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2013: TV Year in Review

The death of Patrick, binge viewing, Breaking Bad & Celebrity Splash -here's a TV snapshot of 2013.

2013-12-28_2348It’s been another year of compelling drama, crazy headlines and behind the scenes turmoil.

I will be filing separate articles on both the shows and the people we said goodbye to in 2013, but here -in no particular order- are some of the more colourful legacies of the year.

THE WINNERS
Seven ratings
ABC ratings
My Kitchen Rules
Nine acquires Adelaide and Perth
Offspring
Home & Away: 25 years
Breaking Bad
Top of the Lake
Wentworth
Asher Keddie
Doctor Who 50th Anniversary
A Place to Call Home
The X Factor
Nine News
Samantha Armytage
Ricky Martin
ABC Comedy
Ben Zabel
Rebel Wilson
Nine signs new Cricket deal
V8 Supercars
Brad Lyons
Selling Houses Australia
TEN nabs Big Bash
Lisa Wilkinson: Andrew Olle Media Lecture

2013-12-28_2343

THE LOSERS
TEN’s ratings
Dexter
Parade’s End
James Warburton
Wake Up launch
Mel B
Rolf Harris
A League of Their Own
Accurate EPGs
Stephen Conroy
Deal or No Deal

2013-07-13_2137

THE WORST
Celebrity Splash
The Bible
The Mole
Geordie Shore in Australia
The Daily Edition

FAREWELLS
Packed to the Rafters
Jonathan Holmes (Media Watch)
Mal Walden (TEN News)
TV1 / SF
Sandy Roberts (Seven News)
Matt Smith
Encore magazine
Kim Dalton
Hamish MacDonald

2013-01-22_0020

TRENDS of 2013
Timeshifting
Foxtel: Express from the US
Binge viewing
8:45
Magic

INNOVATION
iView
Foxtel GO
FOX Sports: camera innovations
tenplay

EVENTS OF THE YEAR
Analogue switch-off
Ellen tours Australia
Liverpool v Melbourne Victory at MCG
Sharknado

Mel Doyle-3Sunrise

WTF?
BBC signs with Foxtel
Nine dumps Days of our Lives
The Australian leaks Gold Logie winner
Melissa Doyle quits Sunrise / Media obsession with her departure
Karl Stefanovic live TV mishaps as news
Seal’s rant to the media
Helen Kapalos autocue meltdown
Geri Halliwell singing
Brian Walsh announces Beatles tribute performers
Seven News replaces David Brown
Family Guy ‘kills’ off Brian the dog
The Man with the Biggest Testicles
Luke McGregor
Brandon’s meltdown on Survivor: Caramoan
TEN claims it has lifted in 25-54 demos (with selective criteria)

2013-12-28_2346

BEST SCOOPS OF THE YEAR
Foreign Correspondent: Prisoner X
SKY News: Gillard declares leadership spill
John Hill interviews Jaymes Diaz

TV DEATHS
Offspring: Patrick
Homeland: Brody
Game of Thrones: ‘Red Wedding’
The Bold & the Beautiful: Stephanie Forrester
Breaking Bad: Walter White
Downton Abbey: Sybil Crawley, Matthew Crawley

DODGY PROMOS
Offspring: who will die?
MasterChef: Boys vs Girls
Excessive watermarks

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NEED TO HEAR MORE FROM
Craig MacLachlan
Remy Hii
Marta Dusseldorp
Marc Fennell
Sabour Bradley
Paul McCarthy
Michelle Vergara Moore
Tom Gleeson
Todd Sampson
Mandy McElhinney

NEED TO HEAR LESS FROM
Grant Denyer
Michelle Bridges & The Commando
ABBA specials
Ja’mie King
Tim Robards
Extended News bulletins
Tom Waterhouse
The Australian vs ABC
Charlotte Dawson on Twitter
Joe Hildebrand
Women tearing strips off women in the media

MOST MISSED
Puberty Blues
Spicks and Specks
The Amazing Race Australia
Tangle

QUIET ACHIEVERS
Please Like Me
Matt Doran
Essie Davis
Caroline Jones
Patrick Brammall
Kris McQuade
Jackie Woodburne
The Americans
Ricardo Goncalves
Dance Academy
Tony Ayres
Keating: The Interviews
Khoa Do
Robyn Malcolm
Vikings
Borgen
Kate Atkinson
An Accidental Soldier
The Living Room
Coast Australia
The Feed
The Time of our Lives
The Big C
Hugo Johnstone-Burt

21 Responses

  1. Offspring promo was a catch 22 – for devoted fans it was a mistake, but the buzz it created drew in viewers which weren’t regular viewers. Ratings wise it was a smart move on Ten’s part.

    Ten still managed to keep the identity of the death under wraps resulting in one of the best hours of television in 2013 only beaten by the following weeks episode which was pure brilliance.

  2. My most memorable trend of 2013 would have to be Seven and Nine’s deliberate viewer deception in order to get the edge on the competition. Remember those non existent Wednesday episodes of The Voice that were scheduled and My Kitchen Rules not finishing until 9pm? In contrast, US programming schedules are announced months in advance. Programs typically remain in the same timeslot week in week out, schedule changes are usually publicised with suitable notice and overruns only occur in the instance of live television. Yet in Australia networks can’t even treat top rating shows with respect. Nine still can’t give new eps of The Big Bang Theory a consistent timeslot and the start times for Revenge on Seven were all over the place on Monday nights this year.

  3. Lets hope 2014 Neighbours will pull it socks up, and get better storylines.

    I also think we should here less of the cross promotion eg: Big Brother evictee being on the Morning show the next day.

    And lets have less of Chris Lilley and Rebel Wilson.

  4. You think like me David. You have selected well in each category. Let’s hope 8.45 disappears (particularly on 7) as it gives me the s****, the Offspring ‘who will die’ scenario well placed in the dodgy promos and I like you list for who to hear more from and less from 🙂 Looking forward to 2014 (but a little over the promos on 7 already – they are almost pointless as they say nothing).

  5. @tvf agreed. Home and Away this year was actually the worst written soap of all the soaps I watch. Unfortunately it is one of the few that are still showing on fta.

  6. @stevie g

    Home and Away wasn’t much good accept for the few months of Sally’s return when there was a minor breather from the Braxton’s. The final wasn’t much good and got tired of the bomb promos.

    @tvlover25

    Agreed the voice wasn’t as good as the first season. It lost something when Keith Urban left and Seal wasn’t as good as he was in the first season. I don’t have much interest in watching the voice kids and am not that excited about the new panel.

  7. I can’t see the voice any where. I must admit I didn’t find it as good as last year and with the voice kids coming soon I can’t see it get any better.

  8. Keating with Kerry O’Brien was a cracker series. Like him or loathe him he was compelling.
    Brandon’s meltdown on Survivor: Caramoan put him in the Hantz family category for me-ie never have them on Survivor again!!
    Need to hear less from The Australian (or any Murdoch pubs.) vs ABC-totally agree, there must be an agenda there and when I look at your-BBC signs with Foxtel- I start to feel very uneasy. Great list David.

  9. @Secret Squirrel

    Brody is Dead. Deal with it. The producers have said so and he will not return to the show.

    Good year in review. Forgot about a few of these things but overall it sums up 2013 quite well on the TV front. Seven and Nine News in losers for 2013 if you ask me. They seem to be getting worse and worse every year. Too much crap.

  10. Thanks nine for dumping days. What where you thinking. That I would still watch nine. Sorry I stopped watching their stupid channel since April ..lucky we have YouTube !!

  11. Homeland: I very much doubt that Brody is dead. Unlike how Iran actually carries out public hangings, he was raised slowly by the crane which would’ve avoided breaking his neck. The risk of injury (or death) to the brain from insufficient oxygen can be mitigated with various drugs given prior to and after suspension, along with chilling the body as soon as possible.

  12. Under dodgy promos, I would also put Seven advertising a bomb going off in H&A at least a month before it actually happened. Also although they celebrated 25 years H&A had some decidedly dodgey storylines with Romeos departure, leaving without even telling his wife that he was dieing of cancer. And a very high degree of partner swapping; one young couple who were very hot and heavy and being together was their reason for being in Summer Bay broke up and found different partners five minutes after setting in the bay.

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