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Report: Hey Hey it’s Saturday axed

Update: Daryl Somers tells Facebook fans he is still in talks with Nine about plans for 2011.

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Nine is expected to announce within days that Hey Hey it’s Saturday will not be returning in 2011.

The Herald Sun reports network bosses decided the show would not be returning yesterday, but many of the cast and crew were yet to be told.

The signs for the show’s return have not been promising.

The show still enjoys solid figures in Melbourne, but elsewhere the numbers do not justify the expense of a live variety project. Yet it still generates enormous passion.

It was absent during the 2011 programme launch, as its status was still under discussion.

Daryl Somers and Nine’s Director of Television Michael Healy were due to meet on its future last week.

Facebook fans will be furious over the death of the show and likely to initiate fervent campaigns.

But it appears likely the show’s final hurrah at Studio 9 Richmond, will be its swansong.

UPDATE: Daryl Somers has posted the following information on Facebook:

You may remember my final line on our last show i.e. “We’ll see you real soon … hopefully … maybe … ask a journo.”

Sometimes there’s no need to ask them, they’ll tell you anyway.

This is what happened in the Melbourne Herald Sun yesterday when Kate McMahon wrote that Hey Hey was done and dusted.

The truth is we are still talking to Nine about 2011 and I will keep you posted as I’ve mentioned previously.

Source: Herald Sun.

93 Responses

  1. at nine there only concerned how much the show cost to produce the rating system is not an indercation that the show is a failure mr DS is a great person for that show channel nine has axed many good shows to only put crap american sits on its getting to the stage to axe nine of my tv i have worked in tv when i was younger, eddy is getting work at nine axe his rubbish shows and bring back some of the stuff people stayed home to watch.

  2. Tv Ratings are a load of crap.
    No one knows what I watch,its just a guesstimation.
    I bet the 500,000 plus fans on face book do not have TV rating describe to there TV sets ?.
    People in regional parts of Australia,Hey hey brings real life,reality light hearted fun and inform them what’s happening in the world.
    For some reason,hey hey seems to get everyone talking,so it must touch a lot of people.

  3. I can’t believe that Hey Hey it’s Saturday is being axed! Who on earth could be so stupid to make such a decision? This was a show that was not only performing well in the ratings war, despite having been pulled off air early in the year and returning in the later half on a different night(the right night – Saturday) but it was revived after a ten year abscence, as a result of it’s huge fan base across the country, not just Victoria, petitioning the network to bring the program back onto our screens! This genre of program is exactly what Australian television needs.Hey Hey it’s Saturday provided not only great entertaintment for the entire family, but became the platform for many up and coming entertainers to receive the kind of exposure they needed to give their careers that extra boost. How many acts out there today owe their big break to Hey Hey it’s Saturday? To all cast and crew of Hey Hey it’s Saturday a sincere thank you to each and everyone of you for the countless hours of great quality entertaintment! Hope that someone will come to their senses and does the right thing and listens to the majority of it’s viewers, be it someone from the nine network or one of it’s rivals.

  4. Shame,shame,shame,I only watch 1 show on that garbage channel 9,Hey,Hey.Please give the 51st state of America more of those S*** shows from America,two and a half men,big bang theory ,more murder shows(if we want to be like America we better learn how to kill),hollywood TV is the worst crap on the zombie box,oh yeah,at least 20 more cooking shows,then we will be as fat as those stupid yanks. Thank god for SBS and ABC, where the dopey youth might learn something

    Axe channel 7, 9 and 10 please, their crap!!!!!!!!

  6. The fan base is large and diverse. I just applied for tickets to be in the audience. The person I wanted to take is a lady in her 70’s!! The show appeals to all walks of life. No doubt they will replace hey hey with yet another reality show!! Just what we need? Not!!! Please…. Rethink your decision!!!

  7. Are you kidding?? Comic Genius!?!? The episodes of the revived format were hands down the worst hours of television I have ever endured. The format was clunky, the host was useless, the jokes were innapropriate.

    And most disturbingly, and I can only assume you missed this, there are Two puppets in the main cast….. And one of then is a bird.

    This trash is a complete mess. It actually makes me feel shame. Not to mention the fricken blackface saga, that alone should have been enough to draw a curtian around it and shoot it.

    Rot in hell Hey Hey, and your lil duck too!

  8. To the Nine Network I plead with you Do not axe this show. Even you could see the last 6 shows of Hey Hey this year had that spontaneous magic about it. These guys are comic genius’ and please dont replace them with replays of American crap or more reality tv. This show is what talent really is. Let hey hey promote music and other artists as no one else is these days. Let it run for a year on Saturday Night and give it the support it deserves and it will rate its socks off once again. 2011 of hey hey will be better than 2010 as the cast and crew and the network were finding their feet once again as to the direction of the show and the timeslot best for Hey Hey. Please please do not axe this show. We need this kind of light hearted entertainment.

    1. I have already run Daryl’s quote in the story….

      Clearly the HS was wrong mid year when it said HHIS was axed without taking into account the show’s two blocks. It was pulled early but it wasn’t axed. As to whether this latest news is a “lie” that remains to be seen. The article said execs had made a decision to end the show but remained in discussion with Somers Carroll. This may yet eventuate to be the outcome. Clearly Daryl hasn’t said the show is returning. The fact it wasn’t part of the 2011 launch is significant of the hurdles it faces. I consulted with Nine at the time and wrote that no decision had been made and it had a 50 / 50 shot. In TV terms that isn’t good. HHIS has a fanbase but the production costs may outweigh the numbers they can deliver on a weekly basis. But I’m also of the belief that in a neck and neck ratings week, Hey Hey can get Nine over the line to win the week. It would be ideal on GO! but again the costs may not make this justifiable, and there is the question of whether Somers Carroll would be content with that. Daryl was keen to embrace Facebook, Twitter and Skype -would he now embrace a digital home? Pure speculation of course.

  10. Stuff the expense. TV stations have become so stingy when it comes to spending money on live variety shows….something which has been lacking in recent years. It promotes Australian talent, and gives musos work, but most of all it provides laughter, and that is exactly what “Hey Hey It’s Saturday” did for 28 years and still does. Daryl and the gang haven’t lost any of their magic.
    I live in Sydney, and so do many other HHIS fans…but we don’t count!
    I am sick of cheap reality shows, and constant cheap repeats of CSI whatevers.

  12. i hope it does come back, but if it doesn’t i won’t be shattered. Its just nice to have a light entertainment show on a Sat night as an alternative to movie reruns & footy. Always used to be a good way to wind down before a night out on the town, but now im too old for that (lol) its a fun evening at home, nothing much else worth viewing cept Rockwiz & Rage.

  13. Just because the Melbourne Herald Sun says so does not make it fact, just today Daryl on Facebook said he was still in discussions with nine maybe Kate McMahon just doesn’t like Hey Hey anyway…time will tell

  14. I smell something fishy about this.

    Firstly if Daryl knew of a decision first to know would not doubt be the Facebook fans! Not some Journo from the Herald Sun who have been wrong in the past about HHIS. Are they again wrong?

    I have been hearing talks the show may return but a bit different, another thing I question is why Red Faces auditions are still happening despite the show has finished and questioned over being axed! Hmmm…

    The HHIS website continues to run competitions, etc. I am not sure what to think!

    But then I go back to if a decision was made first to know would be the die-hard Facebook fans! So I think once again this journo from the Herald Sun is guessing! Maybe right or wrong? WHo knows. But I am sure Daryl will do the right thing and tell those fans first before some media outlet who try and sell stories.

    As Daryl said on the last show of 2010, don’t believe what journo’s say about the show!

    They have been wrong before, I hope they are again!

  15. Haters gonna hate but I’m hearing reports that John Blackman was on 3AW talking about Hey Hey may be coming back in a different form than what it was on previously.

    I didn’t hear the report myself (maybe someone else out there did?) but just wanted to say that it doesn’t seem the decision has been totally finalised that the show is completely gone.

  17. Nine never explained why they brought it back in the first place. They canceled it originally because of costs. This years shows seem to have more paid staff than ever onscreen so why are they surprised it’s too expensive to keep running for the diehard fans/corresponding ratings? HHIS’s strength was back in the 70’s/80’s as a tight show with a small cast/crew and plenty of in-jokes. Once it became a variety show trying to appeal to everyone with an ever expanding cast it was doomed to fail.

    They should get back to the basics. Focus on the older segments with viewer send ins. Cast a new Ozzie handler (sorry Ernie). Get rid of that Molly-wanna-be-work-experience-Y-Gen-boy who does the music segment. But really Daryl needs to look in the mirror. He was creative and witty in the past (Remember the spoof segments D&Oz did takes on, The Sillivans, cop shows. etc all on small budgets which made them funnier) and then he just became a predictable MC. His extra tight control may be the limiting factor in any chance HHIS has in the future. Maybe a return to a Sat morning kids show or a Red Faces half hour spin off series of specials might be best option and provide return on investment/ratings.

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