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Airdate: Inside the Siege: The Untold Story

Seven boldly tries to get the jump on Nine's interviews with a 6pm Sunday screening.

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2015-01-31_1140Seven has made what is an almost-unheralded programming move to not air its traditional Sunday night news next weekend at 6pm, in place of the documentary special Seven News: Inside the Siege: The Untold Story.

In a unique documentary, through unseen footage from Seven News’ extraordinary camera positions, the hostages of the Lindt café siege reveal the terror, horror and heartbreak endured during one of our nation’s darkest days.

Marcia Mikhael and John O’Brien will speak with Melissa Doyle.

The bold move is to get the jump on Nine’s 60 Minutes special which also interviews survivors of the Lindt cafe siege. Nine is yet to reveal its plans but will now be under pressure to match Seven’s hand.

Nine has Fiona Ma and Harriette Denny and six other survivors speaking with Liz Hayes.

It will be one of the most competitive nights of the year with House of Hancock and Shark Tank confirmed plus Downtown Abbey expected to be announced.

Sunday 8 February at 6pm on Seven.

21 Responses

  1. Flamin Old Hat

    1) You are engaging in nothing but gossip. The Coroner has a job to do, let him do it not commercial television
    2) Damn straight I will not.
    3) Is it?
    4) People are allowed opinions.

    Who is actually going to investigate and propose actions accordingly, thinly veiled racism on commercial TV or the system actually paid to investigate it for the community?

  4. @JM

    I wasn’t referring to the episodes themselves obviously. Its the poor and tactless way they have gone about promoting their specials and that its been delayed till ratings period begins despite interviews being done weeks ago. Therefore blatant ratings grab. Events like this should be above all this nonsense.

  5. Riga,

    1) We are not “voyeurs” for wanting to know what happened inside the siege.
    2) Nobody is making you watch it,
    3) It’s a free country, and
    4) Don’t be such an ingrate for having the choice not to watch it

    Just don’t make the rest of us look like evil “voyeurs” for opening our eyes and our minds.

    Go hire a movie or go out for a walk on Sunday night, and leave the rest of us “voyeurs” alone.

    Have a nice day!

  6. I think an 8.30pm timelsot is more suitable for the subject as not many people sitting down for dinner with kids will be having this on in the background.

  7. @moonserf – there is no law against them telling there story. the coroner had no issue with the interviews, apart from to say they are monitoring the situation.

    @tvf – how can you say that? We haven’t even seen the interviews yet.

  9. I will be watching but the big question i have is why have it at 6pm? Why not have it at 6:30pm after the news as a Seven News special or with Sunday Night. Its very strange.

  11. Bad move by 7 . . would have been much stronger to feature Sydney siege coverage with Sunday Night, rather than put this somehow into their ailing news bulletin. They are playing around with their branding and audience way too much, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this bombs and they end up in 3rd position next Sunday night (how ironic!).

  12. So that is Seven’s surprise, or one of them at least.

    Seven still haven’t announced their lineups for Sun and Mon. despite Nine and Ten revealing theirs. They’ve managed to put a null TV listing in for next Sunday, so the length of the TBAs doesn’t give anything away.

    They have put a DA sized hole in the Sunday and two one hour holes on Monday previously, but could have changed their lineup.

  14. Very unimpressed with the blatant ratings grab this event has become. There needs to a vehicle for these stories to be told but the way 7 & 9 have gone about it is wrong.

  15. According to media reports the hostages are getting paid large sums of money for doing these interviews. Marcus Mikhael is reportedly getting paid $400,000 by Seven. If this is correct I hope all this money is going solely towards their recovery and not an attempt to profit off a tragic situation that cost two lives.

  16. And barrister in charge of information at the Coronial Inquiry into the Sydney siege wasn’t a happy little vegeminte about those interviews during his opening day speech on the direction the Inquiry will take over time. In time the folks in that cafe will suffer the ravages of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), they need to be talking to psychiatrists not television channels. Most of us will wait for the Coroners Findings to get all the facts

  18. Think channel 7 will have the upper hand on this not only because they are showing it first but also have footage that channel 9 could not possible have because of the situation channel 7 were in at the time, and think that viewers will be interested in seeing this new footage as much as the interviews of the siege victims.

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