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Axed: The Outdoor Room

Another Seven show with a hefty price tag has bitten the bullet.

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Another Seven show has bitten the bullet, this time Jamie Durie’s The Outdoor Room.

Durie’s show saw him travel the globe and makeover Aussie gardens with international themes. At a reported $450,000 per half-hour episode that’s a steep bill in harsh economic times. Earlier this week travel show The Great Outdoors also was revealed to be in doubt.

Durie re-signed a new two-year deal with CEO David Leckie on Christmas Eve, on an annual salary of $1.5 million.

Seven will move Sunday Night into the 6:30pm Sunday timeslot.

Last year Durie hit out at Nine’s makeover show Domestic Blitz saying “you don’t have to be sick to be on our show.”

Given Seven hasn’t issued a clear list of its 2009 shows there could be more titles about to fall under the axe.

Source: Daily Telegraph

35 Responses

  1. The show actually suffered from being only 30 minutes long – a one hour version would have allowed time to actually explore the country in questions and show the make-over, instead of cramming in a little of each.

    I do feel for Jamie a little, given this was his dream tv show, but given his poor reaction to losing the ratings to Domestic Blitz one could argue kharma bit him in the butt!

  2. What a great scam this was for Durie, being paid to travel around the world in the guise of “researching” back yard designs. And the end results were invariably a few cliches thrown together that anyone could have come up with.

    Now he has a $3m two year deal with Seven and doesn’t even have a show to make.

    I want his job!

  3. Did Channel Nine offer him a job as the host of ‘Home Run’? If they did, he should have taken it as I doubt channel 7 will do much with him. Maybe he’ll be on It Takes Two (another useless show)!

    Besides, Channel Nine don’t even need him since they have Scott and Shelly appealing to basically everyone.

    And I can’t believe he said that about Domestic Blitz. He was just probably jealous that one of his ex co-hosts was doing better than him.

    Did channel 7 re-hire the gardener of The Outdoor Room (the one that used to be on Backyard Blitz as well)? She was really good as well but I doubt channel 7 have anything for her.

    I’m guessing channel 7 weren’t so happy either that Shelly left to Nine!

  5. I though the concept of the ‘outside room” was interesting.

    It basically had 2 part the make over with the family and the trip overseas for the inspiration behind it.

    I was surprised if they didn’t re package the show in other overseas markets using the same inspiration footage with other families in different countries.

    Ciao

  6. I liked Backyard Blitz at its peak, especially the camaraderie between the team, including Jamie Durie. But then it started to get a little syrupy and repetitious, and I lost interest.

    But Jamie Durie on his own doesn’t work for me. He just gets a bit much. I watched a couple of episodes of Outdoor Room, and it didn’t impress me at all. So no great loss there, I think.

  7. I think the show was pretty good but in all honesty I don’t think Jamie did any favours with that “anti Domestic Blitz” quote, which I suspect was probably not meant in the manner it has been presented. The Outdoor Room possibly didn’t quite fit the world at the moment with a spiralling economy etc. It all seemed a little over the top and out of most people’s reach if you were looking for DIY ideas. Good show – bad timing maybe.

  12. as far as i know the financial situation for the networks is that they are all making less profits than usual but ch9 is in deep poo because of their associations with PBL media, which regardless of ratings is not going anywhere. and TEN aren’t much further behind with their parent companies. 7 doesn’t really have issues as bad as that but significant enough for them to tighten budgets.

    they obviously have plans for durie, they would have seen axing of TAR coming, but 1.5mil is quite reasonalble. should i mention the elephant in the room. that eddie gets 4-5mil per year and did nothing, and possibly won’t because so many people hate his guts.

    i thought this show was ok, maybe more suited to a weekday, but not for the budget, the money could have gone to a super great show, instead of just mediocre.

  13. I’m not a fan of gardening shows but the couple of episodes I caught of Outdoor room looked well produced and some of the overseas locations looked spectacular. Compared to the countless other crap 7 has in it’s schedule, i think this is a great loss to seven. Why did they not try to shift it or replay it over summer?

  14. The whole idea of a travel meets gardening/reno show didn’t work for me.

    I think they are two totally different things.

    Even with Domestic Blitz, the emphasis isn’t on the travel or “this is where I got the inspiration for this water feature”, it’s about the people who are being looked after by the crew. That worked well before on RFI and has been expanded on the new show.

    That comment by Durie about not needing to be sick, was disgusting and he lost a lot of respect from myself with that.

    Bring back RFI, Tom Williams isn’t doing anything and that show is still entertaining even in repeats.

  18. @ Kuttsywood – given that Stokes parked Seven in one of those overblown financial vehicles similar to Nine’s it wouldn’t suprise me!

    What I don’t get is why Seven continues to retain Durie, there doesn’t seem to be much of a market for gardening programs beyond Fridays and Sundays, and Seven already has both those nights covered, so where on earth would they use him?

  20. Here’s Rudd telling us all to curb any pay rises and hold back on fattening our pay packets and here we find Mr Durie getting 1.5 million a year at Channel Seven to.do…..nothing. No wonder people are switching off both Durie and others who really don’t deserve that sort of salary – not even some CEOs get that these days. As for the show it was a blatant excuse for Durie to travel the world and then pretend he was doing something good for some rich suburban family – most had backyards the size of tennis courts!

    On a lighter note…one seven recruit who I’ m hoping is not on 1.5 million a year is Fifi Box – saw here on Sunrise this morning and it’s like watching a character straight out of Kath and Kim – what a delight and a refreshing change from Kochie, Mel and Nat all morning!

  22. just like the great outdoors, i thought this was already axed. it looks like durie is making a different show per year. maybe he will get lucky this year. i think they should give him a proper stable job maybe on better homes and gardens.

    if not i don’t think the contract should be renued in 2 years the only useful thing that has come out of it was his stint on dancing with the stars.

  24. well that ticks another off the list now what is the future for other sunday 6:30’s: battle of the choirs, gladiators, and outback wildlife rescue. and what is the future of rich list, crash investigation unit, it takes two, the real seachange, out of the question and surf patol

    i can understand about this one it was so expensive and barely rated. my mum liked it, i think they should have tried it on a weeknight first. oh well. i hope it is replaced with something better.

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