful reviews… Oh wait, didn’t we ridicule the press release that Seven sent in response to ASTRA? I guess the idea of using the internet for reviews of it’s programs has you know David, bored Seven rigid…

  15. Congrats to TV Tonight. I noticed the quotes on the Secret Diary of a Call Girl a couple of weeks back but didn’t say anything and have only see the quote on the Life promo a couple of days ago, so it’s nice to know that networks do roam these sites. I might have to put a few reviews of shows up here myself to see if I’m lucky enough to get chosen, haha.

  17. Exactly my thoughts about this site RichoTB, while I discovered this blog in around April/May. There are a few other sites which almost seemingly duplicate network press releases for all their stories, but David puts in great critical angles. Keep up the great work.

  18. maybe they’ll take into account the many times i’ve pleaded for them to get knew young writers with new ideas(i’m one of them)But i won’t hold my breath.

    As for using your words, David they are just greasing you up so you go easy on them. They’ll offer you the ACA job next! LOL

  19. This website is fantastic.Ever since January, I’ve been visiting here at least once every couple of hours. Its goooooooooood. Its also good to see it getting the recognition from network bigwigs it deserves.

    And props on the Life quote, its a fantastic show. I might actually watch it on TEN just to see that amazing finale again. Very enjoyable show

  20. Well, it’s about darn time you got the credit you deserve. I’m glad that TV networks are beginning to use reviews from TV-centered sites as a critique and not the little blurbs above the daily TV guide.

    But, using readers comments, are they even allowed to do that?

  22. Congrats David on a site well done!

    Maybe they are learning by fast tracking shows they might have left for 6 months. Speaking of, what is happening with Desperate and Grey’s, still on for 2009?

  23. Nice to see someone at Nine and Ten actually know what the internet is and how powerful it can be for marketing and promotion (especially Nine… they do seem to be stuck in the 1980’s at the momement)

    Good on ya David for running this site… entertaining and informative and a extremely credible/reliable source of info.

  24. Using blog reader comments and attributing them to the blog itself is total misrepresentation, however good it may be for TV Tonight’s profile.

    I used to review movies for a Melbourne printed weekly. Quotes were pulled from my reviews on several occasions for use in advertising, and it quickly drew my attention to how easily an out-of-context quote topped and tailed by three dots could turn a bad review into seemingly stunning press. That sort of behaviour has always been unethical, but to take hastily-typed reader comments on a blog entry and turn them into what appears to casual viewers to be glowing praise from David himself is shameful. It doesn’t surprise me at all that the culprit is Nine.

    And hey, at least I’m safe, right? I mean, they’re never going to pull out a quote from one of my comments, when I constantly point out how “Hole In The Wall” is such an astonishing example of a spectacular train-wreck disaster, it’s a miracle it ever made it to air.

    (Cue promo on Nine…)

    HOLE IN THE WALL… “ASTONISHING… SPECTACULAR… A MIRACLE” tvtonight.com.au

    🙂

    Incidentally, David – you can probably stipulate all you like about how the networks should use and attribute quotes, but the way they’ve used them in the above examples, however dubious, is completely legal as far as I can see. Sadly.

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