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NBN / WIN get too precious over Come Fly with Me

A decision by WIN Television and NBN not to air Come Fly with Me is about as batty as they come.

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A decision by WIN Television and NBN (Newcastle) not to air Come Fly with Me on Monday night is about as batty as they come.

According to the Newcastle Herald, NBN head of programming and publicity Kellie Hampton said the station would wait to see how the show was received by viewers in metropolitan markets.

“The regional TV audience is different and although the show has been classified ‘PG’ we want to see the feedback and ratings first.”

NBN is worried the show may will offend regional viewers and will instead play The Big Bang Theory. Talk about precious, Precious.

Yet the channel is owned by Nine Entertainment Co., steered by David Gyngell.

The show starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams will be rated PG when it airs at 8pm on Monday night, and whilst there will be edits these are minor. In fact they are nominal. The first episode probably doesn’t need any at all, but the second will need the occasional snip. There is still plenty to laugh at.

But what does the move by NBN and WIN say about how they see their audience?

Are they not grown up enough to see a PG rated show at 8pm?

Whilst it’s true the situation would never have arisen if Nine had played out the series in an M-rated timeslot, do audiences really want networks deciding if they are mature enough to handle the content? If Nine is actually editing the series to fit a PG timeslot isn’t that enough for WIN and NBN?

Affliate network WIN is politically trickier given it is owned by Bruce Gordon. WIN had previously snubbed a Nine series, The Catch-Up, over its own chat show Susie back in 2007, as well as Mornings with Kerri-Anne, in a disagreement about advertorial revenue.

But Come Fly with Me will air in WIN-owned Nine stations in Adelaide and Perth.

GO! will also screen it unedited at 10pm on Monday where regional viewers who are grown-up enough can catch the show. Viewers will be lucky to detect any difference between the edited / un-edited version this week.

Unless the NBN move has the blessing of David Gyngell he should do a Kerry Packer and pick up the phone and pull them into line.

50 Responses

  3. Kellie and NBN, you precious, pathetic no lifers. Your censorship is ridiculous. Your viewers can decide for themselves what they want to watch and what they don’t. You should be ashamed of your patronising attitude.

  4. As if regional Australian’s don’t have enough crap to put up with, always getting the short end of the stick, now we can’t even be trusted to work a remote when content we don’ t like comes on.

    And to anyone who is pleased with this because they personally don’t like the show – you are missing the point!

    It’s not about whether its good or not, its about censorship and being treated like children by the networks, this stunt would be wrong no matter what the show.

    And for any nit-pickers ready to argue that content can be inappropriate and deserves banning, I am specifically talking about PG rated shows already picked up by the network.

  5. Very ordinary treatment of viewers. They have also been advertising the show on Win TV in NQ and I was very much looking forward to it.
    But it appears we country folk couldn’t handle the humour. What a load of crap.
    Feels like we are living back in the ‘ Joe ‘ era.

  6. Not happy at all NBN, in fact I feel somewhat affronted by your nannying. This is a sure-fire way to lose market share. If you advertise it you should show it.

  7. @ hb
    While i can’t comment on this show. I will agree with you about British comedy. It is either complete crap or absolutely brilliant. For me there is no middle ground in British comedy.

  10. Good on NBN Newcastle!!!!

    I live in their broadcast area, and will be ringing them up to congratulate them for their excellent response.

    I have seen one episode of this bland show, and that was enough. Even toilet humour of 14 year olds has more laughs, and that’s mostly pathetic humour – but it’s still better than Come Fly With Me.

    Yes, I enjoy a good laugh, with the best of them. Some British comedy (and comedians) is (are?) utterly brilliant (Billy Connelly to pick one). But some of it fails completely, and this is one of those times.

  11. What an absolute joke!!! You are all a bunch of precious little petals – ive got an idea- if you dont want to watch it and its too insulting for you – dont watch it!! Dont ruin it for everyone else because of a select number of people that may be too sensitive! Wake up to yourself and air it NBN!!!

  12. How come NBN is setting itself us as our censor. Typical of their high handed holier than thou attitude. Pity they don’t have some serious competition but unfortunately locals just seem to know they can change channels!

  14. Having seen it I won’t be the least bit surprised if it is pushed to a later time anyway. Anyone easily offended is best advised to not watch!

  15. WIN has spent allot of advertising space promotion this. Do they not run promos saying ‘Sorry we now don’t think you can handle this!’ Strange indeed.

  19. I was assuming that with WIN having a 30 minute version scheduled, and GO having 40 minutes scheduled that there’d be a fair bit of difference between the two.

  20. This is disgusting. Definitely makes you wonder what they really think of their viewers. Hopefully both networks are inundated with bad feedback. I hope they come to their senses and put it back in the schedule before tomorrow night otherwise they will be messing with a lot of people. There hasn’t even been a promo saying its not coming on. I have a feeling that this decision will cause a lot of conflict between the network and viewers considering the amount of promos that were aired. I wish WIN was owned by David Gyngell.

  23. Ha! Great read, David!

    It seems regional folk have a thicker skin in the Nine Darwin & Imparja broadcast markets as they’ll be getting this program in its intended timeslot. From WIN’s point-of-view, it really does say a lot when their Perth & Adelaide stations will still air this at 8pm.

    For this humble TV Tonight reader, I find most of Nine’s content (95% of which also airs through WIN & NBN) to very offensive viewing. The racism of Customs? The sexism of Two & Half Men? The homophobia of The Footy Show? The class-warfare of ACA? I’m not going to start sticking up for Come Fly With Me because it looks like it’s picking on all sorts of minority groups, but WIN & NBN’s random decision here seems very inconsistent against the background of Nine’s other hate-filled programming.

    Makes me wonder how often WIN & NBN talk to each other behind Nine’s back too? I know they both own & run Nine Affiliate Sales together. NBN also opt out of Nine’s feed at 3pm weekdays to run the WIN-produced Alive & Cooking. [insert suspicious face]

    Of course, we all know this wouldn’t have happened if it ended up on ABC2 where this kinda stuff belongs.

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