0/5

Burke’s back in Nine yard

After being off screen for more than a year, Don Burke will return to Nine in a regular weekly segment on A Current Affair.

donburke1Don Burke is returning to Channel Nine.

The gardening guru will be a regular Friday feature on A Current Affair from tonight.

After his last seasonal special aired in March 2008 Burke has been off-screen, but always professed an interest in returning to television, telling TV Tonight last year “the welcome mat is out and the door is open for discussion.”

Since that time the Burke’s Backyard brand has been kept alive via his magazine.

“About 70 per cent of the emails and letters we get five years after the cancelling of Burke’s Backyard are still saying, ‘come back, come back,'” he told news.com.au

“In the end Nine basically came back to me and said, ‘we are crazy if we don’t listen to these people, they are angry, or they just want you back, or whatever, come back.'”

Burke says David Gyngell has always been very keen to have him back on the station “in some way, shape or form.”

With the continual success of Better Homes and Gardens for Seven, Nine could do well to look at the viability of a regular, expanded format.

Source: news.com.au

17 Responses

  1. Hooray! Don Burke is Back!
    Boo! Only for a few minutes on ACA.
    Hooray! We all still love Don and his advice.
    Boo! As I’m over 40 I don’t count to TV execs because they believe the demographic they’re force-fed.
    Please bring back Burke’s Backyard, it doesn’t have to try an beat Better Gnomes and Hardens or Gardening Oz and it doesn’t have to be on Channel 9, does it?! Channel Ten has always liked doing things their way and they could reap a strong and loyal following of people who have more ‘disposable’ time and income on their hands once the kids and mortgage are gone.

  2. The have to “ease’ him back in so that it doesn’t highlight their original mistake and so they don’t look too desperate. 😉

    Nine, when you do give him a show again out of desperation please don’t put it up again BH&G most of us couldn’t be bothered taping one for later viewing. Thanks.

  3. I think his show was good. If they could bring it back intact and not blow out the budget on him or the format it could be a winner. he might be better off on another network. I dont know. You cant write him off, his show was very successful and the format was at the time the trendsetter. It helps that the guy knows what hes talking about because he does love what he does.

    Oh my god! He could take over from Peter Cundel on Gardening Australia. That way he dousnt have to worry about ratings. That is a good idea. Prob wont happen but that is the best home he could find, other than among the gum trees, because Nine isnt the Nine of Kerry’s time. It is an idiot beast that makes bad decisions for short term or embaressing gain. Prestige is a forriegn, alien concept.

  4. I suggest a 7pm Friday 30 minute Burke’s Backyard show would break up Nine’s sitcom repeat pattern.

    Also – it would steal some thunder from Better Homes and Gardens – splitting the viewers (even in a different timeslot) in a similar way to the Sunday evening current affairs audience being split between Sunday Night and 60 Minutes.

    Good luck to Don and his team – they give great advice.

Leave a Reply