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Nine doubles up on Gallipoli. Gone: Person of Interest

Nine begins 'burning off' its flagship drama.

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As programming moves go, double episodes are often referred to as ‘burning off’ a show.

A network ‘burns off’ a show when it isn’t rating strongly enough or, in the case of a US show, it is struggling and you can potentially snare a more viewers before word of mouth suggests it is best avoided (Seven is airing double eps of State of Affairs, for example).

On Monday Nine begins double episodes of Gallipoli, its flagship drama that has not drawn a major audience.

The sluggish numbers are easily the network’s biggest disappointment this year (disclaimer: the entire series is also on Stan). To be ‘burning off’ such a prestigious show after three weeks is heart-breaking stuff.

As a result, Person of Interest, which returned last week at 10pm, is now out save for a repeat at 10:50pm.

The double eps will also mean Gallipoli will end well before ANZAC celebrations in late April.

40 Responses

  1. I’m awake till midnight most nights and get up at 6am most mornings. I don’t understand the constant complaining about the 8:30 time slot….. Go to the USA (where I lived for a while) and all of their “flagship” shows start at either 9pm or 10pm.

    As for the complaints about reality shows…… MKR is the highest rating show around at the moment ( I personally can’t stand it) but while shows like this and IAC and The Block are rating of course the networks are gonna make them.

    1. Similarly, in the UK 9pm is the watershed where family viewing stops and more adult content starts.
      On BBC One, which has a regular 9pm News slot, this means that 9.30pm is often when films, and TV shows start.
      Mind you, the BBC has no ads, so a show that would take an hour on a commercial network is all done by 10.15pm.

    2. This is Australia not the US. Viewers here are used to 8.30pm start time.

      If the Australian commercial networks want to be like the US then they could air dramas here as soon as the premier in the US rather than make viewers wait 6 months and they could actually tighten up their reality offerings rather than offer reality shows that air 5 nights a week, 1.5 hours a night.

  2. Gallipoli is a bit lame but I will still persevere with it.Burning it off is a good decision.The sound quality is bad & as a consequence I am having trouble understanding the dialogue.Does anybody else have this problem or is it just me? I might add my TV is only 6 months old

  4. Way to go, Channel Nine.
    Burning this up in double eps late at night and subsequently antagonising/losing the very audience who would likely show the most interest in this genre – the over 60 age group.

    1. Nah sorry Angela I’m over 60 and I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole, Person of Interest, Supernatural, The Flash The Blacklist Gotham Madame Secretary and just about all UK drama to mention a few and any fair dinkum plot based drama, minus the relationship twists and turns.

  5. I remember a snarky article clearly placed by the producers about how the ABC lost the show by just scheduling a meeting to discuss it while channel 9 won it by having actors dressed as diggers meet the crew in the lobby and serving billy tea damper in the board room or some such rubbish. At the time I wondered whether this was the kiss of death for the program – anything any good wouldn’t need this sort of nonsense – but whether deliberate or accident, a good call by the ABC.

    1. Some context: Article was not clearly placed by producers. They were quotes as part of a wider interview about how the show came about etc. It’s up to me as to what quotes do or don’t shape a good article. We are led to believe ABC wanted the show. I suspect it would have found a better audience there.

        1. Actually not a bad idea as ABC have picked up finished acquisitions from Nine in the past (Sherlock being one example).

          I’m guessing as it’s an original commission, pride won’t allow either network to stitch a deal.

          1. It would be kind of funny if the ABC picked it up, screened it around ANZAC day and it rated higher.

  6. The failure of Gallipoli is a perfect storm:known and rehashed story, juggernaut MKR, late time slot, intense material and some pretty dodgy acting. Life’s stressful in suburban tv viewing land, people want ‘entertainment’. Networks are so out of touch and still play by the ‘build it and they will come’ mantra which is a mistake. Listen to what people want – and this is not it.

  7. I think this is a victim of both starting too early (February) and starting too late (9:whatever). I also know that I didn’t watch it live because of the double-ep kick-off (and because I couldn’t rely on it starting when advertised). I was going to give it a look later but haven’t felt compelled to do so.

    The thing is, many people here indicated that these would be issues before it started but apparently Nine’s programming dept knows better.

    The dumping of new PoI after one ep is also the reason why I don’t watch it on Nine. The only thing that can be relied upon is that they will treat it like sh!t.

  8. Why don’t the 3 commercial FTA stations just drop all pretense about who their audience is?
    Drop all drama, and concentrate on feeding your followers endless servings of so-called “reality” tripe.
    Then someone else can pick up all the good stuff!
    And they might actually put it to air without constant scheduling changes, intrusive and repetitive moronic ads, pop-ups, watermarks, etc etc.

  9. If they dumped the Mentalist with 299k the POI with 164k had no hope. What is strange is that Nine actually announced the change in advance rather than it just appearing in the EPG next Monday, probably because of the double Gallipoli.

    Nine has to burn off Gallipoli. They need to introduce Love Child ASAP (which got renewed when Gallipoli tanked before S2 aired). But they need to show Gallipoli because they need the drama points, have sunk a lot of money into and promoted it heavily so viewers will get pissed of it they can’t see the end.

  10. The first episode of Gallipoli got 1.1m + 355k for the encore + 238k in timeshifting for a total of 1.7m. Plus catch-ups and people who checked out bits of it. It had no trouble finding viewers in the slot, just keeping them. It just didn’t work. An anecdotal style history book isn’t a great TV story, they didn’t have the budget to convey the scale of events and 8 hours was far too long.

    There is no point in Nine showing Gallipoli at 8:30pm while 1.7m people are still watching MKR. Seven determines when shows start at the moment. 9pm is better than somewhere between 8:35 and 8:55pm depending on what they feel like this week.

  11. Early contender for flop of the year. Usually I take great satisfaction saying things like that, but I am sad to say that for a local “flagship” show (although I haven’t watched any of it yet). First, air it at 8.30 and second, air it around Anzac Day!

  13. Oh dear, starting times of past 9 pm, and endless repeats of BBT and TAHM and the Block and always going over time, means quality drama gets shafted. Nine why don’t you re screen it at say 8.00 cut back on your stupid Block thing and play it at the same time every week..
    Note to Ten, please do not simulcast IAC while showing EPG on ONE White Collar and then changing EPG a few minutes prior to simulcast to show IAC.

  14. Perhaps if they aired it on a Sunday at 8.30 from the beginning and only once a week, it could have worked. I haven’t seen it, I knew I would have to be chasing the show around and its on Nine, and I have no support for Nine.
    This Sunday Nine are showing a move at 9.10pm, due to everything starting late. Who wants to begin a movie at 9.10pm when its a school night?

    1. I agree, I think it would have worked 8.30 Sunday on ABC (9 aren’t trustworthy enough to commit to a regular time). The double ep at the beginning did me in. It’s a shame 9 treats us with disdain. I saw episode 1 and I liked it but 2 hours on a school night is too much for me also.

    2. but then who watches movie premiers like skyfall nine did this week, not in HD, plenty of ad breaks, nine watermark, and of course, most people would of already of seen the film before on dvd or bluray, and before that at the cinema.

  15. I’ve lost track now of how many comments I’ve seen posted on here over the last few weeks stating something along the lines of “Cut down the length of reality shows and start your dramas at 8:30.” I wonder if any of the programmers at 7 & 9 are bothering to listen?

  17. I’ve been watching but not sure if I could take a double episode (and another double to finish up next week). The trend of starting dramas after 90 mins or more of reality rubbish appears to be backfiring big time.

  19. Called this Tues morning. Nine seem to have as much idea as Ten lately when it comes to programming. Maybe Gallipoli should have gone to a ‘softer’ night (Friday/Saturday)?

  22. Did not watch Gallipoli. Some factors that probably went against this show is over promotion, late star time of 9 pm, lack of interest by some viewers in the war genre, nines obsession with the block and big bang and nines long term poor treatment of viewers. There is a place for good quality Australian drama at the star time of 8.30pm but when nine treats their viewers so poorly I’m not sure that nine is the place to look for it anymore.

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