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ABC bumps My Place, Sleuth 101, ‘reinstates’ Collectors.

In a rare programming backflip, the ABC pulls My Place from Sunday nights and returns Collectors to Friday nights.

The ABC has announced two major scheduling changes, affecting My Place, Sleuth 101 and Collectors.

Collectors will be reinstated to its traditional time of 8pm Fridays from March 19th. It follows the ABC’s attempt at a 6:30 Sunday slot after the exit of The Einstein Factor. But viewers have been adamant in online forums that they preferred its Friday night slot.

Sleuth 101 which was in the Friday night slot will shift to 6:30pm Sundays from March 28th.

Meanwhile, ABC3 family drama My Place which had been replayed at 7:30pm Sundays on ABC1 has been abandoned from the prime slot after diastrous figures. On Sunday it pulled 286,000 against Air Ways on 1.43m viewers and dragged the network’s Sunday share down to just 11.1%.

It will be replaced by a series of nature documentaries from this Sunday night: Kalahari Tales, Titus: The Gorilla King, The Mountains Of The Monsoon. ABC will resume My Place in a kid-friendly timeslot of 5:30pm in late April.

Making late programming switches of this kind is rare in the ABC.

Marena Manzoufas, ABC TV Head of Programming said, “Clearly, the family audience has not engaged with the repeat of My Place on Sunday night at 7.30pm on ABC1, so I am replacing it with natural history programming, beginning with the Kalahari Tales and My Place will now move to 5.30pm on April 22 on ABC1.

“The dedicated Collectors’ audience has clearly demonstrated their preference for the show’s original 8pm Friday slot so I have decided to reinstate it there and move Sleuth 101 to Sundays at 6.30pm.”

34 Responses

  1. My 9 year old daughter is devastated that My Place has been taken off. She was so looking forward to watching it again after loving it on abc3. I think it is a quality kids drama- something I’d like to see more of from the abc. I hope it will be rescheduled on the weekend as weekdays are for school work & reading not tv. Sunday night was perfect for us.

  2. Seems like oz audiences (still) not ready for the stories told in My Place. We thought they hit a tender spot, rather than being light and fluffy.

  3. Couldn’t agree with you all more. I do watch ‘Hungry Beast’, but that’s only because it has a golden timeslot sandwiched between two other great shows. I don’t mind ‘Hungry Beast’ so I sit through it, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it causes people to tune out. ‘Sleuth101’ is the perfect substitute here, and I can’t understand why a programme targeted towards a younger demographic was put on the weekend to begin with.

    I think the main reason why ‘Hungry Beast’ has secured a Wednesday night timeslot is due to ‘The Chaser’s War on Everything’ previously holding that timeslot. The two programmes may be similar, but ‘Hungry Beast’ is different enough to throw of the entire dynamic. Perhaps, ‘Hungry Beast’ could be relegated to late Fridays, as ‘The Chaser’s War on Everything’ originally was, or perhaps ABC2, considering that surely anyone who watches fits into the ‘set top box owning mould’.

  4. I thought My Place was a good adaptation of one of my favourite books I didn’t even know it was on ABC3. Now I am going to catch it on iview because there is no way I’m going to be home at 5:30 to watch it.

  5. @ Ronnie, I couldn’t agree more. There was a time when the ABC made great Australian drama. Sadly these days, Pay Tv & the commercial networks are making superior drama than the ABC. Look what they’re making this year – more “Bed of Roses” & the PC correct “The Slap”. Disgraceful.

  6. Just visited the Collectors site and Andy has posted a comment thanking us all for helping to bring the show back to it’s original slot. Seems even the hosts weren’t that enthused with the change.

  7. The reason why BORing and My Place will never attract solid audiences is because they are too slow and too soft. It’s all so damn nice and worthy and middle class. There is great drama being made out there – ABC please note: Love My Way, Cloudstreet, Underbelly, Tangle – all way more interesting than this endless fluff. ABC drama commissioning and programming needs an overhaul at every level.

  8. At least ABC is listening to their viewers. Ch Ten take note !!

    My main whinge with ABC TV is that they own the rights to “Spooks” (M.I.5 based series) which is up to Series 8 and viewed in the UK late last year and there is no sign of it being put to air at this point.

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