Nine trims Episodes (but won’t tell you why)
Nine edits scenes out of Episodes but declines to comment on why....
- Published by David Knox
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Episodes premiered on Nine this week in Sydney and Brisbane, and begins next week in the rest of the country.
The numbers weren’t too flash (232,000 for two cities) but we should wait until it’s airing nationally before drawing too many conclusions next Tuesday at 9:30pm.
As you’ll see in the Review I gave the show, I enjoyed the first two instalments a lot. But I did get a surprise when I realised Nine had trimmed both episodes down, excising scenes from the show.
In the US Episodes plays on Pay TV at 30 minutes without ads.
In Australia Nine is airing two eps at one hour with ads. So they
may have trimmed up to 8 mins per episode.
I asked Nine why they had cut these, but they have declined to comment, which I think speaks volumes about the act.
Having waited 18 months (after an unfulfilled fast-track promise) it’s really an insult to viewers to go there. I still enjoyed their edited version. But I enjoyed the unedited one I saw even more (currently available on YouTube here).
The irony is, this has been done on a TV show where the Americans are admitting they bugger up British television.
In Australia we manage to go one step further.
We just won’t tell you why….
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42 Responses
an interesting find I found – I taped the first 2 eps of ‘Episodes’ on both Nine and GO. I checked out the beginning of the first ep on both channels (both eps 1&2 played together). I had heard people say the Nine version was cut down so I thought I’d check out the GO replay thinking maybe it would be the longer version.
I was right, I checked the beginning of the GO first ep replay from last Thursday night (in SA) and the start of the show had the 2 british people for a little bit and then we see Matt trying to call his mum on the car phone. while the Nine version just had Matt in the car, without the opening with the 2 british people!
I checked the GO runtime for the the first ep only including with ad breaks and it went for 38 minutes!! not sure how long the second ep went for as my recording was cut short but Im betting it was the full runtime. the first ep on Nine with ads went for less than 25 minutes.
so I guess they are telling us if we want the whole thing, get digital tv!
Just for the record, these are the showtimes according to the Eps on 9’s catch up site:
Episode 1: 24:38
Episode 2: 17:53 (They hacked that one to death!!)
Episode 3: 28:52 (So barely touched)
Episode 4: 26:35
With such a wide variation, one would have to conclude that it is nine themselves that is carrying out the butcher process. It makes you wonder what we missed in Episode 2 (they cut out over a third of the show!)
Yeah, I think it is a bit rude they didn’t answer you David. Thanks.
To be fair to nine, I am wondering if it is them that is doing the cutting? I know that cable TV shows in the states often sell cut-down versions of their shows for the OS/commercial market, maybe this is what has happened here? That isn’t to say that local networks do not edit shows themselves, just that maybe it isn’t the case here?
I notice that on the catch-up site nine is showing the cut-down episodes. Surely if 9 had access to the full versions it would make sense to show these on catch-up? After all, longer showtime means they could chuck another three repeats of the same ad in there somewhere 😉
Which is why I tried to ask Nine, but they declined.
The other thing that worries me about this is how poorly Channel 9 actually makes the edits. I can recall when some of the more racy jokes were cut from Mike and Molly – someone would be standing on one side of the room and then they would be on the other side of the room with no way of knowing how they got there!
And next time the Naked Truth with Gerard butler and Katherine Heigl is on (should be in a month or two) just watch what they did with the scene where she is ‘over-stimulated’ in the restaurant. They cut all the proceeding scene so the climax to the joke makes no sense at all.
Meh. Doesn’t seem to worry me, I always go out and buy DVDs for each season of a TV program.
David, I don’t think this is true. I remember reading an article which states when Ten still aired “The Simpsons”, they edited a scene out of the Rosebud episode, where Homer tries to convince Maggie to play with a box. They did this to make way for ads, although Mott denied it at the time.
@Russell – “But you’re getting a show free they Americans pay $15 a month for on top of a $50 month cable bill. So I think it’s a small price to pay.”
Are we getting a “show”? Or a “show minus 8 minutes”?
No one is arguing about cable or FTA. Commercials or no commercials. The issue is about butchering 8 mins from a half-hour program.
No I don’t work for Nine LOL
Just because Nine didn’t respond to a blog with a reason does not mean they don’t have one. Nine is a business, I presume if they go to the trouble of editing shows there must be a reason.
My guess is they want to start Survivor at 10.30, not 10.43pm. And they want Episodes to air in a nice 1 hour block.
That seems a bit odd as they run shows late and start late all time time. But that is when they see it to their advantage to run The Voice 10 minutes longer. In thise case, for competative reasons they obviously decided it”s better to end at 10.30
People it’s how they sell advertising. Perhaps they know Survivor rates really well at 10.30. Who knows exactly.
But you’re getting a show free they Americans pay $15 a month for on top of a $50 month cable bill. So I think it’s a small price to pay.
@Wally – what channel have you been watching? None (and I mean none) of the commercial networks care about “odd ending times”. How often do the shows (prerecorded) that are on earlier in the evenings finish 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes late? They certainly do not care then, so why should they care later?
Ohhhhhhh right? It is out of Prime Time, so trying to falsify their ratings, through evil little tricks, is not justifiable then is it?
Mongrels 🙁
@David – exactly right. They can, and should, do both.
@JB – they cut 3+ minutes out of the start of the show, showing an argument between Sean and Beverly (which explains why she was driving when she ran into Matt). They cut another 3+ minutes of a scene Sean and Beverly first arrived at the house and tried to get hot and heavy in the massive spa bath (which took too long to fill) and (most disgracefully) they cut the excellent scene where Julian tried to act American for Merc. I say disgracefully because this was a superb scene by the brilliant Richard Griffiths…
At least, from memory, that is what they cut. I suggest you follow the link David provides and see the better episode for yourself.
Firstly, @Russell… where do you get your information from? Because you need to go elsewhere 😉 – The shows range from 28-30mins.
I think Nine just wants to avoid an odd ending time for the show. If they show about 10 minutes of ads and leave the episode unedited then that’s a forty minute broadcast and it’ll end at 10:10 with ~10:50 for a double.
There isn’t anyway of avoiding those start times unless there aren’t any ads or as Nine has done, cut some bits out.
Another reason I am quite happy I watched this great series more than a year ago…
It’s 9 – what do you expect? They’ve had complete and utter contempt for their viewers for years. Free???? You get what you pay for. Luckily I watched the whole first season of this show on an international flight last year. Only a moron would be able to appreciate the chopped version on Nine. Whoops – should I say “Big Bang Theory” viewers.You can hear the knuckles dragging now.