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Hotplate still simmering on Nine’s menu

Officially, Nine says it is yet to make a decision on Hotplate for 2016. Legal action still pending.

Hot Plate - Birds Nest491

Absent from Nine’s 2016 recent Upfronts was any confirmation of a return by The Hotplate.

The series drew a volatile response from Seven when it killed off Restaurant Revolution with the network suggesting it had cloned My Kitchen Rules. Seven failed in its bid for a court injunction to prevent Hotplate from airing, but the court gave it room to proceed to a full copyright case.

Since then Endemol Australia has merged with Shine Australia, with former Endemol execs Janeen Faithfull and Trent Chapman moving in-house to Nine.

“We haven’t made a call either way. We’ll make a decision in the next month or so,” Andrew Backwell, Nine’s Managing Director of Programming & Production said last week.

“It’s a matter of loking at our schedule and seeing whether we can fit all this stuff in. We’re really trying to do some shorter-run content. For viewers to commit to these big, stripped Reality shows all year is hard. MKR, MasterChef, The Block are big commitments.

“So we want to gve people some shorter-run stuff, maybe twice a week (shows).”

If Nine does want Hotplate in its 2016 calendar year it would undoubtedly need to begin pre-production before any legal case has been resolved.

“There is still legal action. I think it’s set down for March,” he said.

“But it doesn’t stop us from making calls on our shows.”

“We’ve seen a lot of stripped Reality. A lot of Renovation and Food shows, and we want to get some more Entertainment and shorter-run Reality series.

13 Responses

  1. Wouldn’t mind The Hotplate returning next year.
    I quite enjoyed it because it had a good mix of contestants and didn’t drag on for too long.
    Would definitely watch it over Masterchef and My Kitchen Rules.

    1. How about a show where the contestants have to sing, and how well they do determines what ingredients they get to cook with? In a shock twist, the contestants will also have to build their kitchens first. We can call it “Sing for my supper.”

  2. Please Nine, no more Hotplate. May I suggest that you put out an open call for t.v. shows and allow the viewer to show you the type of things they want to see?

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