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Aussie Big Bang fans left behind in slow-tracked finale

Poor planning by Nine leaves viewers at risk of major Spoilers when Big Bang ends in the US.

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The last-ever episode of The Big Bang Theory will air in the US shortly -but Australian viewers won’t be watching it on the same day.

Next week Nine premieres Episode 15 (followed by a repeat) while US fans will see how it all ends for Sheldon, Leonard, Penny & co. after 11 years, in Episode 22 on May 16.

News stories online will doubtless be full of Spoilers on a finale that will be second only to Game of Thrones this season.

Nine has known the date of the finale since early March. It has had ample time to plan for a conclusion to pivot around US broadcasts (and let’s not forget this is a show that it has happily bombarded us with all over its schedule).

While it is teasing an “Endgame” of final episodes it has failed to double-up on episodes, leaving their loyal fans at risk of Spoilers. It isn’t good enough in 2019.

Nine declined to be interviewed for this story and has not confirmed a finale airdate.

A network spokesperson said, “Our ambition is to always deliver the maximum audience to a show. Unfortunately, given the Australian and US seasons don’t align, we haven’t been able to fast-track in this instance.”

Updated.

31 Responses

  1. Nines timing for TBBT and Young Sheldon is also always so up in the air. I receord them and invariable I get in the start or the end cut off. They are so inconsistant. This weeks TBBT the start was cut off. And yes there’s no excuse why they couldn’t at least show double first run episodes from next week.

  4. “We haven’t been able to fast track in this instance”
    They were able to. They just chose not to. In what instances have they actually fast tracked an American show? It’s an absolute mess of a network when it comes to international programming. At least put them on 9Now same day as the U.S…

    1. I agree – I can remember Nine doing this with Friends back in the day. You’d think in 2019 Nine would want to hold onto the momentum and have the audience, rather then allow people to view it elsewhere

  5. I have been looking at pictures etc on Twitter and Instagram and being a little annoyed at Nine for not bringing the show up to date. So totally agree with your article and the comments, while the show hasn’t been as great in the past couple years including this season which you would think would have been better but some of the eps have been very ho hum fans still want to see how things turn out for their favorite characters myself included.
    Would love to see Raj end up with Sheldon’s sister Missy they had a connection back when he couldn’t speak to women in season one.

  6. This is a slap in the face for middle aged geeks who have watched the show since the Big Bang.

    I remember that tentative first episode…

  7. Hedging there bets on ratings by having MAFS then bringing Big Bang back after as both rate well. One of them I understand why but the other appeals to the- I better not continue

  8. My predictions:
    1. Sheldon and Amy move to Mars.
    2. Wolowitz divorces Bernadette, marries Raj.
    3. Penny becomes a successful actress, leaves Leonard.
    4. Stuart becomes rich and successful.

  10. Yep, I said it somewhere else as well – 1 or 2 marathon nights to catch up. Should have played out on Wednesday nights (not Thursday to avoid NRL and split market programming) and made TAYG wait until BBT finished.

    To me the ideal solution now would be one huge marathon on Wed May 15 (TAYG off for a week) with the finale played live on Nine or 9GO (like they do for Survivor) during the day on Friday May 17, then replayed Sunday night May 19 as a “major television event” (spoken in huge deep voice on ads, not sure if this has been done before…!).

    Also replay the whole season in a huge one day binge on 9GO! on that Sunday leading into the finale replay on Nine.

    1. Last night’s episode of BBT was lame to me – not sure if I’m over it or if I was too busy doing my Lego Masters inspired 15 hour build with the challenge given to me by by kids after comments I have made about using only 1980’s style bricks…

    2. Love all the suggestions you have made andrewb the networks have additional channels they could use for some smart programming but instead opt for lazy programming.

  11. “we haven’t been able to fast-track in this instance.”, no, you have just chosen not to, i remember nine doing the same with friends finale, 15 years latter and nine hasn’t changed.

  12. Channel Nine has always treated its viewers with a certain amount of contempt. There’s no excuse for delaying the finale that Nine couldn’t overcome if it wanted to. In the past it has started new shows then paused episodes, changed the time and started shows later than advertised. I never rely on Nine to air any serialised show in order or on time. In fact I rarely watch Nine at all.

    1. Agree. I’m still watching a lot of TV (too much) but I’m viewing very little of it on FTA after 7pm. The commercial networks have conditioned viewers to seek out these shows elsewhere because of their idiotic scheduling practices. Do they ever wonder why so few of their shows attract the healthy audience numbers they once did?

  13. Yeah there’s 24 episodes with the Finale connecting episodes 23 and 24 together on the same night of May 16th, then a retrospective will air, so counting tomorrows US airing of Ep 21 there’s 3 weeks to go.

    Having said that: “Australian and US seasons don’t align” This … this is malarkey, I mean to top it off like you say they’re showing a repeat after episode 15 on Tue May 07th. Plus as pointed out on Mon May 06th 20-1, that could have been 4 of the 7 episodes needed to catch up (3.5 hours of programming).

    Maybe they should just let SBS air it, there’s an Indian born American in it, so it would fit the charter and they could catch up on Viceland by dropping two showings of The Fifth Element.

  14. Remember when Nine was a ratings disaster and they used this show to plug multiple holes in the schedule and it propped them up? Way to repay fans, Nine. You can’t pull this slow tracking crap in 2019, Nine. You can’t.

  16. Now, I would have thought that Nine should consolidate the huge shift in momentum it has gained this year in winning a handful of weeks, by ensuring it wins at least a few more.

    Call me old-fashioned, but sitting on these episodes could be hugely damaging to a Network that needs to keep that winning buzz happening. The AFL can be punishing, even with Seven’s weak program schedule.

  17. And then they wonder why people turn to pirating and torrenting. This is an ongoing issue with networks these days…when you have multichannels and VOD services, there is no reason Australian viewers should be left so far behind. A day or two maybe so that it can be played in prime time, but weeks? Months? Ridiculous.

  19. Sounds like nine couldn’t give a rats cahoot to it’s viewers or the show, very arrogant of them. But then they have pretty much mishandeld this show(and others) over the many years.

    1. Yep, I mentioned on an earlier post they should’ve put TBBT on then followed by the next night, 4 new eps in 2 nights, we could’ve caught up, but channel 9 know best….not

  24. It’s not like it’s even rating it’s pants off anymore either so wouldn’t really have damaged Nine by doubling up on episodes to align the finale to the same time as the US… pretty poor actually.

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