Don Burke shovels dirt on Nine
Don Burke has dished out some advice for free to his former network, Channel Nine, saying the network has lost its way.
- Published by David Knox
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Former Burke’s Backyard host Don Burke has dished out some advice for free to his former network, Channel Nine, telling David Gyngell the network has lost its way.
“[Gyngell’s] failing is he’s surrounded himself with people who are not very good at their jobs. I love David Gyngell as a person, I love him as a TV person, I have no respect whatsoever for him as a TV executive because he is not surrounding himself by people of his own calibre and that is a terrible mistake,” he told the Sunday Telegraph.
Burke blamed Nine’s programming department for Nine losing to Seven. In December last year Andrew Backwell was given charge of Programming and Production after Michael Healy was appointed Director of Television.
Meanwhile Jeffrey Brown became Nine’s Managing Director as Gyngell took on the top job across the parent company, Nine Entertainment Co. (formerly PBL Media).
“If Gyngell would back his own judgement and get better people around him, Nine would come back in a heartbeat. His mistake, and it is a huge one, is to stay with those that have failed. Programming is the problem at Nine – it has killed Nine.”
2011 has not been a good one for Nine so far, but 2010 saw a good performance in Nine’s key demos, considering it has been light on with content in recent years.
Nine’s output deals haven’t delivered many hits of late, which has seen Nine turn to the UK with BBC progamming including Top Gear, Sherlock and David Attenborough series.
Burke says Gyngell concedes losing Burke’s Backyard was their biggest mistake, but would not reverse the decision.
Don Burke was instrumental in the lifestyle genre in Australian television. Even formats such as Better Homes and Gardens owe much to his early work, while names such as Jamie Durie were given their break on his show.
In 2009 Burke returned to Nine for appearances on A Current Affair.
But Burke also has a strong reputation for producing TV in a determined if ultimately successful managerial style. No surprise then that Nine spokesperson David Hurley labelled him as “arrogant.”
It isn’t clear what has triggered the latest advice to Nine bosses, but presumably there are no plans to change his gardening leave just yet.
29 Responses
9 has lost its way about what good tv is like any company it starts at the top there has to be changes
He’s right about Nine.
It’s crap.
But he does also feel quite arrogant.
Regardless of what you feel about Don, he has stated the obvious. It is difficult to believe that the Programming team, led by Michael Healey, is the best 9 could have out of the whole industry. Its been a long, long – long – time since 9 aired a show, nurtured it, and made it a mainstay. TV is about good shows that people like, it really does appear that Programming at 9 don’t know what that is until well after it has been confirmed by someone else. A national network deserves, and needs, better talent than that.
Burke’s Backyard ruined Friday Night Footy when it was shown on Nine in Perth at 8.30pm like what Seven is doing with Better Homes & Gardens currently.
@col – I’ve got in habit of adding about 10 or 15 mins to the end of most things I record, just in case. But my point is if PayTV can keep it’s EPG updated why can’t FTA? Quite often their times change but a few minutes and they update them so you know if your show is going to run over, also with the PVRs they update to make sure it records your show.
But this is a minor problem for Nine compared to there total lack of programing direction and commitment. I just saw they are having a new reality show which is best described as a copy of The Biggest Loser.
Don Burke had a great run with his show for many years…..but…..all good things lose their way and come to an end. Don Burke is just a sore loser……
9 have a horror 3 months coming up…. 2 words, and they aren’t Don Burke….. Master Chef…. i don’t envy the executives that are going to get a flogging when 9 starts coming third, especially now that 10 finally conceeded defeat on ONE and relaunching it 1 week after MC begins
I usually take gossip with a grain of salt, but i think when people have been saying the same thing about someone for years there must be some truth in it, re Don Burke being arrogant & unliked in the profession, i’ heard that one a decade ago. But then again, so what if its true, maybe he has earned being arrogant because he was hugely (consistently) successful & some people don’t like him because they’re jealous. And yet it seems some people at Nine are arrogant & are perhaps under the delusion that they are successful because they have inherited a once number one rating network, that really is undeserved arrogance,
Another rumour i keep hearing is that Nine is one big boys club, if Burkes comments are true & Gyngell is surrounding himself by the wrong people maybe theres the explanation for it…
I’d be careful if I was Don Burke. Channel 9 has been very good in “protecting” him, in fact the whole media has. He should stay in the shadows, although he should be exposed.
Try watching Ch9 in Adelaide, a complete Fail.
Channel nine is still on on air? Hadn’t noticed.
Bitter old fool that nobody at Nine ever liked. Has an incredibly bad rep in the industry….. no cred sorry Don.
as an employee of channel 9, he is dead right. no one at nine has respect for programming – especially Healy. constantly makes wrong decisions – has no idea what the audience wants and is far too reactionary… nine can and does make good shows – right up to the point that “upstairs” gets involved….
I hope the programming dept reads this story and comments, they cos they need to learn to change their ways and fast! if Kerry Packer was still alive… I would think he would be sacking a few ppl in the programming dept!
I agree with Don Burke about channel 9 even though im not a big fan of Dons.To take the number 1 station and wreck it in a pretty short time speaks volumes of the ineptitude that the new owners have and of course Mr Gyngell , hes a puppet on string(cue song) no doubt. Also @Craig , i believe that all the networks a few hours before a show starts send out a code to update the EPG times for start and finish , but in some cases it just doesnt work for eg, i missed the last 3 minutes of It Came From Outer Space on the ABC early friday morning , ill never recover from that one.
Of course Nine is a failure, they cant even advertise correctly. Here in Adelaide the other night, they had a commercial stating TBBT was going to be on at 7pm. When I channel flicked around 7:15, it was Millionaire Hot Seat.
Even though I wouldn’t want two watch either show, surely there is someone out there who wants to watch one of them and would prefer to know which one will actually be on before it starts!!
Also, Don Burke would be good for the ABC on Friday or Saturday nights.
Have seen Don Burke do some gardening tips on Kerri-Anne lately.
I agree with Don Burke.
Don’t mind them showing the same shows on the different channels if they do it right, like using GEM to encore some shows in HD like Harry’s Law but the constant re-runs of shows like Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men at different times to fill the schedule just wrecking their value.
Not letting shows grow is another problem, I’m all for canceling shows that are clearly not working but at least give it a month of eps to prove it’s self.
Moving shows is also a problem, doesn’t work at 8:30 so the move it to 9:30 and then 10:30 wondering why it keeps loosing it’s audience each time.
Still holding new eps/shows with 3 channels, no excuse unless they have no faith in what they bought.
Shows need to start on time, or make sure you EPG and online guides are kept up-to-date. Having show starting 10 minutes late because you want to squeeze in more ads is loosing viewers. If PayTV channels like Fox8 and Arena can have shows run with-in the hour and start on time with the same length shows (about 42 minutes) then why can’t FTA unless they are putting in more ads to extend the total run length? By 9:30 most shows are at least 5 to 10 minutes late on all the commercial channels.
Sorry for the long post David.
Nine have some great content, some of the best overseas content in the world but they have a habit of doing the following:
1. Repeating episodes over and over such as Big Bang Theory and 2 1/2 Men
2. Changing timeslots such as the recent move for Harry’s Law
3. Holding episodes over for months even years like CSI:NY
4. Putting shows over diffferent channels at different times
5: Changing minds at the last minute like with Million Dollar Drop last Monday
Without these mistakes, Nine could have the same programs and be in a better position and could have been number one but confusing and overloading the audience is a turn off. I do love some of Nine’s shows but will only watch a “New” episode of the Big Bang Theory or 2 1/2 Men unless I have not seen it before. I have been waiting for CSI to return but Million Dollar Drop always pops up. GO should be more like Eleven and have new content more often and Nine should be proud that Gem is doing better roughly 50% increase since week 1. Sea Patrol should not have returned on Tuesdays as it is already overcrowded there with NCIS and Winners and Losers.
After he was “let go” by 2UE 5 months ago, wasn’t he making a big thing about doing the same Burke’s Backyard programme on the 2SM “Super Network”?
Didn’t Bill want to pay you what you think you’re worth, Don?
“Burke says Gyngell concedes losing Burke’s Backyard was their biggest mistake, but would not reverse the decision.”
Bitter,bitter.
Don Burke may well be arrogant, but it takes someone with his confidence to go on the record and state the obvious from a programme supplier’s point of view. Nothing is working at Nine so they have to ask themselves why. Eddie Maguire instructed them to make Underbelly – it wasn’t identified as a drama by their internal process. So if you take Underbelly out of the mix, what have they commissioned since The Block that has worked? Ten years is a long time to allow programming to drift sideways like this. It’s obviously time for new genre heads and a fresh approach to everything they do. David Gyngell should not have to charge in and “secure” a drama like the Paper Giants sequel – that should be the Head of Drama’s job. I don’t understand how Nine missed the opportunity to make Paper Giants, but re-commission under-performing dramas like RSO and SP. Finally, I read so much about “grocery buyers” as a demo that advertisers want to reach, but there is no understanding of the female audience at all – no lifestyle shows, no appealing drama, no intelligent chat, no comedy (would Kath and Kim stand a chance of being commissioned here – no because they would say it skews female – and the problem with that is….?). It’s not rocket science.
This guy is completely wrong.
Nobody likes him at all.
Bring back Don Burke to the TV. Whenever I watch Better Homes and Gardens, they are basically rehashing Burke’s Backyard content from years ago, such as the mirror in the backyard trick, and many more.
Channel Nine and particular their programming dept have been run by amateurs for quite a while. The joke tas been that a 6 year old could do a better job at their programming. Nine has done a great job of buying great TV show brands and turning them into rubbish within 6 months, so that’s a pretty unique achievement I’d say! Oh how times are different to the long gone glory years of the past.