Angry Hey Hey fans call for Nine boycott
Update: It was Facebook fans who were instrumental in Hey Hey's return. Yesterday they had another message for Channel Nine.
- Published by David Knox
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Even for a repeat of Hey Hey it’s Saturday fans are passionate.
Yesterday fans of the show vented their anger towards Channel Nine after the network suddenly backflipped on plans to screen Wednesday night’s reunion.
TV Tonight broke the news yesterday afternoon that the reunion, due to replay at 9:30pm last night, was being replaced with the movie 50 First Dates. It didn’t take long for fans to make their feelings known.
Online, via phone and via emails they let Nine have it.
The Facebook site, which had famously gathered some 200,000 fans (now over 266,000) went into meltdown with complaints:
Chris: Hit channel nine where it hurts and forward all complaint’s to the sponser’s of these frigin movies, actually lets just start taking note of which organisations are proudly presenting any of channel 9’s wonderous programing and ask th…em if they share the same contempuous opinions of the Australian public. Channel 9’s Hey Hey issue today Federal Goverment’s Public Health Care system tomorrow….. Power to the Viewers!!!
Levi: I didnt watch it on Wednesday because it wasnt Saturday!! Its a Saturday show!!!
Edy: Just emailed my complaint to all and network bosses. Subject… Boycott starts now. You’ve probably got heaps of emails by now.So here is another one.I WILL NOT be watching your network until the next episode of Hey Hey is on.What a major stuff up… by the network bosses.You bunch of deadsh$ts.Ahhh well lost revenue for your guys.Hopefully someone loses their job for this kind of stuff. Many people would have stayed home tonight to watch and get stuck with some crappy repeated movie. BAD BAD BAD
Antony: Why advertise you are going to replay Wednesday night’s episode if you end up showing an Adam Sandler movie that has been repeated approximately 159 times instead. Shame on you Channel Nine!
Hanna: Typical Channel 9! I phoned Channel 9 to complain. It took me over 35 minutes to get through – their switchboard was in meltdown. I was very polite and friendly to the lady on the switchboard who told me that I was the only person who hadn’t …been rude to her. I felt quite sorry for her. Apparently Channel 9 has not given switchboard staff any reason for the ‘late program change’.
Lynn: wot cheeses me off is the wasted energy I used getting excited waiting to watch the encore presentation
Tony: Just dont watch Channel 9! That is the best way to deal with this!!
The site even published the email addresses of Nine Programmers to complain about the switch. Many phoned Nine’s switchboard to vent their anger.
Meanwhile, over100 opinions have been lodged by TV Tonight readers.
Corrine Lawrence, the devoted fan managing the Bring Back Hey Hey Facebook page said: “Hi Everyone, as soon as I have some information about why Hey Hey was cancelled this evening – I will post it! Hopefully we will know something by tomorrow – and it better be a bloody good reason!”
Yesterday a Nine spokesperson told TV Tonight replays of the two reunion specials who play some time after this week’s second event. No reason was given for the belated cancellation. Talk of rights was denied as being part of the problem.
The switch certainly soured what was a much-needed triumph for Nine. Hey Hey‘s return had been widely praised as one of Nine’s best moves all year. It is unfortunate for Daryl Somers and the team that Programming has dented such good will.
Nine may well be holding the show to rerun in one of the last ratings weeks of the year, when it needs the extra shot in the arm to win the week.
Yesterday it was sitting at 28.8% over Seven’s 28.3%. Did it feel so confident of winning the week that it decided to put the reunions in reserve?
Either way Nine needs to heed the voice of the people. As Daryl Somers rightly acknowledged it was the outpouring by fans on Facebook that got the attention of the network execs.
Yesterday those same fans were singing a much different song.
Update: The Herald Sun says Daryl Somers asked Nine to remove the show from Saturday’s schedule.
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51 Responses
David: Is the second special still scheduled to run this coming Wednesday? and a repeat next Saturday?
Second special is in Wednesday. Another movie next Saturday. With NRL & Hey Hey, Nine will win another week.
That’s why 80% of people dont trust nine with programming.
Nine, why would u cancel a repeat of a show which got over 2.1 million people for a movie starring adam sandler?
From now on, im never watching nine until nine can come up with an reason why they have caused outrage nationwide! Infact, im not watching hey hey until they do.
Im gonna go on facebook and see how many groups there are named “i hate the nine network”.
Nine are a Bunch of Crap Morons.
I only watch them for Getaway and Hi 5 or Humphrey Nothing Else.
At this rate it will be sometime in the next decade that we see a Game Show come back to 7pm weeknights
do we know for certain if it was 9 who pulled it off or was it somers caroll????
i think we all better get the facts first before we blame someone….
please remember nine doesnt own hey hey..somers caroll does…
something to remember ppl!!
I was going to watch Hey Hey on Saturday, as too was my mum because there was too many other things on Wednesday to watch so just planned to watch the Saturday repeat. I wasn’t happy but my mum went right off, she wanted me to ring Nine and email them, she was fuming.
I was praising Nine earlier this week and saying if they brought it back i would watch. But now i will not. I still will not be watching any Nine shows. The networks a joke, just when they do somethign right, they do what they always do and screw with the viewers. They have no respect the viewers, so i say stuff em.
Luckily I DVR’ed it on Wed night, but up until then had planned to watch on Saturday.
Arrogance of programming gibbons can only be assumed until the “official” reason iis revealed.
Is it wrong to get annoyed because a long-scheduled show which has created so much emotion and fondness during the week is cancelled seemingly at the last minute, yet as mentioned earlier, if Nein is desperate to gain a following or justify existence (too many failed shows to mention, but Apprentice Oz was repated after HHiS and a fine example) they’ll have ‘special encore presentations” (they’re not the only culprits!)
Of course people are angry the repeat wasn’t aired. But I honestly think its more than just the show. Nine is infamous for last minute cutting and changing of TV shows. If its not a hit, they just replace it with two and half men instead of trying to let it build an audience. People are tired of being treated with such animosity and I’m sure the advertisers must be getting tired of it too. Its about respecting your audience.
For goodness sake! We should be grateful they put it on at all!
I don’t think the show would work on a Saturday night live… too expensive for any network! Plus anyone ever thought it wasn’t Channel 9’s decision? What about Somers Carroll… aren’t they the ones with the rights? Therefore isn’t it Somers’ decision?? We probably shouldn’t point the finger until we find out for sure… as disappointing as it is!
@SJ it’s nothing about being entitled, they scheduled it, people plan their TV viewing around TV guides printed or otherwise and then at the last minute they pull the show and give no apparent reason. If it was for rights issues then say it or at least tell us when they plan on showing it again!
So seem to think this will lead to more people tuning in this week, I don’t know?
wamdue… you don’t miss out on watching the next Hey Hey. People are angry because Hey Hey was taken off (although it was a re-run) so you shouldn’t anger yourself anymore, by choosing to not watch the next new Hey Hey (on Wednesday). It doesn’t make sense.
Wouldn’t the vast majority of people complaining already have seen and recorded the show anyway? Why kick up such a fuss over a cancelled repeat? It’s not as though the promo ads said, “Don’t worry if you miss the live broadcast, you can watch it late on Saturday night!” People who deliberately avoided watching it so that they could watch it on Saturday night can’t be that loyal or keen to see it back on the air. If they really wanted to support the program, they’d watch it when the ratings counted most (i.e. its first screening).
So they are complaining because the show didn’t get repeated on Saturday? They should be lucky the show played all. Seems like they have a bit of a self entitlement complex.
Hey Hey should go to 7 in 2010! On a Saturday night as well!
They already have Molly and Red- the two I’d be watching for!
I think it may have been planned all along. . People who avoided it on wednesday to watch on saturday would then tune in next wednesday for even bigger ratings.
Just a thought
The only reason why Nine are holding over the repeats until after Wednesday, is so they can play them the week after and try to win that one ratings wise.
Pathetic. Nine- Still the crap one.
Do some people really have so little else going on in their lives they have to complain a TV show wasn’t repeated? Just watch it elsewhere if you want to watch it so bad, that’ll appease your anger and annoy Channel 9 in the process 🙂
no! no! no!
don’t get angry @ nine. they will not listen to anger.
this will mean the end of hey hey if you keep acting like this.
stop!
Im so peeeed off about last nights cancellation of Hey Hey that I absolutely refuse to watch Channel 9 until they start listening to what the audience wants!!
If you dont want to show Hey Hey again give it to another station. You wont be losing viewers cause whatever you air in its place will be rubbish anyway and no one will be watching. Channel 9 used to be my fav channel but for years now all they have shown is crap!
This move is of no consequence to me because I watched it on Wednesday but even I am angry with Nine for regaining just a few viewers only to trample all over them again.
Programmer Michael Healy needs to go unless he learns to stick to a schedule.
If Nine had any brain they would encore both reunions Saturday night – to give just a small acknowledgement that the viewers mean something, afterall if we didn’t mean anything then Nine would be Still The One.
This just shows how good and how popular Hey Hey is. Shame that people didn’t not watch the Wednesday show because a Saturday night repeat was scheduled. Maybe Hey Hey could have topped the 2.5 million mark had the repeat not been scheduled in the first place but the network had an encore scheduled and should have stuck by its word.
A boycott over a repeat of a show that only aired on Wednesday! Yikes! Looks like Hey Hey will be back permanently in 2010. Nine wouldn’t want to know what would happen if they didn’t return it. Nine should definitely consider replaying the reunion shows earlier on a Saturday night at 7:30pm and it should hold a stable audience. 9:30pm was a little late to start a show that would have finished at 12:30am and yet most states had daylight saving starting making it a really late night so not good for young viewers who should be in bed.
Nine should also consider replaying the final show too!
David, has Nine already gave an official statement for the pull out?
Considering Nine pulled it yesterday afternoon, which I imagine is too late for an printed publication or even online EPG’s to update would have to suggest that rights issues was the reason that HHIS was pulled.
Any other reason for pulling the HHIS replay at late notice is *really* bad form by Nine. Heck, Nine have bombarded this weeks schedule with repeat screenings of lesser rating shows such as The Apprentice Australia and Vampire Dairies, and FWAW and Rescue Speial Ops “encore screenings” last month.
Just when you think they (CH9) have got it they go and do something like this, I’m sure there were many of Hey hey parties planned for last night only for then to tune into 50 First Dates!
Either way I won’t be watching it this week as I’ll use other mean later when I have the time!
BTW I guess the printed TV Guides for the coming week will all be wrong now, I just wonder if after this Nine will air them Saturday night, maybe in a 5 hour block from 7:30?
[I Will Not be watching your network until the next episode of Hey Hey is on.] that would seem to be missing the point, best way to hurt Nine on this matter is not to watch the next Hey Hey.
Dump 9 and take it to 10 !