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The story of the year?

Ahead of the annual TV Tonight Awards, it's over to you to help shape some of the questions.

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It’s almost time to fire up the annual TV Tonight Awards once again.

But before I do I thought I would consult some opinions in collating two of the questions.

The first is “The Story of the Year.”

This is where you vote on what has been 2012’s defining legacy for better or worse. It could be something on or off camera as long as it is television related.

To give you some examples, here are a few from 2011:

News coverage of Queensland floods
Seven dominates ratings
Four Corners breaks story on live cattle exports
Go Back to Where You Came From expands asylum seeker debate
Lachlan Murdoch cuts TEN costs and wields the axe
The end for Aussie dramas: Rescue, Rush, Sea Patrol, East West 101
The end of Spicks and Specks
ELEVEN arrives

The other category is Biggest Blunder of the Year.

In 2011 it was:

MasterChef’s finale interrupted by The Renovators
Kyle Sandilands slams TV review
TEN News revamp
All St Kilda schoolgirl / Ricky Nixon interviews
Choppergate, Nine News Brissy scandal
Deni Hines performance on Celebrity Apprentice
Kerri-Anne Kennerley dumped
Packed to the Rafters episodes halted
Australia Network tender debacle

I have a few ideas in mind for 2012 but I thought I would throw it open for other suggestions.

Thanks in advance!

28 Responses

  1. David Leckie, the preeminent Australian television executive no longer running Seven in the facility he was employed. So far has proven to be a detriment.

    Seven axing “Australia’s Got Talent”. It was a great move in my personal opinion as I can’t see it being a modest success on Nine.

    The huge success of “The X Factor: Australia” despite dire predictions from certain people. “My Kitchen Rules” gaining more audience numbers year on year while Ten’s biggest success story of 2012, Masterchef: Australia sees viewers heading in the opposite direction. In a couple of years, Nine’s powerhouse “The Voice” will fit into their shoes.

    Excess Baggage, a huge turkey and being the first ratings casualty of the year. Nine News sending “journalists” (can’t believe I even used that term) to do a story on the Bulldogs mad-Monday celebrations. Nine Entertainment Company losing their magazine division. The Logie awards not having a dedicated host. Audience numbers for their other flagship programs such as Farmer Wants A Wife and Celebrity Apprentice Australia taking a huge nosedive.

    Network Ten’s management and programming decisions. No elaboration required.

  2. Story of the year- The Voice
    Underlying story of the year- The constantly changing media landscape and the continuing evolution of The Internet and the impact it is having on old media.
    Blunders of the year- Excess Baggage, Everybody Dance Now. Gold logie blunder goes to Network 10 for thinking Australia would digest a daily dose of Paul Henry.

  3. Great suggestions.

    A couple of additions from me in Stories of the Year.

    The resurgence of Aussie drama/storytelling with all networks enjoying success.

    The mainstreaming of fast tracked television, particularly on Foxtel.

  4. Here are some clearly overlooked gems from the year;

    ABC2 replaces SBS as the new sexy time channel.
    TVSN launches on freeview with little to no fanfare.
    Lara Bingle outdoes The Shire in a close battle of the minds.
    Increased Indigenous representation through Redfern Now and the announcement of NITV.
    7:30s Leigh Sales and John Laws truly bizarre interview.
    New ‘The Simpsons’ episodes continue to be awful.
    Australia jumps the shark by inviting Korean rapper Psy to perform on X Factor

  5. Thanks David.

    To those saying the resurgence of Nine is a story of the year i don’t really see it. Its more based around one big show. Their post 8:30pm timeslots mostly failed to fire and without The Voice’s success Nine really wouldn’t have done as well as they did. Yes i will admit they had a boost from last year but its not major headlines, its The Voice that is the headline here.

    However everyone is entitled to their opinions. That’s what sites like this is about 🙂

  6. The story of the year: the resurgence of Channel Nine (The Voice becoming one of the biggest hits of the year, the network saved from bankruptcy and retaining the National Rugby League broadcast rights. Getting Australia’s Got Talent was a bonus)
    Blunder of the year: Channel Ten

  8. Story of the Year and Blunder of the Year for me is the same: Channel TEN.

    Other stories of the year has to be
    The power of The Voice
    Revenge
    Foxtel’s Olympic Coverage brilliant
    ABC beats TEN
    Sydney Swans win Grand Final – yes i know its a sporting one but they are my team afterall
    The dumbing down of News Services – Its become an absolute joke now to watch the news at all. Hardly any good hard hitting stories anymore.

    I think blunder of the year includes
    Hamish wins Gold Logie
    Seven axing Australia’s Got Talent – stupid move by them
    Channel 9’s Olympic Coverage
    Brynne, Please Marry My Boy, ACA, TT, The Shire, Don’t Tell the Bride, Everybody Dance Now all being put on the air.
    Ten’s Breakfast – biggest flop in a while i think
    Seven’s treatment of Packed to The Rafters

    I could go on for hours but will leave it at that but for me as i said Channel TEN is the biggest story and blunder for 2012.

  11. I think most of the stories have been mentioned. Except another blunder is the ABC playing ads during the end credits. They’re unneeded and annoying. I’m thinking of quitting they’re that bad.

    My wish list for future stories of the year in 2013. The ABC plays the credits as intended by the people that make the shows including the music. They also stop the inappropriate pop-ups altogether. Except comedy shows for comedy purposes. Also the commercial channels play things within 5 minutes of the half hour of prime time starts eg, 8.30-8.35pm. Wishful thinking. Seemingly impossible. By the way it would mean the viewers could relax and enjoy the shows. Impossible dream these days.

  13. Story of the Year:
    – Channel Ten and its monumental stuff ups.

    – Prank dj’s interviews on TT/ACA/The Project

    Blunder of the Year:
    – Channel Ten for thinking people would want to watch Lara Bingle, The Shire, Everybody Dance Now, I Will Survive, Don’t Tell the Bride, Breakfast (with Paul Henry). Worst programming decisions I have ever seen, and they were all on the one network in the one year. What were they thinking?

    – Channel Ten for hiring Paul Henry. Breakfast may have done well without him.

  14. Story of the year for mine would have to be Channel 9’s resurgence and the little-mentioned social media boon they’ve managed to achieve. The Voice and Big Brother weren’t just ratings powerhouses, they were managed with a slick and polished social media strategy that generated ridiculous amounts of publicity.

    Blunder of the Year has to rest with the fall and fall of Channel 10… Everybody Dance Now, keeping Breakfast over The Circle, employing Paul Henry at all… they did whatever they could to self-sabotage.

  15. Well channel 10 is popular for both.
    Not much else to suggest. Most seem to have covered it, although
    Story of the year suggestions:
    The latest 2Day Fm controversy
    Royal Pregnancy
    Ch9’s Olympic coverage receiving local criticism and yet wins international award (how crap were the other countries?!?)
    Could be included.

  16. Story:
    Resurgence of Nine (dominant in key $ demos, but also improved in totals)
    Ten’s second half of the year
    Interference/influence on Ten’s programming by Packer and Rinehart
    Paul Henry
    Alan Jones – “shame-gate”, the social media outrage and (temporary) pressure put on advertisers
    2DayFM prank call and fallout (still evolving)

    Blunder:
    All of the above except the resurgence of Nine
    David Knox publicly admits to watching Top 25 Divas

  17. story of the year?
    the royal ef up that is channel ten.

    blunder of the year? channel ten. breakfast. everybody dance now. paul henry. the project and its moving timeslots. the shire. being lara bingle. i will survive. the cirlce being axed. the list goes on….

    packed to rafters crumbling away.

  18. Biggest Blunder of the Year

    *Season 3 of drop dead diva being put on a midday timeslot on GEM for three weeks straight without telling anyone. Season 4 nowhere to be seen. Not happy.
    *Channel 10’s performance after Masterchef finished. Thoroughly enjoyed the season of masterchef though.
    *The amazing race being poorly timed. Stopping before the olympics and having the three final episodes shown right after the olympics. It lost momentum.
    *Channel 7’s treatment of bones burning off new episodes on sundays, mondays and wednesdays mid year when they show many repeats. Hard to keep up and can’t use plus 7 as they don’t have online rights.
    *Channel 10 not having AFL rights. I used to like 10’s saturday afl coverage and it worked so well with before the game and the 5th qtr to wrap up the evening.
    *TV Networks who choose to change timeslots, delay episodes and don’t give shows a chance. They then wonder why they can’t keep viewers.

    Story of the Year
    *The voice. Thought it would be popular but couldn’t have predicted that kind of success. Nothing against ricky martin. Would’ve prefered to have at least two australian judges.
    *Revenge. Been a while since a delayed US Import has rated so well.

  19. Blunders of the Year:
    Breakfast
    Channel 7 playing 20 episodes of HIMYM and then waiting 6 months to finish off the final 5 episodes.
    Everybody Dance Now
    Excess Baggage
    Channel 10 – July-December

  20. Blunder:
    Excess Baggage,
    Eddie’s comentary at the opening ceremony, Carrie’s accidental “C” bomb on the project (though that’s more of an unexpected highlight really).
    Yumi and George’s poor taste comment on The Circle (and the backlash)

    Story:
    Boys Town,
    Beccy Cole’s coming out on Australian Story, Magda’s coming out on The Project

  21. The story of the year and the blunder of the year is the same answer: Channel 10 programming especially since I just finished reading the Fin review article.

  23. Story of the year: (1) Nine claws back in ratings (or demos more specifically) or (2) Most US dramas fail to rate or soften.
    Blunder of the year: Has to be Ten’s entire second half

  24. Biggest blunder of the year would have to be channel 10’s programming disaster.

    Everybody dance now
    The Shire
    Being Lara Bingle
    I Will survive
    Don’t tell the bride
    Breakfast

    Have I missed any?

    biggest story of the year. Paul Henry and his million dollar deal.

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