Where to for Rescue: Special Ops?
Rescue will have its season finale on Sunday October 25th. Will Nine renew the series?
- Published by David Knox
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Nine’s newest drama Rescue: Special Ops will have its season finale on Sunday October 25th.
As well as its weekly incident to resolve, it will also see a wedding placed in jeopardy for one of the central characters.
But for Nine the stakes are much greater as it faces decisions about the future of the show.
On Sunday night the show pulled 1.02m viewers, slightly less than some of its best figures of around 1.1m. The drama, produced by Southern Star, doesn’t come cheap. Reviews have been middling, word of mouth for the show never really got off the ground.
The network is also finding out the hard way that it has on-going trouble launching new brands. Australia’s Perfect Couple, homeMADE and The Apprentice Australia have all had lacklustre premieres.
With so many of our dramas built around police and emergency workers, Nine may also have found Rescue struggling for a place in an overcrowded genre.
While it has Underbelly and Sea Patrol set for 2010, Nine must embed new product that will garner local drama points. Former attempts with The Strip and Canal Road are well documented. Rescue is easily better than both, but it is not without its flaws.
29 Responses
really love the show and dont want to see it gone
Love the show….i am totally totally hooked, i look forward to it every week…please please have a season 2!!!!!!
Fantastic fantastic show. Love it completely. Please please have a season 2.. so many people will be thrilled.
The last 2 eps have pulled over a million of viewers! Thats pretty good!! Give it time to find its feet. At least give it another season!
Fantastic cast.. fantastic story. Its gotten to be a really great show the last few weeks.. Just imagine the story lines they could do next season!
I’m praying and I know a bunch of people who also are.. for this show to return. Come on nine.. give it a Real go!
i think u are all losers i love the show its awsome and i wanna see more of it defently want dean and lara to get together…
Axe it 9, its truly awful,
and 10 axe rush, its crap.
I definitely like Rush better, i actually never been interested in Rescue. The promo never drew me in.
I would like to see it return with another 13 episode season next year.
poor 9, they can’t seem to get a consistent rating drama. if this goes it will be their 4th drama to end in 2 years.
i never liked this show, too unrealistic, and we’ve seen it all so many times before and i’m never in the mood for this type of show on a sunday.
i hope 9 axe it and make a new shoe that is actually something new. not a cop show/ murder procedural. i’d like to see a light serial drama. i thought they were on the money with that claudia karvan show. but they let that slip away.
Our whole family watch it religiously. We think its the best AUssie Drama we’ve ever seen. There were two slow shows (number 3 and 4) in running order which I think may have lost some audiences but they did build the characters.
I was involved in marketing years ago…to be honest I don’t think 9 do it justice with their promos. Shows like The Force and Border Patrol have whole little scenarios promo’ed days before which go on for minutes and on the night on the actual show. These are repeated over and over again until you just kinda want to know ‘what happens’. Rescue only ever seems to have that zoom in shot over the Blue Mts…. there’s nothing for the viewing public to ‘get their teeth into’. Better and more promos throughout the week would get word-of- mouth and viewer audience anticipation. Please keep it on for a second series.
It needs to be on a different night. Sunday is a terrible timeslot for the show.
It hasn’t really been a ratings success and I imagine it costs a lot to produce. This particular genre is getting old as well, so I doubt whether it will be back.
i think it’s rubbish. unrealistic, shallow storylines. whats with all the rescuers getting so personally involves every week. it has such a good team behind it. what happened?
even if it was a lot better. the ratings wouldn’t surprise me. the appeal was not there. it’s just a ch9 version of All saints and rush. the timeslot it was in doesn’t do it any justice.
ch9 you are better off starting a drama from scratch next year insead of renewing this. i think 9 have already dumped it, it is rating the same as the strip, there have been rumours that this happened a long time ago and the crew were told. it makes sense that 9 haven’t made a formal announcement. when people know that a show has been axed it is hard to get them to watch the final episodes. so i would expect an announcement just after the season finishes on air. and knowing 9, they will wait until they have good news to overshadow it.
It’s a godawful show with paper thin plots and shockingly poor acting (with a couple of exceptions). In fact it’s about as cheesy as The Strip, but without the beautiful people and scenery.
Sell it overseas and rename it Special slOps.
“…it will also see a wedding placed in jeopardy for one of the central characters.”
Originality is overrated, isn’t it?
Rush is about something – the effect the adrenaline rush has on the operatives as they go about their lives. RSO thinks it’s about the rescue and the interpersonal relationships between the team which is why it is an uneasy mix of soap and action – both hard to believe in their own way . Les Hill is the new Peter Phelps – that is – will never be a leading man. The girls in RSO look achingly/longingly at the boys. Its pathetic. If your life is in danger who do you want to turn up to rescue you? Roger and Callum or Les and Gigi? RSO is not strong enough for Sunday, and it will be caned ever other night. Sadly it’s not good enough. Next please!
Awful, awful title for a show. -.-
Maybe stop making police / rescue / crime shows and try something different. That something different is why Packed to the Rafters does so well (no Nine, don’t try to copy it, come up if your own ideas).
Looking at the ratings for all crime based shows, they all seem to be down with no stand outs now other than the original NCIS.
Still feel that Canal Road was actually a well produced and a gritty drama. Maybe they could relaunch Canal Road over summer and do a Season 2… (well here’s hoping)
rso my viewing formula is like baseball, 3 strikes then your out, rso your gone
It’s not that great. They should probably pull the plug.
Perhaps, Nine could order another 9 episodes for the first half of next year, which would make a total first series of 22 eps. Launch Underbelly in the first quarter, then Rescue on a new night in the second quarter. Then move Sea Patrol to the second half on 2010 which has 16 eps now. If Rescue fails again, then Nine has a whole year to produce a brand new drama for the first quarter 2011. But if it gets another series, it would return late 2010 and continue in 2011.
It’s not a good sign it hasn’t been renewed yet when others like Rush have been given a 3rd season.
Right now IMO it’s 50/50 whether it will happen, maybe it will with a reduced budget and less location shoots?
I’m all up for trying new drama; doesn’t mean I will stick around for it but I didn’t bother with Rescue Special Ops; the promo’s did not entice me and I already watch and love Rush, this seems all too familiar without the darker side that Rush has.
I watched last Sunday (1st time) … and it was a good show.
Just needs a few more tweaks and some tightening in the writing and it could have a very long and successful run on Australian TV.
Sunday also doesn’t feel right … it should be in the old Blue Heelers slot.