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WIN mogul’s favourite Susie led to sacked boss

Sacked WIN boss claims he was dismissed after axing Susie, a personal favourite of the billionaire owner Bruce Gordon.

susie1Former WIN TV boss TV boss David Butorac says he was sacked for axing regional daytime TV show Susie, hosted by Susie Elelman.

According to a statement of claim filed by Mr Butorac in the Federal Court, his decision to dump the low rating show led to his sudden exit from the regional broadcaster. His sacking surprised the TV industry after WIN TV had put in a solid financial performance for the 2008-09 financial year, despite the economic downturn.

Many in the industry have been aware that the show was a personal favourite of the billionaire boss, Bruce Gordon, who resides in Bermuda. It was one of the network’s few original programming titles.

Butorac is seeking a termination payout of at least $900,000 plus unspecified bonuses, damages, interest and costs.

A year ago, Susie was dumped from daytime schedules on WIN-owned stations in Perth and Adelaide, leaving it in place in regional affiliates. Elelman has since filmed guest segments for Nine’s Postcards show.

At this year’s Logie Awards, Elelman told TV Tonight: “We had 4 timeslot changes in 15 months. I think because of the affiliation with the Nine Network and fitting in all their shows as well …it’s hard when you’ve got so much programming.

“If you talk to Bruce Gordon it’s coming back and that’s great, he owns the network! But it won’t be this year.”

Indeed….

Source: The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald

9 Responses

  1. It’s because of Butorac we are stuck with 2,.5 men following ACA.

    James Packer wouldn’t allow a game show quiz of close to thirty years to have died neither would have his father bless his soul

  2. Michael, I agree! Gordon is making Packer look pretty hands-off.

    Josh, you’re right! Butorac was just doing what any other TV network chief executive would’ve done – axe a very low rating program. Its obvious Butorac also forgot to get Gordon to sign his permission slip before he went to the restroom.

    Snapper Jack, WIN regional NSW & Qld didn’t air repeats of Skippy because Nine Sydney & Brisbane didn’t either. Yet, while Nine Melbourne, Adelaide & Perth did air Skippy on Sunday morning, so did WIN in regional Vic, Tas & WA.

    Jay Jay, apart from WIN Corp getting Nine Perth & Adelaide to drop their balls from the logo, airing Alive & Cooking at 3pm weekdays (instead of Entertainment Tonight) & the odd repeat of ACA at midnight; what do they do that’s so different from the PBL owned Nine’s in the east? Don’t forget PBL also own NBN in Newcastle & they mess more with their schedule than WIN would’ve done. Living in Hobart myself, I get a little peeved when some people from Perth & Adelaide think they deserve better than the rest of us. Especially if you’re from Adelaide!

  3. Haha – that’s admittedly a pretty thin reason for a dismissal, y’know Packer was presumably a Star Trek fan (so I read once) but he didn’t blink when his own network shipped it off to late night. This would have to be a first.

  4. This banal infomercial crap was force fed to regional viewers. Hideous show with an equally hideous host. We in the sticks get the bad end of day time and late night tv. infomercials all night when metro gets at least some re-runs of skippy!

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