★★★★★ 0/5

“Still to come” and other little white lies

"Still to come," current affairs hosts tell us every night, for a story that never, ever comes. What are the most over-used lines in television?

67
Leave a comment

lie“Still to come,” current affairs hosts tell us every night….

And yet the story never comes. It’s just a big tease for the promo on a story the following night.

“Coming up next,” they say. But when?

The lines are some of the most over-used phrases in television. And there are plenty of them.

Nearly a year ago A Current Affair‘s Tracy Grimshaw shared her thoughts on the matter in a very candid interview with TV Tonight:

“You know what, if I was sitting home I’d throw something at the telly!” she laughs. “I don’t get everything I want on the show!

“We’re not fooling anybody that we’ve got another story coming up. In truth we should re-word that. But it’s been done that way for a while. I just have to trust that our viewers are smart enough to know what we mean when I say ‘coming up’, I mean ‘not really coming up, tune in tomorrow!’”

Alas, nothing has changed (hint hint public affairs producers?).

But it’s not the only overused phrase in the biz.

What about any sentence with the phrase “comfort zone?” As in “They’re out of their comfort zone; I’m out of my comfort zone?”

Australian Idol uses the word “Journey” like it has patented the darned thing.

Another over-used phrase has emerged on The 7PM Project . Everytime Charlie Pickering says the phrase “Thankyou very much so and so” you just know he’s been given a directive down the earpiece to jump to the next item. Even if it means cutting off a guest before they have barely started. Just ask Hayley Lewis, who last night had 55 seconds to answer her solitary question on being the new Biggest Loser host. Barely worth the cab fare.

Then there’s all those makeover shows always telling us “This is our biggest makeover EVER.”

And what about network promos? When Nine’s homeMADE began spinning the adjectives, it really went overboard: “Such an emotional rollercoaster / Never before have you seen a show like this / It’s life changing / It’s transforming / It’s the biggest renovation competition EVER.”

We can add to the list of promo little white lies such as “You won’t believe your eyes!” “This year’s biggest shock!” “You’ll never see this one coming!” Maybe they just keep reusing old promo scripts from the past three years?

Even off-screen there are over-used phrases too.

In media reporting, how often do we hear the phrase, “A source told so and so” (guilty on that one, here!).

And then there is ACMA’s favourite: “ACMA does not, at this stage, propose to take any further action in relation to this matter.”

Of course no-one is begrudging anyone a catchphrase. George Calombaris yelling “Chop! Chop!” or Henry Roth wanting to see the “Passion in your Fashion” are signature brandings. Television loves those, and it helps crystallise a personality. Just ask Jeff “immunity is back up for grabs” Probst.

But let’s not kid anyone there are a few lines we could live without.

So let’s hear them. What are television’s most overused phrases and worst little white lies?

67 Responses

  1. With regards to current affairs programs and the “Still to come line” i am sick and tired of how they use it right before a commercial, why..? because we all know the show is running over time by about 3 minutes, and if they stopped wasting the air time on things like still to come and ACA weather or news updates then they may actually finish in the allocated timeslots.

    Then again i really can not understand how they get the viewers they do, i was over them years ago after i realised that they just recycle content every 6 months. It’s like the catholic church i got over that after i was old enough to realise they were just repeating the same things every 12 months.

  2. I have to agree with you TheUglyBaby, once I was watching sunrise they were discussing ‘violence’ and they shown a scene from a tv show with two couples fighting. And guess what, the tv show was……… home and away. They could’ve used a better example but their main focus was trying to promote h&a not trying to promote that violence is unacceptable. This dirty tatic also shows in DWTS where all the celebrities are channel 7’s D-listers.

  4. “It’s the episode you can’t afford to miss” is frequently uttered by the female Ten voiceover, who also seems to make even the most innocuous of shows sound pornographic.

    And I felt like ripping my hair out whenever I’d heard the phrases “flying under the radar”, “he/she’s playing the game” and “I’m only here for the experience” on Big Brother. *throws a shrieking fit*

  5. Sunrise & The Morning Show “The ______ that has everyone talking”

    Speaking of Sunrise, I hate when they pretend to have discussions about real issues, just so they can promote storylines from Packed To The Rafters.

    Nobody’s talking. Nobody cares.

  6. We always play the “Marcia Light and Shade Drinking Game’ when watching Idol. Of course I refer to a time when we bothered to watch it before this years crapfest. Everytime Marcia says ‘light and shade’ we all have to neck our drink. Most so far is 5 time s in one episode. Shocking hangover on the Monday following that particular live show.

  7. For me it’s when announcers shorten the name of the show to one familiar word, like “Coming up next… Rafters”, or, or, damn I now can’t think of any of the more idiotic I’ve heard. I’m sure they believe it engenders some loyalty and warm fuzzies with the viewers, but I Hate It!

  8. The one that really irritates me is Channel 10’s “short break” which goes for 60 seconds… sure, it goes for 60 seconds, but simply makes every other ad break longer… I sigh every time

  9. Anyone who gets Foxtel, will know the promo for next week on Ramsay’s Hells Kitchen, every week its the same thing, “You won’t believe” “You won’t wanna miss” etc etc then you watch the ep and its like wow was that it? haha

  10. My main bugbear at the minute is Channel 10 having the audacity to air the U.S “Are you following me?” adverts for NCIS:LA when in actual fact it doesn’t follow NCIS in Australia. In fact a repeat of NCIS follows NCIS:LA. I hate Australian commercial TV programmers, none of them should have a job!

  14. Last week, 10’s promo for Rush centered on two of the lead characters having some kind of forbidden tryst. In the actual episode that storyline covered a couple of minutes of the show, if that, and even then nothing happened.

  15. There was a period a year or two ago where TEN promos were constantly trying to convince us that the first few minutes of various shows would “Blow… You…. Away!!!!”

    God that got annoying.

  18. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who noticed that about the 7pm project! And those “coming up” tags on ACA and TT used to sh*t me to tears, I’ve gotten over though by not watching the program!

  19. I like the 7PM Project, but I still find it the most stilted live panel show on telly. For some reason the presenters always tend to look they are kangaroos in the headlights, even Dave and Carrie who have plenty of live to air TV experience.

  20. The white lies that annoy me at the moment are the usage of stock video footage during any news report on climate change or the proposed ETS.

    The main ones:

    – polar bears stuck on icebergs (their numbers are increasing and the recent arctic sea ice minimum was over 1 million km more than the 2007 low),

    – ice shelfs breaking off (also known as Summer)

  21. “Sneak Peek” followed by “See it first on Nine” and “Australia’s New Favourite …” or “Australia’s Fastest Growing …. ” all used by Nine but “Sneak Peek” is also being used by Seven just as much, if not more than Nine.

  22. “The [things] they don’t want you to know.”

    And then it turns out to be common sense stuff that most people are pretty much fully aware of, or at least had suspicions of, and isn’t even slightly revelatory.

  23. I remember when Ally McBeal was on a decade ago and each week the tagline from the voiceover for the ad was it was “a heartwarming Ally” or a “not be missed Ally” and a varitey of 20 odd “a ……… Ally” which now has been given to Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy.

  24. Any station that uses the words fast-tracked (or similar) to advertise a show that is screened in Australia more than two days after its premier screening (whether that is in the US or UK).

    Any station that advertises a show starting and/or concluding at a time, when in fact that show starts and/or concludes 5, 10, 15 minutes or more after the stated time.

    Any many other lies.

Leave a Reply