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Nine accused of ‘misleading’ viewers over Celebrity Apprentice

Nine pulls plans to launch Celebrity Apprentice, but it was too late for TV guides which had given them front cover stories.

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guideapNews Limited yesterday accused Nine of “misleading” viewers after it pulled plans to screen Celebrity Apprentice this week after newspapers had printed their TV Guide -including with a front cover story.

The Sunday Herald Sun in Melbourne and Sunday Telegraph in Sydney both carried features and TV Guide front covers for the series, originally due to screen at 7pm on Wednesday and Thursday.

Both papers had to carry “Nine says sorry” stories inside the newspaper to explain the stuff-up.

A spokeswoman told the Herald Sun, “It will be on the Nine Network in coming weeks, the the decision to change the date was made by the network after the magazine had gone to print.

“We apologise to Sunday Herald Sun readers for the confusion and will publish the correct dates as soon as possible.”

Last week Nine also yanked plans for Arrow to air this week, despite publicising a launch for 8:40pm Tuesday.

Such moves make the audience very mistrustful of sampling new shows when networks are sending out negative smoke signals, and it can also have a flow-on effect to the rest of the schedule.

Red herrings in programming are not uncommon, designed to throw the opposition off the scent.

But while it’s one thing to mess with the competition, it’s another thing altogether to mess with the audience.

15 Responses

  1. I am quite cross Arrow has disappeared into a puff of air. No wonder people are deserting FTA television. Our Southern Cross (mainland 7 I think) advertised the new series of 30Rock two Mondays ago for two Mondays in a row on the EPG and I recorded it. It is at a terrible late hour. When I went to watch it the next day it was a totally different show called Man Up! or something. I give Up!

  2. Nine hyped “Squizzy” in a major way in January, yet now, they don’t even have a firm air date for it (maybe July, maybe not). Did they originally plan to air it before Easter and get cold feet?

  3. Sadly it is becoming more and more obvious that all networks circulate most of their planned sitcoms, series and movies etc, among their own “Ïn Crowd” well before we the viewers eventually get to see them( who, networks now obvoiusly regard as ‘neccessary evils’), and one only has to listen to their on air chatter and personal promo’s(aside from the endless add break promo torrents) to confirm my claims.

    Even worse where Ten are even still promoting TBL contestants who have been ejected?, and seven Sunrise continue to talk to MKR ejected contestants as if it only happened the night before?, is surely a clear indication as to just how stupid the networks think we ‘neccessary evils’ are, and sadly this disrespect is continually rammed home with the contempt they treat us with, and as truely indicated here once again.

    So is it outright selfishness by those who have seen all these programmes before hand, that they choose to treat us in this way, and when they start to see viewers moving away from FTA, they then cry foul against the medium they have driven us ‘neccessary evils’ to prefer, and then have the front to demand punitive action by the very regulators, they themselves have chosen to completely ignore.

  4. There are 2 problems here, first the issue of Nine promoting shows then pulling them at the last minute, just look at TBBT last month and Arrow. But the biggest problem is the very nature of print media, it takes time to print those special magazines and unlike the daily paper it can’t be quickly changed. But the biggest issue is Nine’s lack of respect for the viewers and their unwillingness to send out programing updated to sites like this.

    CA is something I’ve never watched and stunts like this won’t change my mind to tune in.

  5. And while on the subject of consistent programming, big thumbs up to Ch7 for randomly showing The Mindy Project last week (having disappeared from the schedule for a few weeks), only to pull it again this week. Well done. You continue to perpetuate the myth that American sitcoms can’t rate by shuffling them around to strangely seek to prove to yourself that no one watches them.

    I’m going to America in June. Will buy the final season of 30 Rock on DVD there. God forbid 7 plays it on one of its 3 channels.

  6. @ Qubec ( when the older generation goes and the younger, savvier generations take over and ditch Australian networks for good)…
    LOL – I am what you would think of as the older generation, and I ditched Australian Networks the day my Internet connection became fast enough to watch just about any program online.
    Catch-up (without commercials) – YouTube, etc.

  7. I seriously don’t understand how these commercial networks are still in business. If their service wasn’t free they would be in serious strife with their customers. It really is a shame more people don’t vote with their remotes and actually switch off.

  8. I would imagine the print media are really annoyed by this, as it just decreases viewers’ ability to have confidence in printed TV guides and drives them more towards online versions.

  9. When you look at the anaemic tv guides from the papers – how many ads are in there from the networks? Usually it’s zero. Yet the networks want reviews and stories and coverage.

    Less advertising = less pages and less space for stories. That is an utter waste of a front page, and I hope Nine paid for the space in the papers where they said sorry. More wasted space!

    It used to be a solid thing – in Casa del Eurovision, the Green Guide would lay open on the coffee table for a week to keep track of programs. But thanks to networks pulling shows or shifting them all over the place, it’s out of date practically before it’s printed.

    It’s the EPG for us.

  11. How low and pathetic can Nine get?! This sort of tactic is pitiful and will only inflame disenfranchised viewers more.
    These tacky little games that the networks play need to stop. They hurt viewers and achieve very little. Where’s the confidence in a schedule? Where’s the ability to promote something? You would never see such antics in America. Shows are lined up weeks in advance and schedules are stuck to. The audience knows when the show is scheduled to start and they benefit from it. Here, it’s all secrets and misleads and “to be advised” that people have little idea what’s on when. Australian networks are doing themselves no favours and they’ll only have themselves to blame for such horrible tactics when the older generation goes and the younger, savvier generations take over and ditch Australian networks for good.

  12. If you have confindence in your shows, you put them on regardless, look at MKR on ch7 up against the voice. This behaviour, just says “our shows are a bit dodgy”

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