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Bumped: Prisoner

Changes to 111HITS evening schedule will see popular Prisoner reruns move from 6:30pm.

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Changes to 111HITS evening schedule will see popular Prisoner reruns move from 6:30pm.

The changes take affect from Monday October 8:

Gilmore Girls starts Oct 8 at 5.30pm weeknights followed by Ghost Whisperer.

Prisoner moves to 10.30pm weeknights on 111HITS. This is episode 411 of 692.

Later in the month, Law & Order goes into the 8.30pm weeknight slot once Season 6 of Grey’s Anatomy ends.

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  2. With Prisoner, it hadn’t featured in the top 50 shows on TV Tonight, so obviously ratings had dipped.

    It’s nice to see Prisoner back in Australia, but sad as it is that it’s now to be moved, there’s no repeat value in it for 111 Hits since it’s a soap opera, and networks can only repeat them 2/3 times. The networks here in the UK/Australia expect to make money on the acquired content, and 111 is expecting to get good audiences from Prisoner since I don’t think it came cheap from FremantleMedia Australia- see why it’s never aired here in the UK. See also why the US daytime soaps didn’t do the business here either.

    Whereas with Ghost Whisperer, Friends, Touched by An Angel etc, these are self-contained dramas/comedies and not serials, and 111 Hits can repeat them endlessly to get the money out of them.

  3. Seems like a bit of deja cu here. Even when Prisoner was repeated on Ten it started off in a nice 10.30pm timeslot but was shafted to 4am during the later years of the show.

    Also since Prisoner was consistently in the top 20 shows in the ratings, it not only makes it one of 111hits’ most popular shows but one of Foxtel’s most popular shows. Actually I don’t think you’ll find any Aussie show with more diehard fans than Prisoner.

    There seems to be a huge backlash on the 111hits facebook page hopefully this decision will be reversed. If not it would be crazy for one of the free to air digital channels to not pick it up and give it an 8.30pm timeslot. If repeats of Heartbeat can top the ratings night after night, Prisoner would be ratings gold.

  5. Wow some die hard Prisoner fans here!!! I have only recently started watching it again (love the IQ) since it was on originally when I was a kid….but wow…how amazing and important is Lizzie to the show. What an amazing actress for her age….even if a few badly delivered lines got through the cracks!!!

  6. For the life of me I can’t understand why they are bumping it and putting ghost whisperer on at prisoners old time slot surely prisoner rates better than ghost whisperer

    As for prisoner after the queen left it did dip a bit but it picked up when Myra arrived prisoner was at its worst between myras departure and Rita’s arrival actually it got really bad at that point

  7. I don’t have Foxtel but why would 111 Hits move what is probably their most popular program?? Is it because as JJ suggests merely because Bea Smith has exited the series at its current point?

  8. @ jlenoconel I actually agree with you the Myra era was amazing but by that time during its original run the show was in decline, ratings weren’t as high and it wasn’t winning awards like during the earlier years.

    I think just after Bea leaves where the episodes are up to currently is the slowest era of the whole series and doesn’t gain momentum again till Myra comes into it. Also the last year of the show was a joke, with plenty of light hearted nonsensical laughing and a yahooing biker, it became more like a girl guides club than a grim, violent and hardened prison like it was in the early years which is ultimately why it was axed.

    I only hope the new producers of Wentworth take note and make the new Prisoner revival more like the early years rather than the later years. On that note, we were supposed to hear of casting for the new show last month, I hope it hasn’t fallen through and been put on the backburner yet again, just like all the other planned Prisoner remakes over the years.

  9. JJ, I don’t agree that Prisoner went downhill after Bea left. The Myra Desmond years (well a year and a half approx) were amazing. Prisoner went downhill during the Nora Flynn era, and sort of recovered during the Rita Connors era (yeah, so many eras). Still the show was never really as good after Myra left. So Bea and Myra > Rita > Nora pretty much.

  10. Yeah from what I remember, Prisoner was never the same after Bea left. They tried to have other top dogs….but nothing compared to Bea. I also remember the acting became even worse in its closing years.

    It certainly had a long run when you compare it to today’s prime time dramas.

  11. Four Hours later for the die hard fans is just Madness.It’s all well and good to say go buy a Box Set at JB Hifi or Similar Places but look at what else that isn’t a US Sitcom or Soap that exists elsewhere at that hour of night,Slim Pickings

  13. As much as I love Prisoner as the best drama we have ever made, is it just a coincidence that it has moved to a later timeslot just after the character of Bea Smith has left?

    It is true that even in its original run, the show took a downward spiral and was never the same after Bea left and even started changing as soon as The Freak came into it, the early years proving to be much better than the later years of the show.

    If Australia could only make a drama as good as Prisoner was in its early days, the ratings would be off the radar and we would never have to see another reality show again.

  14. Oh say it isn’t so! Why oh why!
    It was interesting to compare the recent treatment of the euthanasia issue in both Prisoner and Winners & Losers. Considering there is a 30 year gap – i thought the Prisoner approach was more honest and believable than the more sanitised W&L handling. Betty Bobbitt created such a wonderfully rich and warm character during her run. I found it unmissable tv. I wish that Winners and Losers was a bit more substantial, and less caricaturish (such a word?). Dramedies seem to be the go – Rafters, House Husbands, W&L and even Offspring, although i think it is the best local drama on tv. Sorry for the lengthy comment.

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