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Axed: Between the Lines

New Nine sports quiz show Between the Lines has been boned by Channel Nine, with a final episode to air next week.

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New Nine sports quiz show Between the Lines has been boned by Channel Nine.

A final episode for the show will air next Thursday night.

Last night the show hosted by Eddie McGuire pulled 518,000 viewers with its biggest audience in Melbourne at 181,000 and 152,000. It premiered three weeks ago with 696,000.

A Nine spokesperson told TV Tonight, “The idea was to have a bit of fun – which we did. But in this highly fragmented multi-channel environment, the show just didn’t capture sufficient audience numbers to justify continuing production. As always, nothing ventured, nothing gained, pleased we gave it a go.”

The sport-themed show was dominated by AFL commentators, including Before the Game’s Mick Molloy and Ryan Fitzgerald. But it always going to struggle without a permanent NRL member on the panel especially in Sydney and Brisbane.

Panel shows are notoriously hard to get right at the first outset. Adam Hills recently told TV Tonight, the ABC built Spicks and Specks from nothing: “600,000 viewers in the first week, which hilariously is good numbers these days,” he said.

518,000, it seems, is not -in commercial television anyway.

For host Eddie McGuire the news is not good, given Million Dollar Drop has also disappeared from screens after a few episodes. This is Your Life, which is filmed as Specials this year, is expected to return later in the year.

86 Responses

  1. I don’t think this show failed because it was Melbourne-centric.It’s Melbourne ratings were only marginaly above its sydney figures, which is true of most programs. I think it failed because the public didn’t like/want it. Nine mis-read its audience, again.

  2. It is, unfortunately, time.

    Everyone at Nine – other than the drama department (who’ve continued to enjoy mostly success) and sport department (which knows its audience and continues to draw it) – needs now to go.

    Doubtless, the board knows it and it’s now just a matter of when not if.

  3. Like others I thought before it started it was an AFL sports show but for those who didn’t watch it, it was a sports version of Spicks and Specks. It was very good and my wife and I had many laughs at the antics of Fitzy and Malloy. We’ll be one family that will miss it.

  5. It wasnt going to work and basically sums up 9’s year really. Thursday nights are shocking ratings wise and nothing works. I love sport but I didnt even watch it because I preferred to watch the good wife or the other night I watched Oprah because I just wanted to see these farewell shows. I dont watch her any other time.

    But just like the bounce for 7 last year that failed to.

  6. I was planning to watch – I’m in Melbourne and an AFL fan. But I just couldn’t bear the McGuire factor. Someone try it again without him.

    And to all those saying Molloy is poison – what about Before the Game? Great show.

  7. What is with all the whinging about this show being too AFL and Melbourne centric??

    I dont remember hundreds of AFL questions. And big deal there were people from Melbourne on the panel, ate people so passionate about their home state that they can’t watch a show that features panelists from an opposing one?

    Just seems like a stupid thing to get upset about. No one is crying that the Today Show/ Sunrise features Sydney hosts only.

    I get over exposed Eddie hate but he is actually a sports nut, and of all his recent shows this seems the most suited for him.

    And no, I’m not from Melbourne.

  9. im from Sydney and an NRL fan, but i actually liked this Between the Lines’ show. I think it doesn’t matter if they dont talk about rugby league much, It’s good to see a show talk about another sporting code.

    To those who say there isn’t much NRL shows in Sydney, there’s at least 9 shows i can name (on FTA and on pay tv). That’s more than enough. However, there is more AFL programs though

  10. There’s no investment in TV entertainers anymore. We now have journalists entertaining us. If Karl Stefanovik is the best we’ve got, TV entertainment is in big trouble!

  11. @sacs, totally spot on, I agree with you. What on earth were Nine thinking? Australians may be sports mad, but when it comes to football codes, there is a big, fat divide in this country between AFL and NRL and it is not going to be breached anytime soon. You just have to read the comments in the football threads on this site to see how big the divide is. So what do Nine do? They schedule a sports quiz that is AFL-centric in the middle of national football season that alienates viewers in two of their biggest markets NSW & QLD. Hello??????? Doomed to abject failure, anybody?

    It would have been smarter to have scheduled it as summer fill-in viewing during cricket season (where it could have built a following), albeit with different participants, not the toxic McGuire, Fitzgerald and Molloy. The Q rating does not lie, these guys are severely on the nose with the Aussie viewing public.

  12. I liked this show, but it really shot itself in the foot with the panel members. That’s why half it’s viewers were from Melbourne (or other ‘southerners’). You had Malloy and Fitzy as captain and then most of the guests were Melbournians too…Ed Kavalee, Jimeoin, GIann Rooney, Kevin Sheedy etc. etc. Even people like Shane Perkins and Sharelle McMahon who came in to tell stories – Victorians… I wonder if Eddie flew Anyone in for this show for whether it was just slapped together with people from his phonebook. That was the downfall, I thought it was an AFL show from the start and I guess many others did too. Twas a shame because it wasn’t too bad.

  14. Nein, should just pack up, shut up shop, and graciously exit the Australian television market as they are a waste of broadcast airtime- Everything about the network stinks. Its programmers havnt a clue what people want. Their contempt in scheduling is attrocious,

    The quality of their news is an absolute joke, endless fluff peices on the 6PM News, absolute diatribe vomit inducing wonder diet/pill/bra stories on constant rotation on A current affair, endless cross promotion and promoting mostly of Netword “stars” on 60 minutes, a breakfast team that dont stop giggling like pre-pubescant schoolgirls, their sets are so dated and cheap – Today, KerriAnne, Between the lines anyone

    Their on screen colours and feel is just wrong, heck even the voice over guy would struggle to get a job on an AM regional community radio station.They try to be all things to all people. They just dont grasp that Eddie is poison to just about everything they hand him on a platter, they dont invest in new talent, they copy other networks hit shows endlessly…….and the list can go on and on and on.

    I could single handedly fix that network with so many ideas I have, and my fee would be a fraction of what they pay their fat cats. Nein….call me!

    Real shame, I used to love Channel 9.

  15. at least Jon Cryer and Charlie Sheen made us laugh and long which is more than what can be said about Eddie.
    Off the topic a little how many of us Sex and the City Fans have to suffer through the ending of Eddie and His Millionaire shows running overtime all those years ago.

  16. Let’s face it, this show was doomed to fail as soon as it was announced. An unlikeable host, a concept that has been unsuccessful on commercial television and the fact that there is a clear divide between AFL & NRL fans. A nationwide sports variety show will never be successful in Australia. Viewers in NSW & Qld would say there is not enough Rugby League and too much AFL and visa versa. I must be one of the few that likes Mick Malloy (from the Late Show) but I didn’t waste one second of my life watching this rubbish. It is obvious that Nein are fresh out of good ideas for producing quality TV shows.

  19. Sadly, I think Ed’s run his dash at 9. And I don’t think it’s his fault – he is still the commensurate host currently on television. However, they’ve try to re-hash him too many times – Million dollar Dlop, This is your life, 1 vs 100, CEO of the Network et al.

    You can’t expect to win audience numbers over with this sort of show (Between the Lines), when they don’t have an underlying viewing platform present. At least the 7 and 10 networks can cross-promote with locally produced shows that people love (Rafters, Winners & Losers, Dancing, Aus got Talent, Masterchef, not to metion ABC’s Angry Boys, Gruen Transfer etc).

    David Gyngell (ironically) was brought back to Australia (from Pay TV Channel Executive position in US) to fix Nine, that Eddie couldn’t do in his ‘commuting’ role as CEO of Channel 9. But “Gyng” has made it worse through his programs bought overseas, and lacks a pool of savvy local producers.

    Nine is stuck in a self-absorbed time warp and needs to become more contemporary. But without fresh faces at the top, probably won’t happen for a while, sadly. Use to love watching the institution.

    Further, they’ve lost potential viewers (ie. ratings = preium advertising dollars) through not putting more dough up for the recent AFL rights. Even if you dislike AFL, it is a ‘no-brainer’ money spinner for Ch7 and Foxtel – that James Packer’s now going to reap the dividends of.
    No more new shows for Nine. Maybe they could buy the City Homicide rights from 7, and screen it on a Wednesday night at 8.30 when there is nothing on, and now Spicks & Specks has gone, could demonstrate Nine has some guts with local dramas (Rescue Special Ops is hardly a hard-hitting drama – again reflecting in its low ratings).
    Thank you for listening.

  22. Time for Michael Healy and Andrew Backwell to resign. There is no point in continuing. None. When will the Board and shareholders demand management accountability and a revised strategy? Enough really is enough.

  23. I have it on very good authority that the first three This Is Your Life specials in 2012 will centre on Adam Boland, Mick Malloy & Ryan Fitzgerald.

    In 2013, a revitalised format for This Is Your Life will feature its first surprise guest, Eddie McGuire.

    This will last just one screening before repeats of CSI: Redfern are wheeled in…

  25. Who else remembers when Mick Molloy and Shane Warne were banned from Channel 9? I wonder if they’ll offer Doug Mulray his own show soon

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