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Airdate: Michael Jackson: What Really Happened?

Nine rushes yet another Jacko special to screen on Wednesday night, again hosted by Richard Wilkins.

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michael_jacksonUh oh. Nine is venturing down the road of a last minute Jacko special hosted by Richard Wilkins again…

This one simply promises: “With the world still in disbelief at the death of Michael Jackson, tonight Richard Wilkins hosts a special presentation that focuses on the controversy that plagued his life.”

As to which controversy that is, who knows (plastic surgery, child molestation case, marriages, parenting skills, unusual habits etc.)?

The title of the one hour special hints it might focus on the final days, but the synopsis suggests otherwise.

On Saturday Wilkins co-hosted a loose series of music clips with Karl Stefanovic that pulled a big crowd and helped Nine win the week. He also attracted quite a bit of media for announcing the death of actor Jeff Goldblum on Friday’s Today show, which was an internet hoax.

The latest Jacko special airs 9:30pm Wednesday night, with a Cold Case episode held over by a week.

65 Responses

  2. Unfortunately in the world of free to air TV, we are limited in our viewing options and watching Channel Nine again is difficult to avoid. If I was a hard man I would not watch their programming. They are rubbish.

  4. This program was shoddy and unbalanced, designed to do nothing else than cement in people’s minds that Michael Jackson is wacko like the media like to portray him. The ‘close’ sources knew nothing about the subject and the interviewer did nothing to question their validity or qualification to speak about Michael Jackson.

    The line up of ‘trusted’ sources were his ex-manager who was sacked – hmmm any possible reason there to bad mouth his former manager for a few extra pennies?? I am surprised this ‘MJ-fan’ interviewer did not ask this of Bob Jones. Bob essentially did not say anything about Michael as he did not see anything but he and the interviewer did their best to try to imply something dark in what Bob Jones never saw. Bob Jones was very careful imply things without saying anything libelous.

    Next up we have Randy Tarraborrelli – presented as a ‘long-time friend’ of Michael Jackson. That is a lie, let’s set the record straight Randy did know MJ yes back in the 70s before he even made Off the Wall. All of his photos of him with MJ were black and white, he is not in contact with Michael anymore. Yet somehow he has managed to turn this early relationship into his life’s career – he has turned written two books about Michael Jackson claiming to have an insider’s view of what has happened in Mike’s life when he hasn’t been close to the star in over 30 years. His books and his opinion are mere speculation. Yet none of this was addressed by the interviewer they were presented to the unknowing viewer as the truth. Note that not once did Randy remove his sunglasses during the interview – perhaps so we could not look into his lying eyes.

    This program touched very briefly on the story about Evan Chandler and the film deal he was trying to set up but sadly failed miserably at portraying the full true story. Search google and you will find an article called ‘Was Michael Jackson framed?’ written by an investigative journalist for GQ magazine you will find out the truth behind the Jordy Chandler case , Evan Chandler and Victor Guttierez are heavily implicated – this is the real story that should have been shown. Instead we got another MJ bashing program full of lies portrayed as the truth. It was neither revealing nor informative and stank of poor journalism. Channel 9 should be shut down for sinking sooo low all in the hopes of getting good ratings!! Channel 9 is the worst TV Channel in Australia!!!!

  5. Wow, talk about way too soon. I don’t think Channel Nine could have been more disrespectful if they tried. I began to watch it last night and turned it off in disgust. I felt like s**t just for watching the first 10 minutes. Well done Channel Nine you bunch of insensitive pr**ks.

  6. After watching it I really have to say that Channel 9 should be ashamed!!! The man has just died and while other channels are showing tributes and showing how great Michael was…Channel 9 showed this disgusting, one sided, totally untrue and degrading documentary about this wonderful person!!! You people at Channel 9..especially whoever authorised to show this documentary have sank really really low! You would do anything for ratings won’t ya! Disgusting!! Michael Jackson was a great man with a golden heart who was targeted by money hungry parents who used their kids to get to his money. The documentary totally made Michael out to be a monster which is just so not true…it is the furtherest thing from the truth!! It featured interviews from journos who have made it their career to bring Michael down and from an ex employee of Michael whome he fired for personal reasons so of course these people would say negative things about him. I can’t understand who in their right minds would think this documentary would be appropriate to show on TV when it was only made to frame Michael, is totally untrue and especially during the time of his death when so many people are mourning the loss of this great icon! Shame on you Channel 9!!!

  7. I thought it was not appropriate for any network to air such a show when the majority of people around the world are still mourning…poor taste of Programming!

    …Nine may probably obtain good one-day ratings for this, but it will definitely affect their long term branding…and I thought Nine this year was meant to be focusing on being warm, relatable and friendly, I guess not!

  8. A very poor documentary. It was old, poorly put together and defiitely had an agenda. I wonder if Channel 9 actually viewed it before it aired, because it was totally inappropriate.
    It seems Channel 9 just goes from bad to worse.

  9. How disgusting. The man is not even in the ground and Nine is trying to trash him with this rubbish. Even a cursory bit of research would show that much of this program is completely erroneous.

    When it appeared last year in the UK it was called a program “for those who like their facts with a heavy dose of fantasy”.

    Typical of Channel Nine these days. You are contempable.

  10. Thank you SK, that’s the best solution to it, in reminiscent of Packers pulling of that clip show, get this sh*t, or better yet the whole effn network off the air!!!!

    I pray that the majority of people who tuned in tuned right out when they saw this despicable piece of garbage for what it was. And absolute shame on Nine for airing it less than a week after his death. Desperate and pathetic.

  11. I stopped watching channel 9 a long time ago. Talk about sensationalism. Channel Nine should just close close-up shop and be banished from broadcasting. Poor quality all-round.

  12. MJ dosen’t look good in this doc. Strong allegations of sex with boys were implied. The evidence was very compeling paticularly when MJ was bouncing the kid up and down at the world music awards. sick.

  13. The Nine Network should be ashamed for showing this. I don’t say this as a blindly fanatical MJ fan-although I do love his music-but as someone who has done a little bit of research in this area and so can see what a sensationalist piece of crap doco this is.

    e.g. Bob Jones was Michael’s *publicist* for 17years, not his manager and after being fired in 2004 wrote a book trashing Michael yet under oath during the 2005 trial admitted that his book was filled with innacuracies and lies. He certainly did not aid in prosecuting Michael during his trial (in which he was found innocent of all charges let us remember).

    – also the Chandler family is completely screwed up (look for yourselves as to why) and a lot of the claims this doco makes are completely without any basis.
    . It’s really laughable that the reporter that the doco’s presenter meets in a ‘deserted LA carpark’ or whatever is also a disgruntled and discredited author who wouldn’t need to meet anyone in such a ‘secret’ (read: sensationalist) fashion.

    *** Yet in the end, even if this doco made up of BS and sensationalism *was* all true, airing it a week after a person has died is in extremely bad taste and Channel 9 should be ashamed of itself.

  15. Nine is horrible! First their other Michael Jackson special they totally joked through, and this one had no trace of Richard Wilkins at all! Second it was some old thing, making out as if so many things were true stated facts, when they weren’t at all. How did the makers of this program get away with that?

    They also didn’t bother to explain why La Toya said those things about Michael (she was pressured by her husband to do so at the time and didn’t stand by the words). It caused a falling out with the Jackson family, but now all is well again and she has been forgiven..

    Nine shouldn’t have even bothered with this program if that is the only thing they have of Michael Jackson lying around.

  16. A documentary adopting poor evidence. All hearsay. Little use of credible information. Completely reliant on interviews with questionnable sources. For a documentary to be a good one, it needs to present an impartial case, two sides of a story. This documentary, with its horror-like music and sensationalist undertones is just poor in terms of documentary credibility. The last statement in the documentary just doesn’t fit and is clearly forced. Pathetic doco-journalists in their attempt to gain place in the lime light by capitalising on a global media hype. Transparently biased. Sorry but any critical viewer who understands what a compelling documentary is would agree. This was rubbish.

  18. ETA – maybe this should have been called “What really Happened to Richard Wilkins?” He didn’t host it, did he pull out at the last minute after seeing it?

  20. OMG I started watching it’s not new as msd said it was made a couple of years ago and is about the molestation case.

    “Two years ago, Michael Jackson was acquitted of child molestation, but instead of returning to his Neverland home, he disappeared, wandering the globe for two years. Writer Jacques Peretti wanted to find out why, and in so doing, get to the truth of what really drove Michael Jackson to such spectacular self-destruction.”

    This is worse than the one they slapped together before, what where they thinking!

  21. It would have been better if it was Richard Reid hosting or co-hosting this doco with him…Don’t be saying something stupid now….tsk tsk…

  22. I wonder if the “King of Celebrity” will have another scoop for us… Or perhaps more banale rubbish spurting from his mouth. Or maybe both at once like normal.

  24. ..and the Burial of his Character continues, way to honour his Memory FTA.. seriously, Only ‘The Sun’ (UK Newspaper) is doing a better Burial of his character!

  25. 9 seem to be pretending that this is a “new” show, a special put together after his death but it’s actually about the molestation case. Plus, it was already shown on the ABC last year.

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