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Seven to halt Rafters season once again

Surpr-i-i-i-se. Seven duds viewers again by deciding that next week's Packed to the Rafters will be the "season finale."

Channel Seven will again hit the pause button on hit series Packed to the Rafters, for the second time this year.

Last night Seven told viewers the finale would air next week.

But it will screen episode 15 of a 22 episode season, having returned the show in late August.

On November 1st the 8:30pm timeslot is still TBA.

This is the second time Seven has halted the show, having been roundly criticised by viewers and the media in mid-March.

Even cast members grumbled about the season being interrupted.

Seven’s lead in the ratings is so strong it may be willing to sustain a drop in figures in the final four weeks of the year in order to adopt a different strategy. But it’s a risky strategy when numbers have already dipped after the exit of Jessica Marais.

The episode is aptly titled “Risky Business.”

44 Responses

  1. @ Jerome…. I agree, 22eps is an americam template, the brits go for about 6-8 eps, here in oz we probably need to be looking in the region of 12-15 eps per season for a decent show. It would be cost effective and there is a chance of maintaining the quality

  2. I think the issue here is the 22 episode seasons. It is obviously more than what 7 know what to do with. 17-18 eps would be better. The X factor finale would definitely be more than 1hr so even if it stayed on air they would still be holding 4 episodes over till 2012 they obviously wanted 7 eps to fill the tennis-Easter weeks.

  3. I’m the biggest Parenthood fan (click on the link, I have a site to prove it) and hope they keep it on at 9:30, I know it will never get Rafters numbers at 8:30 or any time of the night but it does need a good lead-in, assuming Seven keeps it on after next week.

  4. Probably realised that if they kept going, the rating period (and thus any first run programming) would end at 19 or 22 eps and that would probably be evern more annoying. I don’t even what the show and I think this is dumb!

  5. Foolish mistake, you cannot stretch 22 eps of season from Sept 2010 to March 2012!!!!!
    I doubt I will come back to it next year, I’ve lost interest in it, and Seven obviously do not want us to watch it anymore. Maybe it’s becoming too expensive to make, so they are just trying to kill it to have an excuse to axe it.

  6. I mut admit I was surprised when they said it would be the finale next week. 7 have basically done nothing wrong this year excpet stuff Rafters around. I guess they think they will keep the eps for next year for ratings wins and finish season 4 in the first half of the year then show season 2 of winners and losers.

    I found when rafters came back I missed winners and losers but I guess 7 know what they are doing. But when they put Parenthood on at 8:30 last year it didnt really work.

  7. Probably shouldn’t mess with people’s emotions by chopping and changing Rafters but unlike, say, City Homicide, there are currently no other shows like it. It’s like an old jumper – csy and familiar.

    I don’t mind the hibernation as it gives me time to catch up on recorded shows – I don’t know where working people get the time to watch all the decent shows on at the moment.

  8. You’d think they would’ve learned after they destroyed Always Greener – at the time it was the highest debuting Aussie drama ever, and yet they kept cutting it off mid-season and relaunching it, until there was no chance left for viewers to build any attachment to it.

  9. @ peter… you are right television is a business and it does want to maximise profit….and ratings. So they bugger about with the show, pretend and lie about a so-called season finale and treat their viewers with contempt. The viewers become annoyed and ratuings drop off, lowering the profits……not rocket science is it…..durr

    @ Nik C…there seems to be a well worn path for ch7 to eventually cancel a show and rafters seems to be taking the first few steps….with 22 eps per season, it is hard to keep the freshness and quality. I give a max of 2 more seasons….

  10. so now even shows that pull the numbers are no longer safe. its horrible how they treat shows like this and don’t finish off the season properly (Bones, Castle, City Homicide) and it will come back to haunt them in the future. numbers are already well down since the last break off air.

  11. Channel Ten does something similar with Modern Family. They put in repeats and supposedly new episodes on Tuesday, or wait was that Sunday, anyway I cannot keep up with all the changes to Modern Family, I actually have stopped watching it on Channel Ten and will just wait till Foxtel have it or I decide to rent out the Season – it’s just too annoying to keep up with the changes and repeats.

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