It sucks! Vampire Diaries fans slam GO!
Fans of The Vampire Diaries slammed GO! on their Facebook site for pulling the show at the last minute.
- Published by David Knox
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Fans of The Vampire Diaries slammed GO! last night on their Facebook site and in online forums for pulling the show at the last minute.
Nine’s “Urgent” amendment, replacing the show with a movie, Bride Wars, was announced at 5:13pm, less than 3.5 hours before the show was due to air. It was even too late for online EPGs let alone print guides. Angry fans even vented that Nine’s own website was still plugging Vampire Diaries. Many insisted they would watch the show via downloads instead. Some were so angry they set up a “Boycott GO!” Facebook page.
TV Tonight also received a significant number of complaints.
Fan fury follows GO! recently resting the series only to drop it with just 3 episodes remaining in the series. It’s a terrible way to treat viewers. With the network’s ratings right now it is a risky move to jeopardise viewer loyalty.
The reason for the late change isn’t clear, but some were questioning whether Nine had pulled Vampire Diaries to try to send more viewers towards the premiere of Between the Lines at the same time.
By late last night the official GO! Facebook page had been flooded with complaints, none of which had been answered by the moderator. The question now is whether the network will explain the reason for the switcheroo and apologise to viewers.
Here is a sample of some of the complaints:
Cat Taylor
I want to see “The Vampire Diaries. Season 2 Episode 20. “The Last Day”. 🙁
Tara O’Flaherty
what the hell….. why do u keep doin this…. Y wasnt Vampire Diaries on???
Jessica Dreyer
u really suck go for taking vampire diaries off again for the second time without explaination after advertising it all week 2 be on!!!!
Nicole Challis
I am with the rest of the people who currently don’t like GO. I was looking forward to Vampire Diaries and Mars Attacks. It was just wrong, when you advertise something you should show it.
Sarah Palmer
Sick to death of really looking forward to watching the next epsiode of Vampire Diaries to only have it replaced by BRIDE WARS!!! GO get your self sorted and play what you advertise!! Seriously can not believe you have done this yet again!! Even your website says it should be Vamp Diaries!!!!!
Damian Harper
Gotta get your priorities straight!!!
Andrea Fabe-Heywood
GO! = Worst channel ever
Adele K. Thomas
Im not surprised, its actually pretty normal of Nine to do this. Ive seen them screw around with some of my favourite shows like ER. I cant believe one season wasnt on for like two years, then when they started playing it again, no notice. So to see them doing it with Fringe, Vampire Diaries and Nikita is no shock.
Codee Mullings
does anybody know when vampire diaries comes out on dvd? kinda REALLY getting sick of GO! screwing us around so ima just wait for the dvd!!
Kylie Brown
Please tell my why the hell vampire diaries was not on tonight!!!! Not cool at all I’ve been hanging all freaking day for it???????? Is it on next week?? It’s only be back on for 3 weeks… Put it bak on!
Vicky Soar Smith
GO! You Suck!!!….Got no fickin idea with what the hell is going on with your tv programme. What happened to Vampire Diaries? I only found out it was back on last week by mistake and on a Thursday after it had been on Monday’s for ages. Why keep changing all the time? Looks like there is a few unhappy viewers on here too. Hope you get more complaints!!!!
Rachel Hewish
What happend to The Vampire Diaries tonight??!! You got some stupid marriage flick I’m not interested in….very disappointed. Stop advertising what you don’t screen…not the first time…
Sarah Palmer
Go have updated thier website saying that the next episode is Sunday 15May at 2.10AM!!!!! Seriously sort your crap out and realise what your viewers want!!!!!
UPDATE: Vampire Diaries is now 11:50pm Sundays beginning May 15.
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- Tagged with Between The Lines, The Vampire Diaries
56 Responses
@ Secret Squïrrel……hey mate! thats how i view your comments..platitudes!
oh….never said I didnt like what u said…
I find it interesting that everyone keeps saying only 87,000 people only watched TVD.
No, that should be only a handfull of people with Ratings boxes watched TVD. If every household in Australia had a ratings box the numbers would be completely different.
And even if for the sake of argument 87,000 did watch TVD than that’s 87,000 people who nine have now pi**ed off and 87,000 eyes who will no longer watch their channel.
Brand loyalty is something that does not come back easily once it is gone.
I don’t mind this actually,been looking at narrowing the favorites menu and as The Vampire show was the only thing left on GO I am even mildly interested in I can now get rid of it.
To completely nerd-up the issue, I went back and anaylsed Season 2 ratings, look at Australian air dates to the US air date and also looked at 8.30/9.30 timing issue as well from start to almost finish and really, it proves the point that Go ruined a good thing.
The Monday 8.30pm slot in which they aired eps only four days after the US, had them building each week viewers, pulling 199, 191, 185, 190 pretty consistently. Yes, there were dips but series ratings tend to do this. The US breaks didn’t help but each time, the viewers came back to rebuild those good numbers.
The shift to the 9.30pm timeslot in January was the first nail – with the timeslot shedding viewers due to many of the demo not being able to stay up that late. This was noted on the Facebook page at the time, programming chose to ignore this for a few weeks to the ratings detriment.
The eventual shift to the Thursday 8.30pm timeslot added some extra nails – firstly, it put the show head to head with Eleven’s sci-fi block and skewed the viewers and secondly, it stretched the air date drag out to a week – which for a show that is very blindside orientated and generates a lot of online talk, is too long.
The last week of rating 87,000 was two weeks after the US airdate and the final nail for both the fans and programmers clearly.
The lesson GO! failed to learn – listen to the viewers in both ratings and feedback. The original timeslot worked for a number of reasons and shifting it around so much, they commended Vampire Diaries to early death.
Geoff.
Yes. You do not advertise a program all week then all day (which they did) then cancel it 2/3 hours before and not expect a backlash when people have planned their entire evenings around seeing it.
They have stuffed around 4/5 other shows as well and also claimed it was because of “poor ratings” or even blamed the US. So they are all crap then? It is not the shows that are the problem.. it is the fact that the programmer does not know how to do the job and is ruining the shows by stopping and starting them. Blaming viewers for their unprofessionalism is just.. well unprofessional.
P.S. Yanking a show off due to “low ratings” is surely just crerating a catch 22 situation where viewers are less likely to watch future shows because they can’t trust you to keep them in the schedules. The typhical story of television though – always far more concerned about the people not watching than the people who actually are.
Why are Aussie channels allowed to get away with this – barely a day goes by without something being rescheduled or pulled last minute. It doesn’t happen in the UK (unless a Royal dies!) and although the US networks won’t think twice about pulling an underperforming show, that;s usually just 2-3 episodes into a series and not towards the end of the season a couple of hours before broadcast.
Considering Australian TV seems to have some of the strictest rules about producing local drama content it’s amazing this obvious problem with last minute schedule changes hasn’t been addressed.
@Geoff Sorry to keeping debating the point and I totally understand low ratings can’t be tolerated but Go! really only have themselves to blame for the dropoff.
Last year, in December summer non-ratings period – first episode off a two week break when Nine was airing Vampire Diaries on Monday night at 8.30pm against similar demo pulling Glee, a new episode pulled 136,000.
Week 46 and Week 47 it pulled 169,000 and 152,000 respectively, again against similar pulling demo shows like X-Factor in it’s final weeks.
Sure, not the 196,000 of Bride Wars, but the show is continuing to receive international praise and if handled correctly by both Go! marketing and programming, could have really built an audience.
PS Thanks David for the answer and also keeping your ratings archive! 🙂
Thanks a whole f***ing lot, Go. As a high school student, I can’t watch it now seeing as it’s only so late. I actually do half to be at least half awake when I go to school the next day.
Maybe you shouldn’t have changed the time slot, ass holes.
@ohyeah – thanks for the platitudes, mate. I’m sure everyone on here who disagrees with programming decisions can go and buy their own network. You even agree that what Go! did was wrong but you don’t seem to like me saying it. Too bad.
No-one on here has suggested that a TV network isn’t a business, or that they don’t have to chase advertising dollars, and therefore ratings. Of course you’re not going to please everybody – that’s a vacuous statement. Replacing VD at short notice might have produced an immediate bump in audience numbers but I’m surprised that you can’t see that this sort of disrespectful behaviour has negative effects over the longer term. VD numbers are so low at the moment because the program has already been badly treated by Nine/Go! prior to last night, so it’s a circular argument to say that Go! mistreat the show because people aren’t watching.
And I’m well aware that no-one is making me watch Go! The thing is, they’re not making any effort to entice me to do so either. I don’t need to leave the room to avoid the stink – I just switch over to One or Eleven where I’m entertained and treated with some respect.
Announcement: To all Vampire Diaries fans. GO! will now air the previously scheduled episode of The Vampire Diaries This Sunday @ 1150pm. The next episode will be next Sunday (May 22) @ 1150pm. The season finale will now be played Tuesday 24th May @ 1130pm
With this on their Facebook Page it’s a joke – i watched eps 20 and 21 elsewhere after the debarcle of last nights late cancellation and will continue to watch them online. GO! has begun to show so many shows but most have been moved, stopped or disappear with any explanation whatsoever. As far as I am concerned last night was like watching every episode of a series of survivor only to stop airing it half way through the final episode…..so I’ve given up watching the Channel.
Oh wait – more info – this Sunday 2am – eps 18 and 19 air back to back and 11:50PM Sunday night is episode 20. I assume the info about ep 21 the following sunday is correct.
So everyone that’s saying despite it’s Dreadful rating the week before it should’ve been aired?
As the person you all called this afternoon to complain to said “It’s a Business”, when it definately is– this week Channel 9 has been struggling to get out of 3rd place most nights and it’s rise to 2nd is important for them for advertising money.
Even if it meant a late switch, they were able to increase the viewership on GO! during that hour from 87,000 to 196,000 by showing Bride Wars– which means that a repeat movie is definately more popular then Vampire Diares.
This is why I have given up watching it on Go!….they keep taking it off air. I’m waiting for the dvds.
Go! can and will say Anything to try and explain the reasoning…. and I would Bet they are lying through their teeth with those ratings figures – as the outrage on facebook/online media clearly suggests plus the fact this is the Highest rating show on it’s US network… not only that but as Cat said you Don’t treat viewers that way chopping and changing and then cancelling shows without notice or explanation. Let’s not forget too that this is certainly not the first or only show that Go! has drastically failed it’s viewers on
@Geoff , “it’s not GO’s fault that only 87,000 people watched the last episode of The Vampire Diaries at 8:30pm Thursdays.”
And what, GO! only found out about the 87,000 people watching the last episode 3 hours before airing the next one?
Personally, I’m not into that show that much — I’m recording it anyway — but GO! starts showing the same contempt to the audience as Channel 9.
@ Geoff
Regardless you do Not cancel a show a couple of hours before it’s due to air and you certainly don’t do it 3 eps away from the final. They treat viewers with utter contempt. When I rang up it was pretty obvius they didn’t give a toss about viewers opinions. The explanation I got was (paraphrased) “Well we are running a business” and she said it was viewers fault for low ratings. Half the time viewers didn’t even know what night it was on because they kept changing it last minute. That goes for about 4 other shows as well. GO! really needs to remember that the episode guide is not just a list of flexible suggestions. They may as well just leave it blank.
@Geoff, I do understand the 87,000 arguement, but the flip side is that this is the result of sketchy programming of this series for the past few weeks. From moving timeslots and days randomly, to abandoning episodes with only a few hours to go – how can they expect viewers to trust the episodes will air at all.
David – does Australia have Live+7 ratings system like the States which accounts for DVR/PVR recorded shows watched within seven days of episode airing? In the US CW, which airs Vampire Diaries, has one of the largest bumps from this ratings system.
Floss: Yes Australia has Consolidated ratings which factor in the +7 days on PVRs.
I think it’s fair to say GO! has given Vampire Diaries fans the run around so that it’s hard for them to locate the show and deliver the numbers. What we saw last night were the fans who had stuck through that mire only to be shafted (and even blamed?). Networks do move shows if they don’t rate, but they should show better consideration than doing it 3.5 hrs before. Whether its TV or stage, any performer should respect the audience.
It would be interesting to see if the ratings have dropped since they moved it from monday at 8:30 to 9:30pm and then to Thursday’s. There is usually a break in episodes in the states from 17 – 18 (around then) but so disappointed to see they aren’t even fast tracking it. Perhaps if they had taken more care in their programming then maybe the ratings would have stayed higher.
@ Cat Taylor, it’s not GO’s fault that only 87,000 people watched the last episode of The Vampire Diaries at 8:30pm Thursdays– it falls down to the people that have been posting here, if not enough people watch it because they source it through “other means” in a few short weeks after it has aired it gives GO! no reason to air it at a premium time, thus why it gets put on 11:30pm “death slots” to finish it off.
Seriously, even on a digitial channel 87,000 isn’t a very high figure.
I really liked Go when it first started. However I never watch it now. 7mate and 11 can keep a constant schedule without numerous last-minute changes. Rot at the bottom of the ratings barrel …
It was not fair of GO! to pull TVD off the air on the night it was suppose to air and put some ridiculous movie on instead and saying it was ‘Urgent’! not cool, super angry and upset and worried that the show won’t get the ratings it deserves. A show cannot survive without ratings and we can’t loose Vampire Diaries! It is primetime television and it needs to be on in Prime Time!
We (TVD fans) at least deserve an explanation as to why it was pulled so urgently. I didn’t watch any Nine channel last night and flicked over to Eleven!
My EPG guide said it was on, then 5 minutes later it said it wasn’t on! Was so confused and did I say angry! My TVD friends were not happy either! We deserve better than this GO! Maybe 7Two should take over the viewings of TVD.
Just rang Go Programming dept 02 9906 9999 and frankly they didn’t give a rats ass about my friends and family missing TVDs.
I also asked about Community, Pretty Little Liars and Hell Cats as they have been on and off over the last few months as well. Guess what.. no one knows when they are due back.
Go can Go without me.. all these shows can be found elsewhere.
I specified the episode for.. people’s convenience. 😉
Apparently people have rung up and they have blamed poor ratings. In that case.. they should have Respected viewers and played the remaining 3 episodes in the same time slot and let another station buy it. The reason GO! is getting crappy ratings is because they treat viewers like Crap.
Its not the quality of shows that is the problem but the low quality of the station.
Moving it to nearly midnight on a Sunday is obviously to kill it. Hey maybe we’ll get lucky and get more 2 and a 1/2 men repeats!
@ Secret Squïrrel…..mate… why dont u buy your own station and run it!..
yes.. what GO! did was wrong and it may cost them viewers for a while, but at the end of the day, its a business and has to be run like a business. your not always going to please everyone.
it still smells good… if u dont like the smell of GO! then maybe get out of the room and go for a walk. no one is telling u what to watch.