Serial finales a love match
Kudos to Seven for timing 4 key serial dramas to screen their natural finales before tennis takes over.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under Programming
In a climate when programmers are frequently pausing shows mid season, and dropping them with little notice, it’s good to see Seven has managed to slate final episodes of several key shows as the tennis sets in on its schedule.
Heroes, Eli Stone, Ugly Betty and Prison Break will all wrap current seasons with finale episodes – a very important strategy for serial dramas. How well we all remember those two leftover Heroes episodes in 2007, as a result of the writer’s strike.
Prison Break‘s (mid season finale) “The Sunshine State” airs 10:30pm January 6.
Ugly Betty‘s “Jump” airs 7:30pm Thursday January 15 (season three is yet to be slated by Seven).
Eli Stone‘s “Soul Free”, guest starring George Michael airs 8:30pm Thursday January 15.
Heroes‘ “Dual” airs 9:30pm Thursday January 15.
Of course it’s never a perfect world, the situation for other shows like The Unit and Dirty Sexy Money is less conclusive.
That said, it’s still a bit of an irony that actually acknowledging a series ending is ‘newsworthy’ in itself. There was once a time when it was actually newsworthy NOT to end a series…
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- Tagged with Eli Stone, Heroes, Prison Break, Ugly Betty
27 Responses
It’s a pity 7 aren’t continuing onto the next seasons of both Ugly Betty and Eli Stone. I wonder how long it’ll be until we see them again?
Yesss! Heroes! 😀
# Benno on January 1st, 2009 11:54 am said
“I never found the point of people saying that they are going to boycott a particular advertiser/brand because a network screwed with their show. They just want their message out there, and have very little, if any input in network decisions.”
Quite true Benno, but the responses from the advertisers are very interesting – cheers fizzin
I used to be a Heroes fan, but agree it’s not what it used to be, but still watch it anyway. Prison Break I am loving at the moment, and hope it will be back after the tennis even if its on 7HD or 7SD. As for the unit, I gave it a go one night then kept watching – its not the greatest show, but quite enjoyable. All of these shows have their niche audience, as I am sure many others would build up if given a chance. Good on ch 7 for giving them the chance, and hope that this will continue for all the shows 7 has. The extra channels should give them more of a chance to air more shows and even less mainstream content regardless of if they rate well or not.
Ugly Betty and Eli Stone I can’t stand but agree again they would have their niche audiences too. Never watched Dirty Sexy Money though.
I think the networks are too busy worrying about having the top rating shows all the time as opposed to looking after more niche audiences. We should not have all of them trying to aim for the lowest common denominator like 9 do, and 10 in their target demographic do.
Congrats to 7. Apart from Underbelly 2, I cannot even think of anything I have seen advertised for 2009 on ch 9 or 10 I’d be watching. Its all 7 (and maybe a bit of ABC as well!).
David, Keep us informed as when prison break comes back on
Cause Seven won’t let us know!
matt
I never found the point of people saying that they are going to boycott a particular advertiser/brand because a network screwed with their show. They just want their message out there, and have very little, if any input in network decisions.
Brickbats to Seven, just slightly behind Nine as the worst network on the global TV networks list. When Seven shiftted Heroes from it’s regular time slot, I stopped watching it. Which meant I had to access it from a different source. There are consequences for listening to OzTam and I’m not backward in letting the advertisers and the networks know.
Glad that 7 is going to be up to date with Prison Break and Heroes.
I really do hope Channel 7 bring bak prison break for the last 6 episodes…Cause it says Season finale which its not, its the mid season finale….. going bak to the comment made by Ella, you said that you liked the way channel 7 treated Prison break this season, well first of all since the very first episode this season they put it at 10 30, they didnt even try it at 9 30 and second of all ther are no ads wat so ever, only ads are on the show rite before it, so channel 7 have treated PB really poorly. But im happy they didnt axe it so its ok, and its not rating that poorly wif the lead in shows before it, ghost Whisperer ( Tuesdays) and The Unit ( Wednesdays) both averaging just over 500k, Prison break still manages just under 400k.
I must say even though i do remember seven held alias for over 12 months for its final season they did finish it eventually but this was really poor to happen. However in saying this at least seven play out the shows for the entirety. I remember last year dirty sexy moneys last couple of eps of season one dropped below 700,000 but seven kept it on. I cant say the same respect channel nine and ten have for any show in general. They axe it and bang never seen again. At least if a show on seven does fail it usually ends up at 10:30pm or sometimes a little later but at least it is shown. There is one show i am waiting for from seven and that is reaper. I guess i will have to wait as i cant really download on my plan.
One last thing cant wait till tonight when seven brings us that 2009 promo. Last years was a cracker.
Thats great news, good on ya 7!
Out of the 4 mentioned, I only watch Ugly Betty – it’s hard to believe than 7 advertised the crap out of this show in the first season & now it’s moving it around like crazy, which means I have missed a couple of episodes this season.
I love Dirty Sexy Money – I record it every Tuesday night & watch it the next day. Do the ratings reflect this?
Im sure many people do the same as its soo late.
I also do the same with Out Of The Blue, really enjoying this show & how wonderful to see the lovely Toni Pearen appearing in an Aussie drama again.
10 should have really put this on 7pm weeknights over summer – its such a waste at 10.30pm!
Must admit I have got into Prison Break recently – must be late night slot that suits me with less ad breaks and plot seems more interesting.
Everyone is a bad guy in disguise.
true that ella. Finally good to have some good news in this section!! Not about a show getting bumped, axed or pulled for the umpteenth time!
@Benno: you’re not alone in not liking Heroes this season, many critics like EW trashed it for having too many storylines, too many characters, bla bla. And some fans didn’t like it either. I personally thoroughly enjoyed it and would probably say its been the best season so far, it was great how they upped the action every episode and we got to see the darker side of some of the characters (although some fans didn’t like it for that very reason). I would probably echo your comments, only for PB not Heroes, as I thought the first few episodes were great and had a lot of potential but they quickly became monotonous and boring with character development thrown out the window in favour of simplistic plots like the scenarios every week to get one of the cards and Mahone being given stuff all to do once he avenged his son. They just never take any risks anymore. That said, I still enjoy the show and will probably watch it til the end.
well its good to finally see some positive news in the programming section.
and its good to see season finals actually being the last episodes of the seasons. the only one that i watch is PB and i think 7 did a very good job in showing season 4. i am sooooo glad that it didn’t fall into the hands of 9.
good on 7. i personally do not watch any of those shows but when my shows do come in: Lost, desperate housewives, Greys, and private practice. its good to know that they are in the most trustable hands (especially lost, 7 have been very kind to such a low rating show).
of course nothing here is “good”, just “better” than 9 and 10
the 10:30 and 1 month delays don’t really phase me much, i’m just happy if all the episodes make it to air. a service that other networks do not offer.
I agree with Benno. Everyone seems to be forgetting how ch 7 held back episodes. It is great that they are showing these mid season finales, but will they be bringing them back when they start up again in the U.S. I won’t hold my breathe. Ch 7 are no better than 9 or 10..
Seven are usually the best at getting around to screening their material. Its not a perfect world, but if i had to watch something on FTA seven would be the one. They fall behind quite often once a show doesnt rate anymore, but they usually show a series through when they can and they make use of their later night timeslots unlike 10 and 9. I give them more credit as it at least looks like they try to please audiences as best they can.
lee123, didn’t 7 cut off the unit with 2 episodes to go? Didn’t 7 also axe las vegas last year only to bring it back about 14 months later. Didn’t they axe UB one episode after the olympics, then bring it back 3 months later. Didn’t they hold off heroes until 9 months later. Didn’t they hold off prison break 6 months after their overseas airdate? I could go on…That’s hardly showing respect, but when you compare it to 9 and 10, it seems like it. But most people, including me, won’t show respect to a network which treats you only with relative respect to the competition.
ch7 is the only one with respect for serials, any other network would have axed heroes and PB after 2 episodes or atleast when it had 1 bad rating episode. @benno&richoTB, i realise that 1 month isn’t doing many favours but 1 month would be a dream for shows that are almost a year behind on other networks and some that show no sign of returning; weeds, nip/tuck, hotel babylon (are you sure that is foxtel only jerome).
i doubt ugly betty, the unit, eli stone, las vegas, will have their place in prime time post-summer but i’m sure 7 will find a place for them to run their course at 10:30, 2nd SD, or summer.
well i don’t think anyone expected this. maybe if other networks did this they could be the #1 network.
since DSM is at 11:30 and pulling relatively good numbers it should stay there into ratings. the unit is usually played out during ratings, but at 10:30. i guess this was one of 7’s experiments that hasn’t worked that well, but atleast they will have a better rating 10:30 show than otherwise.
any serial drama into the future i would want on 7, they have the most respect for shows (relatively).
PS. does anyone know the future of fringe. a show that disappears in ratings usually shows up in summer. what happens to a show they dissapears in summer?
it’ll probably go to foxtel like terminator, dasies, hotel babylon and chuck
Good news indeed!
Hopefully Seven will fast track Heroes volume 4 when it starts again in February.
It would also be nice to see the second (and alas probably final) season of Eli Stone soon, but I don’t hold high hopes of seeing it untl late next year (even though it’ll be finished in the US in the next month or so).
Maybe it’s just me, but i really liked the first 3 episodes of heroes this season, but the rest quickly became extremely unwatchable. I just can’t watch any more after the 13th episode, which didn’t really seem like a finale in any way. i just can’t watch any more of it. But showing it a month later isn’t going to do 7 any favours. Prison break on the other hand is still good.
Good stuff, although I saw the Heroes finale around 2 weeks ago. By the time Seven finally airs it, it will be a whole month later!! I suppose its better than holding eps for 11 months though. Will Seven be fast-tracking the new seasons of Heroes, LOST and 24?? (albeit in crappy 10:30pm timeslots)
Pity the same can’t be said for Nine and shows like Moonlight…
Prison Break hasn’t ended and will be back with the last few eps of the season in the US some time in spring, I think there are 6-8 eps left in when may be the final season.
yes and i for one do appreciate their effort in this regard, thankyou channel 7 you are the number one station in my book. lets hope 9 and 10 take note and follow suit, if you start a show commit to it and show it till the end.