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Dear Lachlan, seriously…

Dear Lachlan, TEN has always been the underdog of the three commercials, but hey, that's exactly why we've liked it.

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Dear Lachlan

In just a few short months you’ve gone from being deputy chairman of Prime Media to acting CEO of Ten Network Holdings. What a ride. And to be fair, none of us saw that one coming.

With James Packer (the bloke you had One.Tel with) and the obvious support of the majority of the Board, we’re now awaiting your next move.

We know you’re the good-looking Murdoch, although the lovely Elisabeth nearly out-Shines you. You’re married to the equally lovely Sarah (and a tip to TEN production crews check your audio feed is working or risk losing your contract) and you love your NRL and IPL.

But what is it you have in mind for TEN now that Mr. Falloon and Mr. Blackley are both effectively out of the picture?

TEN has had so many wonderful shows over the years. We grew up with The Young Talent Time, Prisoner, Good Morning Australia (both of them), The Early Bird Show, Wonder World, Carson’s Law, Neighbours, Perfect Match, The Comedy Company, and The Simpsons.

Then there was Rove, Big Brother and Australian Idol when Sunday nights were must-see TV. Remember Merlin telling Gretel to “Free the Refugees?” Remember Guy Sebastian singing “Climb Every Mountain” or Anthony Callea singing “The Prayer?” Remember “What The?” and “My Charader?” Remember Melrose Place “Tuesday Night’s a Bitch?” Remember The Panel?

They were fun times, Lachlan, even if sometimes they were a little hokey. The fun was that you never quite knew what might happen next because TEN always took a risk. Let’s not forget they were the first to dump the Sunday night movie, the first to say “dammit we’re gonna strip a cooking show in primetime,” and the first to say “we’re sticking with The 7PM Project and bugger the lot of you.”

More recently they’ve taken some risks with a dedicted Sports channel. I’m not especially into Sport but Lachlan I’m confused… why is it playing shows about logging, trucking and mining? What’s The Manchurian Candidate got to do with Sport?

And then there is the News experiment.

Like 7PM, a move of this magnitude will probably take a year to bed in. Many people have said they admire that George Negus is not going down the road of Today Tonight and A Current Affair, but there is debate over the suitability of the content to the timeslot. Numbers would suggest you have bigger problems with the 6:30 News (and why did you take Sandra Sully away from the rest of the country -we grew up with Sandra too). And moving the weekend News from 5pm to 6pm? Why?

I have no idea how you will meet your drama quota with 13 episodes each of Rush and Offspring. I enjoy both shows, but really….. I know there is more in the pipeline (including Inside Out), but we’ll be in March soon. Are you buying more NZ shows, or picking up more Aussie movies? Please explain.

I’m quite partial to some of the shows on ELEVEN: Dexter (if only I hadn’t seen it on Pay TV already), Nurse Jackie, Californication and The Simpsons -but honestly Lachlan, I don’t think I’ve seen a new Simpsons episode since your launch week.

And why are we moving all these shows around lately? Please make up your mind where The Good Wife, House, Glee, Modern Family, NCIS: LA and Lie to Me belong. We have lives to organise y’know? Better yet, just take Lie to Me off altogether.

On a positive note The Circle can sometimes be a breath of fresh air. That Chrissie Swan cuts right through the TV screen. Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation is consistent fun (yes, give Micallef a chat show too), and The 7PM Project has settled into a nice groove. MasterChef remains addictive TV.

TEN has always been the underdog of the three commercials, but hey, that’s exactly why we’ve liked it.

The other two have always brawled over prestige and then along comes TEN with bold ideas and those crazy promos with celebrities sitting around in a rehab circle. It takes nerve to go out on a limb like that. I’m not really sure if 2.5 hours of News was nerve or which focus group said it was a good idea, but I sure hope the Board hasn’t lost it’s nerve too. I know yesterday was probably a bit of power play, but hey, these are my shows you’ll be playing with, Lachlan.

There’s a bunch of other things I could throw in but let me leave you with one more thought: please pick up the phone to Hamish and Andy before it’s too late.

Cheers.

KINDLY LEAVE YOUR OWN “DEAR LACHLAN NOTE BELOW.”

91 Responses

  1. Dear Lachlan,
    Listen up big to your dad. He’ll tell you of the risks he took. Taking over the bankrupt WIN4, buying WIN their first videotape machine, buying up Aust’n rights to the best new season programs then selling them to 9, 7 & 0/10 when they wouldn’t sell anything they owned to WIN, building FOX with MLB, NFL etc., all against the advice of his bankers, “advisors”, etc.
    TEN is what it is because it still takes risks. 7PM, Master Chef, 6PM, and in earlier days as others have mentioned, Number 96, The Box, Prisioner, an hour of news at 5, ENG vans, and so on.
    Listen to Dad. Ask your dad. Yes, of course he still asks his mum, 102 or not, but don’t lean on Uncle Bruce too much.
    Remember, it’s not always the quantity of viewers, but the quality of viewers, so support the new NewsCaf concept, keep the only commercial Late News. TEN has the best news presenters and reporters. Look after them.

  3. Dear Lachlan,

    The answer maybe this… 6pm Shaun Micallef with The Daily Show Australia (he would do a fantastic job), 6.30PM with George Negus (but don’t call it 6.30pm so it doesn’t look dumb in replay). A local Late News at 10pm or 10.30pm. I’d tune in to find out what’s happened in my community and you’d get the jump on your competitiors.

    TEN has always gone out on a limb, they’ve tried to match the others, that’s why the evening news is a failure. More troubling though is the fact that the quality of the news has gone down as well. The 5PM news was quite good, time to restore that and focus on another quality bulletin later on. It was a nice idea and that do it in America, but this is Australia.

  4. Dear Mr Murdoch,

    We’ve already had one great Aussie network screwed up (Nine), so please don’t screw Ten up as well. Ten would be the biggest loss as it has the most defined identity and means a lot to so many people.

    Maybe 6.30 Needs to go but definitely keep 6pm!

  6. Dear Lachlan,

    I agree with a lot of what David had to say above, especially in regards to how Ten should be applauded for sticking with The 7pm Project, for how much better The Circle is than those other morning fake-smile fests on 7 & 9, and for how you really need to stick with George Negus even if that means moving him to 6:30pm.

    I think that you’ve got the two best looking digital channels on the box. Eleven and ONE feel like their own channels while 7mate, 7TWO, GO! and especially GEM all feel a bit samey and mooshed together. I see what you’re trying to do with ONE but at least try and make the movies sports related.

    You have a network with a lot of talented people working for it. You aren’t stuck with those blank presenters people love to hate like Jules Lund or Grant Denyer, you have actual humans presenting your programs.

    David is right, you need to take more risks becuase that’s what makes Channel 10 – Channel 10. Support Australian content, support quality programs when they’re starting out, and you may want Seven and Nine’s ratings but please don’t turn into Seven and Nine, they’re kind of boring and douchey.

  8. Dear Lachlan:

    Don’t kill the risk-taking culture Ten has. Ten took a risk 20 years ago, on a yellow skinned family from Springfield, people laughed at it when Ten announced it, but they went ahead anyway, just look at the success.

    Ten took a risk 30 years ago, on making Sydney/Melbourne bulletins hour-long. Seven/Nine talked them down, yet Ten ran wild in the ratings for most of the 80’s, forcing moves by other commercial stations to 6pm.

    Ten’s history is built around risk and reward: Comedy Company on Sundays against 60 Mins, Number 96, The Box, Blankety Blanks, live satellite coverage of the 1984 LA Olympics opening ceremony, Perfect Match: the list goes on and on.

    Your dad, may tell you, that running Ten was probably the best time of his life, because it was thanks to Rupert, that Ten had the resources. The older audience, that watched Ten in the past is still there. It just needs to be welcomed back with open arms.

    Regards:

    Kuttsywood.

  11. Dear Lachlan, bite the bullet, axe the 6.30 news. It’s not working, it’s overkill. Save face, keep George. Develop something lighter for the empty half hour. Perhaps strip GNW – Good News Night?

    Masterchef is your flagship show – use it to bolster your local drama this year. Return Rush and Offspring at the same time, not later. Think ahead for 2012 – have a new warm, family-based drama ready to go at the start of the cook-off.

    Agree with David – pick up the phone to Hamish & Andy.

  16. Why put Glee up against 2.5 men? I like Glee but my wife and daughters love it. My wife and daughters like 2.5 men but I love it. The solution? We bought a new TV. They watch Glee in the rumpus room while I watch 2.5 men in the living room.
    And please put in a bid for NRL. Get it off nine.

  19. Dear Lachlan,

    Please return Big Brother to our screens ASAP and make ten the home of event television again. Dont worry about all this news stuff – leave that to the boring channels.

    Thank you.

    Paul

  20. Dear Lachlan,

    Please bring back the golden era of Channel Ten when it really was a feel-good entertainment network for all people, much of which was during the time your father was in charge. So many great shows came out of Network Ten during that period, huge hits, many of which have been mentioned in this article and are fondly remembered to this day.

    Shows such as Matlock Police, Number 96, The Box, The Restless Years, Special Squad, Prisoner, Neighbours, Richmond Hill, E Street, Blankety Blanks, Perfect Match, The Comedy Company, It’s A Knockout!, Young Talent Time, Candid Camera, You’ve Got To Be Joking!, Col’n Carpenter, Wonder World, Good Morning Australia along with many others as well as excellent Australian TV movies like Fortress, Alice To Nowhere etc. You also had some of the best imported shows, Bill Collins on Saturday nights and his Golden Years Of Hollywood and of course the Sunday night blockbuster movies.

    Not only did Channel Ten provide the best entertainment but more importantly made you feel good and targetted a wide range of people. Hopefully this new period will be as good as times gone by, creating many hit shows and will be as fondly remembered by people well into the future.

  23. Dear Lachlan,

    Your online TV catch up web site with it’s TV shows being split up into separate parts is horrible to use and not how it should be done. I’d tell all the commercial stations to take a leaf out of ABC iViews book and let the user be able to click once and the whole programme plays. SBS is guilty of the same
    thing. Catch up to the user/viewer or you will become irrelevant.

    And to David, I love reading commentary like this on TV Tonight. Keep up the great work!

  24. Dear Lachlan,

    Leave ONE alone. We know its not got the ratings of the other Digitals, but its a Sports 24/7 channel it was never going to get the huge ratings expected of Go! or 7Two. It was always going to appeal to a niche market who like Basketball and Baseball and Formula 1. If you want to make it better I have a couple of suggestions:

    1. Get rid of all Golf, Drag Racing and BULL RIDING (Particularly the bull riding, that’s not sport, that’s bogans looking for a particularly quick way to die.) They’re dead weight.

    2. Re-Broadcast Amercian Sport in Prime Time, the ratings are good, but American Sport doesn’t air live in Prime Time so show it when people can see it.

    3. Wrestling!! You have WWE Experience on the channel, now its time to bring all of it back to Free-to-Air, your mate James Packer might be able to help. This isn’t new, WWE when it was WWF was on Ten in the 90’s. Bring it back to FTA put it on 11 & ONE. Raw is one of the highest rating shows on Basic Cable in the US. It’s time to put Wrestling back where it belongs.

    4. Don’t go down the gutter path of Nine and Seven, stick with 6PM make the Journalism good, make Seven and Nine chase 6PM. It’s a risk and the ratings might be not great but rasing the bar of National discussion above anti-multiculturalism pro-fab diets isn’t a bad thing. Despite what people might have told you being smart isn’t a handicap.

    5. I guess the most important and last point I’ll make. DELIVER! Bring the people the shows they want on time and when they’re supposed to be on and they’ll watch.

    Regards,
    TV Tonight user

  25. Dear Lachlan, hope your work experience at One.Tel taught you something. You’re now playing with a real TV network, so please don’t f*** it up this time.

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