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QANTAS shutdown to hit TV plans

Guests, presenters, stars, execs and production shoots will all be affected by the sudden shutdown of QANTAS.

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The sudden shutdown of QANTAS is bound to have an immediate impact on television plans, with stars and execs likely to have been caught up right around the country.

Get ready for a long list of guests and presenters to be replaced in programmes this week as a result.

Those who aren’t in Melbourne already for the Melbourne Cup may struggle to make it in time.

Kerri-Anne Kennerley have have to extend her Melbourne stay if she can’t make it back to Sydney. Big names for the Cup, some of whom have extra engagements including for The Project, may miss out. Will George Negus make it to the desk for Monday?

Sunrise is due to broadcast from Flemington on Tuesday -fortunately Jetstar is their sponsor.

US actors Eddie McClintock (Warehouse 13) and Colin Ferguson (Eureka) were flying to Melbourne from Sydney last night for a one-day fan convention today. Luckily for them they already had tickets booked on Virgin.

Industry heavyweights including Sigrid Thornton and film producer Gillian Armstrong are due to join a forum at Parliament House on Wednesday to discuss a government review of local content. Who knows who will make it (including the politicians)?

X Factor judges Ronan Keating and Mel B were in Melbourne yesterday for Derby Day -but due in Sydney tomorrow for another live show.

Production shoots will also have been thrown into disarray.

If it dares to drag into next week then there is a planned Prisoner reunion that will be hit.

And that’s just for starters…

38 Responses

  2. @Dave what annoyed me about TEN is at 5pm I was watching BBC World and saw the grounding headlines, crossed to TEN and nothing until 5:19pm, how come they had the news in the UK but not here, no matter the local channel!

    @effdee – it’s still some 70,000 seat gone from the market. All the other airlines in Australia can’t take up that slack.

  3. From Mel B: Great weekend!! Now back home to my 3 kids for cuddles,everyone check out my pictures on my website melaniebrown.com

    So she is back in Sydney now

  4. Everybody should just get a grip!
    Anyone would thing the whole of Australia had ground to a complete standstill.
    Qantas is only one of the airlines who fly within Australia!

  5. @craig. You have to give TEN a break. The news didn’t break till 5pm. 9 were caught on the hop first talking to journos on the phone. It wasnt till half way through the bulliten that we had live crosses. I didn’t see any of sevens initial coverage so I don’t know what their coverage was like.

  6. ABC24…excellent ongoing coverage…and David is correct with his concerns…they were saying last night that all other airlines were now booked out way ahead….leaving everyone not on those flights …stranded for an indefinate period…
    Yes other sources of travel here….but not if you are stuck OS.

  7. There’s Always Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific or Virgin Atlantic for Singapore and Hong Kong,New Zealand fly on either Pacific Blue or Air New Zealand,USA/Hawaii on V Australia or Air New Zealand or United or Hawaiian Airlines I could list more but I fear domestically if you can’t get a Virgin Flight It’s going to be a long train or bus ride or a long drive putting your life at risk to get back to where you are headed.

  8. John from Sunny Coast, I think you kind of missed my point? ie there are many others much worse off stranded around the world.
    Besides, as Mel & Ronan are trying to get to Sydney, how could they be stranded there?

  9. The FTA coverage from TEN did leave a lot to be desired, it wasn’t even the lead story on the 5pm news when Nine was covering it live (and I assume ABC24). After that issue they were all over the place but I think Seven did the best job having news updates through the night instead of going down the path with Nine and preempting it’s programing for non stop coverage after the 6pn news.Great coverage from ABC24, which is what we needed. We don’t need Nine or the other FTA networks doing the same.

    Unless this is resolved quickly it will start affecting TV shows as David’s story said, even if it’s just to see your favorite stars on the box, I guess a number of them will now be doing satellite interviews if they can’t gt to the studios on time.

    As for the polies stuck in Perth, I’m sure the government will charter a jet or user the government ones to get them back home and to Parliament House on time.

  11. @tmorgan

    The days of Qantas being our national carrier have long passed. Less than 20% of Australians fly with them on international flights. I certainly don’t.

  13. So 80,000 people are trapped overseas and the most important thing here is the judges getting back to X-Factor ontime?
    BTW, the network’s coverage of this has been pathetic. If I were in charge of a network, I would have rolling coverage considering the national carrier has been grounded. Oh, and this is what people get for voting Labor- overpowered Unions causing chaos.
    Thank Kevin and Julia for this.

    1. tmorgan: I think you are twisting the point of the story. Clearly I am only writing about how it will begin to impact on the television industry. But you’re here regularly enough to know this site’s content. Not sure why you felt it necessary to take this line.

  15. Not strictly TV but certainly related: QI Live’s last Melbourne show was last night and starts tomorrow night in Brisbane (so presumably Steven, Alan and relevant production staff are/were flying today). There’s no mention of an airline in the program but hope their tickets are with Virgin or they could make alternative plans.

  17. Best argument ever for a very fast train link between Sydney and Melbourne. This dispute will obviously stop the nation and could go on for days or even weeks. The Sydney-Melbourne route is one of the busiest in the world and it is ridiculous that we can be held to ransom like this.

  19. There are alternatives for travelling between Melbourne and Sydney, such as flying with Jetstar or Virgin, by XPT train, by coach or by rented car. If Ronan and Mel B are stranded in Melbourne, they will have to rely on live crosses from Channel Seven Melbourne’s news studios, which means additional production costs.

  20. Thank goodness for ABC 24 – the Seven and Nine Network coverage has been quite ordinary, they insist to stream Sunrise and Today into Queensland on one hour delay, at least 24 is live. A national crisis and our networks are more concerned with ratings. 24 for me!

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