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Between the Lines

Between the Lines felt like it had borrowed from the Spicks "How To" book.

Adam Hills recently told TV Tonight that when Spicks and Specks premiered, the ABC built the show from nothing: “600,000 viewers in the first week, which hilariously is good numbers these days.”

Now a former Spicks producer has helped put together Between the Lines, a Southern Star production for Nine.

The “sports-theme” panel show is trying very hard to be Spicks without the music. A bit like The Trophy Room was doing with Peter Helliar over summer.

As everyone working on the show no doubt realises, the key to making it work is in the chemistry of the teams. It has to feel like good company, and appeal to those who don’t like sport.

Host Eddie McGuire is very good at working off the cuff and getting the job done in minimum production time. But Nine seems blind to his growing lack of appeal outside Melbourne and seemingly exacerbates it rather than addressing it.

Team captain Mick Molloy works well with McGuire, given their joint radio show on Triple M. His opponent ‘Fitzy’ can even throw in a worthwhile gag. It’s surprising that the network has drawn upon on two Before the Game faces, but you have to admire that they went beyond their own stable to try and get it right.

However, collectively these three are very blokey. One female to five men is a bit of a worry. Collectively they are also very AFL-leaning. Why did Nine not choose a resident NRL representative?

In the first episode Ed Kavalee was the star performer: spontaneous, self-deprecating, charming (bring on The Joy of Sets please!). The games felt like they had borrowed from the Spicks “How To” book -one game based on truth vs lies even resembled a Hey Hey segment.

A segment with sailor Jesse Martin clumsily edited out his all-important answer.

But the biggest problem is one of length. Commercial networks are too quick to build a show from the ground up and have the guts to keep it short and sweet. Why must they always opt for the long-form? At one hour a bit more interaction with the audience wouldn’t go astray.

Nine has cleverly scheduled this before The Footy Show and while the genre is deceptively hard to get right if it shows the patience ABC demonstrated to Spicks it may yet find its feet.

But then, this is Channel Nine….

Between the Lines airs 8:30pm Thursdays on Nine.

35 Responses

  1. I saw the recent ep with Jeff Green and Fitzy wearing their strong man suits and thought it was quite funny. Loved the Sharelle McMahon bit too. I was pleasantly surprised and constantly had to check my remote that something so entertaining was in fact being screened on Channel Nine. I will be back, and even though I live in Queensland, I am a blow-in from down south, so I Adore the AFL slant. Nice one!

  2. There is too much of an AFL/Victorian slant to this show…it will have very little appeal in the northern states. I’m afraid I find it very difficult to watch Eddie…he is very wooden and not particularly funny.

  3. @geoff – I am happy to make a bet that the ratings for this drop in week two and onwards……you can’t defend it – its a bad show, alienates viewers in NSW and Wld and people don’t like Eddie. I know they try and get something for the millions he is paid each year but they would do better to just write the cost off.

    Eddie was fantastic on the footy show and even millionaire but he is a show killer now – the public have moved on. Nine need to as well.

  4. I think there is too much Eddie bashing. He is actually a top bloke and probably one of the most polished comperes in the country.
    His main problem is he needs to find One quality proramme to host. He was brilliant as host of AFL footy show and needs to get back to something he can put his talents into rather than just grabbing any new game show that comes along. He is better than that even though he does them well.

  5. Not too bad of a show i guess except for the poor editing. I watched the first half hour then got on the net and the rest of the show was just background noise.
    Interesting to hear from others about this. How many others now use tv as background noise whilst online and only look up when something grabs their attention, or is it just me.

  6. @Geoff – well, comparing a digital multichannel with the main analogue/digital is not a fair comparison and I think you know it. However, your point about VD rating terribly is not at issue. Neither is the fact that its replacement pulled about double the audience over double the time-slot.

    I don’t think anyone has suggested that shows about vampires will ever be more popular than a meat-and-potatoes program such as Between The Lines. But you can be sure that it costs Nine a lot more to put something like that together than it would to buy an ep of VD.

    You note that Between The Line’s first night audience is similar to the starting numbers for Spicks and Specks, and then propose that it could end up pulling 1m+ if “Nine stick with this for a few months” and if “it removes it’s AFL-bias”. I nearly spat my tea out when I read that. Not going to happen.

    Another proviso that you should have included was if they replace Eddie as host. Also not going to happen.

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