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Returning: ER. Bumped: The Hills

ER is back -but moves to GO! which, strictly speaking, is a youth branded channel. Or is it?

ER_castS14Good 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

  1. Bugger! Have just discovered this website and have seen comments about ER being on GO! How are we meant to keep up with shows on “normal” channels without all these changes on their alternative channels as well?? Grrrrr….

  2. According to the GO website, ER will be on at 9.30 next Thursday Jan14. Gossip Girl 8.30, Side Order of Life must be out. But the program on their site still has ER at 10.30, and yahoo’s guide still says the Hill on Thur 10.30, Gossip Girl 9.30.

    Talk about confusion. Printed guides will probably say something different again. They sure make it hard to keep up.

  3. Screw you Channel 9! Why go to all the effort of importing a TV show from the states if you’re just going to shvoe it on s secondary channel, at least air it on Thursday instead of Rescue Special Ops, or at absolute worse air it instead of the CSI NY repeat….

    No wonder Channel 9 has been dethroned by Channel 7 as Australia’s top Channel

  4. Ninw just realised they had a big name show lying around that they were never going to screen on their main channel.
    Seeing as they reecently did a deal with MTV (which must include VH1 and Nickelodeon) surely we could get rid of the 60s gear. The Jetsons seems to be on every time I turn it on. Isn’t is weird that in the ’80s and ’90s I grew up watching ’60s reruns like Bewitched and Get Smart, and they’re still on now?
    Actually, rhey have The Partridge Family and Charlie’s Angels (70s), and Seinfeld, Frasier and The Nanny (90s), but they seem to have skipped the ’80s altogether.

  5. @ tad – perhaps not those shows but GO! could show promos for shows like Hey Hey,Underbelly,2.5 Men and others. Nine have many shows that appeal to the younger demos.

  6. Why are GO! playing all those old 50’s and 60’s sitcoms? They are terrible! Surely they could move The Hills or Gossip Girl into some of these slots? I wish they were sticking with their original youth focus and not shifting to the oldies…. there is already so much playing for them on Nine, Seven, Seven2 and ABC!

  7. Some promotion for GO! on Nine would help, but it has to be one way. The last thing GO! viewers want is promos for Domestic Blitz or Getaway being shown on GO!

    Treating GO! as its own entity isn’t a bad strategy. It doesn’t feel like Nine junior or a poor man’s Nine.

  8. Thank god for TVTonight! I’d probably miss all my shows that get moved otherwise.
    I don’t know why I bother getting a sunday paper for the tv guide anymore! (except for being a bit OCD & loving to go through it with a highlighter on Sundays.) The Sunday Tele’s guide had the extra digital channel info on the wrong days & half the programs had changed already. It’s always the shows that I love that get screwed around with, Supernatural, SGU dumped at last minute & ER moved to GO!
    Every night I have to study my EPG just in case I miss something that’s magically appeared at a different time or on the other channel. Why can’t the channels have useful info on their home pages, such as program shift announcements? At least ABC & Ten have easy to find/use forums where you have a chance to find out what’s going on.

  9. I think that’s a good point. Ch7 advertise 7TWO and so does ABC1. Why doesn’t Ch9 advertise their GO! programs?

    Anyway I’m happy to have ER back.

  10. Not again! Why do stations keep bumping and moving around my favourite shows! Feeling despondent. No wonder people turn to the internet and DVDs to see their favourite shows.

  11. Nine should start promoting GO! on the main ch not sure why they don’t.

    And ER has a youngish audience ,it’s always done extremely well in 18-49 similar to Grey’s Anatomy.

  12. People relying on paper guides probably would not have access to Go anyway. Hopefully the DVD will be released sooner so those who miss out can catch up.

  13. @ daivd…. doesnt the papers put out a guide for each day???
    ie mondays paper has mondays guide..tuesday has tuesday’s guide?? and so on??

    word of mouth is a great form of advertising..so i wouldnt be knocking it…. i wonder how many ppl found out about your website???? just so know i told many ppl about your wonderful website…..word of mouth!

    1. Word of mouth is great for cinema marketing etc… but not sure we want our networks to depend on this for daily amendments. I have to agree it would help if Nine gave GO! shows more plugs to alleviate this sort of thing.

  14. @ ryan – nine has always had a “broad pitch” although of late they’ve started aiming towards the 16-39 to compliment it’s traditional 25-54.

    @ bruce – i could be wrong but i think nine aired the finale of TGG last year sometime.

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