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Thank God for $1m

Until Tuesday TEN programmer David Mott thought he had his favourite comedy in the bag. Until Seven opened its chequebook.

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Figures about how much money was paid in the tussle over Thank God You’re Here continue.

Yesterday there was a suggestion TEN had offered $1m an episode but were beaten by Seven at $1.4m.

Today, that is scaled back somewhat to an offer of $1m from Seven. It’s a staggering amount for Australian television. We have dramas produced on slimmer budgets than that, and here’s one which celebrates the fact it doesn’t even use a script!

Until Tuesday, TEN programmer David Mott believed he had a deal with Working Dog.

“It’s fair to say I’m very disappointed after all the work we have done together,” Mott told Confidential.

“I know what we put on the table was very significant and we were willing to go there on that and truthfully I thought that would do it given what we’d all achieved together. What we put forward on the table was significant – that’s the best way to describe it.”

Producer Michael Hirsch informed Mott of the news before Seven broke the news.

But Seven’s head of programming Tim Worner was not sorry for Mott.

“Rule No. 1 in arse coverage when you’ve lost something is to say that the opposition has paid too much,” he said.

Ouch.

Source: Daily Telegraph

54 Responses

  2. (As said by CJM) Rule No. 1 for the network that has paid too much when buying a show is to deny it in the most arrogant way possible. Yep, they’ve got that covered.

    Does it amuse anyone that Tim’s just basically said that they paid too much for it? 😛

  3. I hope having TGYH on Seven means people like Gina Riley and Jane Turner who play aussie Kath and Kim and Magda can star on the show now it’s on seven and they’re on seven too.

    I’d love to see them act in TGYH too. I reckon they’d be funny as

    I’m sad for ten but also happy as this means more new faces can come on instead of havig Angus Sampson on every single week.

  5. What do you reckon this means for AOK’s This Is Your Laugh?
    Will it compliment or kill it?
    Surely there is a limit to how much improv one free-to-air network have…

  6. Some of you lot are a frigging broken record.

    – Working Dog won;t let the guest performers be an endless rotation of Seven Network Stars, but there will be a couple, just like on Ten.

    – Nine bidded too remember. So why not have a whinge about them, CJ (or is that CJM?), Todd, JB, Harry and Fred?

    – Yes, Tim Worner is a smartass.

    – Put yourselves in Working Dog’s shoes. How many of you, honestly, would choose loyalty over a nice fat pay increase? If a rival business offered you another $10k -20k per year to leave your employer of 10 years to go work for them, how many of you would honestly not take it???

  7. @ Paul Ducan…

    Oh f***. I just buried my face in my hands when you said that. I can’t even begin to imagine just how awful the new season is going to be…

  8. Benno mentions a $25K price tag on ads, they would need at least $30K per 30 second spot to break even on this, that assuming a 42 minute running time, 5 20second spots for network promos, leaving 17 minutes or 34 30second spots for sale, @ $30K a pop they would make $1,020,000 per episode, so Seven’s ideal would be to be able to charge $50 – $75K per spot to make a decent profit otherwise this is glorified loss leader.

    The other thing to factor in is that Ten has been repeating it into the ground this year, what if people are sick of it? What if Nine decides to put 20 to 01 against it?

  9. Tim: as refreshing as it may be just look at DWTS, Big Brother, the chopping block and Whats good for you. all these shows were quite successful. bring in a change of host and they are destroyed. surely there are other factors involved but it is still a huge coincidence

    DWTS especially, was averaging 1.7 mil+ and was the #1 show of 2006 averaging 2.188m (for comparison PTTR ave’d 1.9m), and was very consistent. 2008: change of host and the show only gets average ratings dropping as far as 1.1 and the host wasn’t even that bad. what is to say the same wouldn’t happen to TGYH.

  10. Big brother and idol have no depth compared to border animal rescue or any of the factual shows! The factuals actually show real life situations, real problems in reality, the world we live in. It follows the lives that people in normal society live in and the things they go through. Idol and BB, two pointless shows with people desperate to get their 15 seconds of fame. They’re both unreal realities, its not reality because thats not what goes on! we end up having s*** singers on idol winning just because of votes, not on the basis of their talent.

    the ratings prove that the general public prefer the factual shows to the ‘reality’ shows and this has ultimately payed off for 7, contributing to their build up as the number 1 network

  11. Jerome: Actually a change of host might actually breathe some fresh air into the show, im not sure who i would pick to host it, but sometimes he gets on my nerves.

  12. @JW,
    sport, sport, sport all the money will go to sport.

    IMO i would like to see it go into a hamish and andy show, maybe to replace rove which has been struggling

  13. Wow Im surpirsed at the amount venom and frankly silly comments on this. All this loyalty and TEN gave them a chance talk is ridculous. Working Dog produces shows, interesting, funny, inventive shows (to be honest I consider TGYH their weakest effort not a patch on the Hollowmen). A network then pays for the rights to show it. TEN got them from ABC not because it was taking some sort of “chance” they were sesoned comic writers/performers most from the D Generation Show.

  16. TEN have put some hard work into various series (SYTYCD,Rove,Neighbours & Rush) and they have some great shows but that can’t make up for their constant schedule swaps and quick-fix programming, and their low ratings this season reflect that – there’s no confidence left in the public towards TEN. Instead of making major programing changes, they instead go and seek a 24/7 Sports HD channel – I love sports as much as the next guy, but i can’t see TEN going and bitching about TGYH leaving them when they spend millions to launch a channel for a niche market (though kudos to them for trying to increase HD patrionage)

    Seven have had many programs bomb – mostly their overseas drama’s, but I’m sure they wouldn’t have made much back on Gladiators or The Outdoor Room either. As for cross promotion, well do you see Working Dog opening up the gates to any-old Seven star? I seriously doubt that the people who keep an iron fist on their series would allow that to happen – if anything it will more than likely follow what happened at TEN with say one personality every so many weeks
    People complain now about this move, but come March we’ll be seeing more people than ever lapping up TGYH

  17. I hate it when people sell out. Things are never the same and I will not be watching again. This joker from 7 makes me hate them even more. I really hope it fails and if they go crawling back to Ten they ought to tell them to take a hike.

    It’s like when there’s a football team thar goes around poaching all the best players and doing no development of their own. They win a lot but everyone hates them and wants them to fail.

  18. Working Dog what have you done. I was a fan of the show when it first started but it kinda grew old during season 2. Wonder how many Seven employees oh sorry Seven’s stars will appear on the show. Can see it now, Next week will be the cast of Sunrise, the next week will be the cast of kath and kim, then dancing with the Z Listers or the staff from Total Trash …..oh sorry (again). I mean Today Tonight Oh well I wont miss it. Hope that money feels good Working Dog ,

  21. Intially I thought there would be other reasons behind it. But i am disapointed if it was predominantly about getting more money.

    Ten gave them a chance with the Panel and TGYH. And I don’t think the production costs would be that high. So they should show some loyalty.

  22. “Rule No. 1 in arse coverage when you’ve lost something is to say that the opposition has paid too much” What is up the arses of Channel Seven programmers and executives? Seriously, every single time we ever hear something about them they are always being jackarses. Maybe they’re trying to sound edgy or hip or something? It’s so cute when old people do that! (but it’s not going to make me watch their network).

    And Neil, JB is 100% right in saying Big Brother and Idol have more substance than Border Security and the like. If Big Brother was on SBS and had a few minor changes made to the way it was marketed everyone would think of it as an innovative social experiment. But just because it’s on Channel Ten all the sheep like to gang up and say it’s crap. Quite frankly, if you can watch an entire series of Big Brother and still say it’s crap then you must have no interest at all in humanity. I’d much rather watch and analyse human interactions than I would old people being stopped at the airport for smuggling bananas into the country.

  24. TGYH is a good show, but its very questionable if it’s worth 1 million per episode (even if its probably only going to be another 10 ep season). I wonder if they’ll renew it at that rate? Maybe it’s more about not having to compete against it?

    I just hope channel 7’s promotion department aren’t going to milk it dry by adding some of the networks “flavour”. Yes please keep the cross promotion away Mel and Kochie, Today Tonight, It takes Two, Dancing with ex-celebs, and Australia has no Talent!

  25. i’m with Jerome, $1mil is a bargain, cheaper than alot of other shows that have flopped. i know canal road was 10 million for the season (about $1mil per ep.) and that was axed!!!

    i’d like to know where 9,TEN dropped out

    knowing that this is an established success (unlike the risk of a drama) and what it will do for the network i’d say money very well spent. 9 and 10 must be short on money if they couldn’t top that. i guess if we look at it, TEN is spending their money on sport & com. games, 9 is spending on 2012, american shows and new aus dramas. 7 can afford to splurge.

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