Returning: ER. Bumped: The Hills
ER is back -but moves to GO! which, strictly speaking, is a youth branded channel. Or is it?
- Published by David Knox
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Good news for ER fans -at least those with digital television. Bad news for those without… (cmon its 2010 what are you waiting for?).
From Thursday night it will shift to “its new home” on GO! at 10:30pm.
GO! will pick up first run episodes starting with episode nine of the 14th season, ‘Skye’s the Limit.’ Former Sea Patrol regular David Lyons joins from episode fourteen.
It will follow with the final 15th season including the return appearance of George Clooney.
The announcement addresses aggrieved fans of the long-running medical drama who have been knocked around by erratic scheduling on Nine.
But the move also raises questions about the branding of GO! While the show is not without younger fans, it doesn’t exactly fit the brief of the channel as a youth-skewed network. GO! removed CSI for the very same reason in its initial launch period. This could become an interesting move to watch in 2010, particularly in light of 7TWO having a broader pitch.
ER will replace The Hills immediately, which moves to 11.00am Sundays. It will compete against CSI:NY repeats on Nine.
49 Responses
@andrewB like i said..people who love the show will know its on GO!
U can find out this on the net or in the paper, word of mouth, radio…hmmmmm so many way to promote it..
Word of mouth? Good god. Most ER fans won’t know it’s starting tomorrow night (and it’s also an older audience). These switches are too late. Tell me what it has listed in your copy of the Sunday TV Guide / TV Week etc? Mine has The Hills.
@vid – I actually hope ER does well but fail to see how it can with little or no promotion and such a last minute programming change. I also hope that it stays on GO for the remaining 30 or so episodes of S14 and S15.
If they do chose to take it off GO, I hope they have the sense to let go of the rights so the DVDs can be released or the last two seasons can air on 111 Hits.
Well I got sick of Nine shifting ER all the time so I’ve already found other ways to watch it.
I wish Nine would put the unaired episodes of Gilmore Girls on GO!
Did anyone notice that 111HITS on Foxtel was promoting before xmas the fact that from Jan 4 they will be running ER every weeknight?…this was after Nine announced it was dumping the show. I don’t think it’s the latest series but it’s pretty close…makes you think, huh?
Regarding the Youth Skewing Networks etc if Nine/Go really want to focus on youth skewed programming they have to quit the sh!t trying to compete in total people with the likes of The Seven Network and 7TWO; Seven have a broad pitch for their channels with a large % of 50+ I’m happy for Nine to get competitive in total people if that’s what they want; but Go is a digital channel – a youth skewing digital channel – so treat shows with disrespect in regards to programs like The Hills and Gossip Girl they’ve been bumped and ditched and moved all around the schedule and isn’t very fair for the youth viewers the network is thus aiming for.
On a side note though I don’t think ER at 10.30 is horrible – but maybe on a Friday night 😛
Don’t you mean 11:00 PM Sundays for The Hills?
Nope. I checked. It’s definitely 11AM.
@ D@GP – How is SBS3 an even bigger yawn than SBS1? Considering the former is literally a retransmission of the latter.
Will the 300th ep of ER finally air-great to see it on Nine’s GO!
Thats fantastic that they are finally getting on with screening ER. However I won’t be watching. They lost me with all the mucking around they’ve done with this show. As soon as its on DVD I’ll be watching it the way it should be…it in continuous flow.
Too little too late. I was really enjoying the Curtis Ames (Forest Whitaker) story arc a few years back when the show was yanked off air. Never did find out what happened because I couldn’t keep up with the erratic scheduling. No desire to fall for the same crap yet again. New Year’s resolution is to be more selective about what I watch on free to air. Anything on Nine and Ten are automatically struck off the list.
Haha! Do the programmers at Nine pay the man at the GO! gate before they dump all their unwanted s**t there? On well. At least the Salvos are saved from a clean up. 😉
Personally I would of thought ER would of been younger skewing then some of the 40 year old shows that GO shows.
For what it’s worth – In our home this week, we’ll watch / time shift:
ABC1 = 10 progs/movies
ABC2 = 3 progs
ABC3 = c’mon!!!!
7 = 2 progs/movies
7TWO = 3 progs/movies
9 = 1 movie
GO! = 0
TEN = 0
ONE HD = 0
SBS1 = 1
SBS2 = 0 yawn
SBS3 = 0 even bigger yawn
Never really considered myself a regular ABC viewer, until 9 in particular started to dictate what their (falling) viewers would watch. Guess I was in the wrong demographic – for Nine, at least. We’re looking forward to the return of 24 and Lost this year on 7TWO. Plus the Despos on 7. Oh, on Foxtel, I have 2 shows I enjoy (The Practice and All You Need is Love) while the wife like her lifestyle stuff. Time Shift is the way to go.
Beggars can’t be choosers! At least it’s on somewhere.
(I’ve seen up to S15 ep11 and I have to say it’s still a fantastic show! Shame it had to end.)
Yay!
The biggest problem Nine has with GO! is cross promotion, ABC has done it for years with ABC2, Seven is doing it with 7TWO and even TEN does it with ONE so why won’t Nine do it with GO!?
ITA the HD STB are cheap now but maybe Rudd who loves to throw money around and has an election coming up this year will help those on low income and pensioners to update to DTV?
dear god, there never ever going to finish season on of The Hills are they.. just like what they did with gossip girl, i thought GO! was suppose to appeal to the youth. i obviously was wrong.
the hills are replys of season one!! so good move to replace itwith New ep’s of ER!
@andrew B…..i think this time u have no idea what your on about…ER will do Well!! and its great for GO! to have this program! u may know your television..but so do alot of other ppl including me! ER will do just fine… as for 7Two… its boring and old!
at the end of the day..ppl who are keen on their shows will find out when their shpows are on and what time etc… honestly..ther are so many way to find out information on tv..radio..anything!!!
ER did quite well among 18-49s in the US. It’s a better fit for GO! than The Wire was. GO! isn’t really a youth channel anyway. It’s a youth slanted general entertainment channel. There’s room for shows like ER.
GO is not strictly youth oriented it also airs a lot of great 60’s/70’s shows.
Now how about The Closer? Such a cool show that Nine seems to have forgotten about.
@Andrew:
You know, with the way the networks treat shows like this I think it’s best that they Do fail, just to get the message to them that there needs to be time for viewers to find out. Just take a look at Rove’s final episode – had they prewarned fans from say a month beforehand, imagine how their final eps would have gone!
Obviously why it will be on at 10.30 and not earlier. Still I’m sure Nine could have stuck in on at 9.30 in double episodes over summer.
@George – No ER will not do well on GO at all. Noone will know its on initially, and Nine won’t promote it. Printed guied will be wrong. Internet guides and probably GO’s own EPG won’t update till tomorrow, etc… Too short notice for all the fans to find out that it is on again.
Thankfully, this and a few other TV web sites will at least have stories up about ER so hopefully some fans will find out in time!!!
@Andrew:
I’ve seen HD set top boxes for around $50, and I have a feeling some places would be even cheaper. The prices on them are falling so fast. However I wish we had only HD set top boxes being sold here so that the networks wouldn’t be so scared to have anymore breakaway content on their HD channels (well with the exception of TEN, but they’re only making One HD-only because of the stupid restrictions by the government).
And I’m not sure ER will go really good on GO! considering there’s no cross-promotion on Nine and it’s mainly the youngins who watch the channel, so the older generation wouldn’t know it’s on.
I can’t believe it. Go feeling some pinch from 7TWO finally or did the Nine network suddenly hear the voice of the ER fans?
Problem with such a last minute change is many will not know it is on while Hills fans will be annoyed at their show being bumped.
If you don’t have digital by now, then you will miss out on shows. You can get set top boxes from $20 these days, and HD set top boxes from $70 or so…