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Follow the bouncing Qi

Is the ABC leaning on Stephen Fry to lift its struggling Wednesday nights?

Next week ABC1 revamps its Wednesday night line up with new content after weeks of under-performing shows.

Myf Warhurst launches her Nice series in the 8pm timeslot, and it’s a daggy look at our past, including with Myf duetting on Islands in the Stream with the one and only Mr. Kenny Rogers.

Following Randling, we get the new comedy from Rickey Gervais, Life’s Too Short, an uncomfortable look at “showbiz dwarf” Warwick Davis.

But then at 9:30pm it’s Qi, despite the fact it is also playing at 9:30pm on Tuesdays. Stephen Fry fans, who have recently been watching the show on Friday nights, will need to have their wits about them to keep on top of the rescheduling.

Can’t help but feel that Stephen Fry is being brought in to salvage a night that has been off target lately.

It’s almost as bizarre as playing Agatha Christie on a Tuesday….

14 Responses

  1. @reubot

    Series I did not finish before it was taken away from Fridays, it still had 4 or 5 episodes to air. (without actually going and checking)

  2. @montdore – thanks for that – Would I Lie to You is hilarious. Will prob watch some more clips later on. Mitchell and Mack are perfect choices. ABC needs to buy this immediately and show it instead of QI repeats.

  3. Victor said, “It will be very hard to see how the ABC can justify its claims to the Federal government for more money next year.”

    You’re right! Because the entire organisation is a bunch of Wednesday night television programs on ABC1.

  4. @A

    Another British panel show (ha, there are so many!). Hosted by Rob Brydon – there are two teams, captained by David Mitchell and Lee Mack. The guests tell ridiculous and embarrassing stories and the other team has to figure out if they’re lying or not. A lot of the episodes are on YouTube if you want to check it out! Or just search for the clip with Kevin Bridges buying a horse, it’s a classic. The guests are great, and it’s always hilarious. Think it’s a natural fit for Wednesday nights.

    Or the ABC could even commission an Australian version. Prob wouldn’t be as good, but I’m sure it would be more entertaining than Randling.

  5. @ Secret Squirrel

    I’m glad we agree about Shaun Micallef. But I disagree about Qi as its better off on Tuesday or Wednesday. If they can make up their mind. If both please make sure they aren’t the same episode and maybe from different series.

    Since they used to have The Collectors on Friday. And they now have that Auction show. Why not put it on Friday? Surely they’d have similar audiences. I’m assuming The Collectors did alright.

    @ montdore

    I’m curious about Would I Lie to You?

  6. What Victor said.

    I tried to like the first series of Laid but couldn’t get there. However, it was prob decent enough fare for ABC2. I had a bit of a look at S2 and it was pretty dreadful.

    I agree with A., Micallef should have been on Wed all along with QI left at 8pm on Fri.

  7. It seems that nobody at the ABC is taking any responsibility for the failure and commissioning of its local shows. Randling is ill conceived and dull and if it is true the ABC commissioned 20 plus episodes this is ludicrous for a new format. Laid is at last put to rest and had an embarrassingly low audience. It should have been on ABC2. These local shows are now just part of a very long list which failed to find respectable or even decent niche audiences. And nice as Myf is on a panel show do we really want to see her try to carry a series? It will be very hard to see how the ABC can justify its claims to the Federal government for more money next year. There is some good news however. The ABC’s Four Corners program this week was outstanding and the ABC at its absolute best. The commissioning editors in the other departments could learn a thing or two from this team which brings intelligence and rigour.

  8. I’m warming to Randling. I think the format is settling down, the teams are playing the game with less one-up-personshipping and they seem to play more games. I think we are spoiled by seeing the quick and unrehearsed wit of QI though. Is QI repeats??

  9. Are the Wednesday airings of QI to be the current/new series, or repeats, as we’re seeing on Tuesday nights? We were in the middle of Series I on Friday nights, but that was replaced with Shaun Micallef (for reasons that are unlikely to become clear anytime soon).

    It’s looking more and more like Aunty poached a Programmer from 10…

  10. That may be David. I like Agatha Christie on a Tuesday it was a good idea. Also I like the decision to put Qi at 9.30pm Wednesday or Tuesday. An alternative could be Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell show on Wednesday. Actually I love it. I’ll admit I wasn’t watching Qi on Friday. So now I have Wednesday sorted for awhile perhaps i.e. SBS and ABC (unless there’s something very tempting elsewhere ) . I’m much happier. I suspect many more will be too. Thank you to both Aunty and David for the news.

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