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Bumped: Between Two Worlds, Liar.

Tug of war around local drama continues after disappointing numbers for big budget Seven drama.

Seven is moving on its Sunday schedule following low numbers this week for new local drama Between Two Worlds and UK import Liar.

This Sunday a true crime special Seven News presents: Anita Cobby screens at 8:30pm, which pushes Between Two Worlds to 10pm and Liar to 11pm.

From August 16 Between Two Worlds will revert to a 9:30 slot with a double episode. Liar will screen at 11:30pm.

It’s a disappointing result for the big budget local drama by writer Bevan Lee. It premiered to 419,000 Overnight metro viewers with 279,000 this past Sunday. Originally due to screen in 2019, it was held to follow the 2020 Olympics but those plans were out due to the pandemic.

Launching during a tug of war around local drama quotas the Seven Studios drama also landed under a new network regime which has also seen severe cuts to the Publicity department, and potentially their agility on new campaigns.

Networks are pushing to drop sub-quotas for drama, documentary and kids as part of a push to ‘de-regulate’ arguing that numbers for the genres are slipping.

30 Responses

  1. Between Two Worlds probably the biggest let down of 2020 for me so far. Was expecting Bevan Lee to bring us something great and it fell flat on its face. Its disappointing because it makes the push for even less Aussie drama seem relevant but the problem is, people want it, just not terrible plots and writing. It always seems to be the case with new Aussie dramas too lately. They have these great casts but the whole writing and storyline has either been done before or its just not there to keep us watching.

  2. Well that’s just typical. Any word on what happened to Absentia? Season 2 started last Sunday in the Blacklist’s old time slot but it’s not listed for this week?

  3. Seven should at least release all the episodes on 7plus now. I agree that Between Two Worlds never lived up to expectations. It looks amazing but none of the characters are likeable except the nurse maybe but you hardly see her. Why would any viewer want to spend time with an almost completely unlikeable bunch of characters? Seven also did an appalling job with the promos that gave people no idea what the show was about. The show itself sadly is completely unaligned with the Seven brand – it’s not a roast chook network show unlike something like that upcoming drama RFDS which you could clearly see working out of the mind numbing reality shows that now dominate the commercial television landscape. Leave scripted ‘high end’ to ABC or Foxtel. The audience isn’t there for it on Seven, Nine or Ten.

  4. Perhaps the networks need to drop the idea of holding on to big numbers for overnight broadcast of dramas ? They are always saying how advertisers should spend more on BVOD and treat it the same as traditional broadcast…so why don’t they back up those statements with their launch model? Knowing that consumer behaviour has forever changed in the age of steaming with binge watching, why don’t they release it all online at the same time as the overnight premiere?

    1. I’m not sure if it was the original plan, but I might add 10 did this with The Secret She Keeps over Easter – released all episodes online, before the premiere on 10. Even with the early release, The overnight ratings were around 500K – which perhaps suggests word of mouth is a benefit also

  5. I’m glad I stuck to my instincts, I didn’t make it passed the 2nd commercial break. Nothing about the show really appealed to me, it was only the constant reporting that it was from the guy who created A Place to Call Home, Packed to the Rafters, Always Greener etc. Phillip Quast is no Larry Hagman, there’s no love to hate him there, just very unlikable. It was a show you didn’t really care to spend the time with to see ow it pans out, unlike the previous hits that were mentioned.

  6. Gee well that would drop numbers even lower, who is going to chase a new show at 3rd episode to 10pm Sunday, then 9.30 the week after. Maybe would have been better to show 7.30 or 8.30 on a mid/late weeknight where currently nothing worth watching is on.

  7. … linking this story with another – “Local quota uncertainty hurting production” – it is a fact of life today that this level of product doesn’t get up unless it has funding from Screen Australia … since 2008 SA has been the only avenue for government funding and, having been involved in applications to SA’s predecessors, to ensure that you stand a better chance of getting to the head of the queue involves the inclusion of certain keywords and thoughts that will appeal to the people making the decisions … recently there has been a slew of programs that can probably be described as “vanity” projects from people who know the right words rather than something that would necessarily find a significant audience … as long as this single-source funding model continues, we are going to see more of these failures …

  8. Dam, I watch both of these shows. I really like Sara Wiseman in a pace to call home so I looked forward to seeing her in this.
    I will have to record Liar. To late to stay up and watch it. What a shame because this deserves better.

  9. There are problems with the writing. It delayed extracting anything from the Two Worlds till over 2 hours in, you don’t need that long to establish that Walford is a bastard. And the stuff with Konigs and the other family was largely pointless. The characters aren’t well written and the dialogue was poor and the acting patchy in parts.

    It just isn’t very good. Neither was Liar, which benefited from Monday time slot with against nothing for it’s first season but the 2nd season trying to drag it out with lots of pointless flashbacks of Gruffudd, who’s characters story was over and done, is just awful. In the end the audience delivers its verdict with their remotes.

  10. Interesting comments, this show is not my genre but most Australian drama does needs to grow on you.
    I suspect that in this age of instant gratification and so much content courtesy of streaming, attention spans are very short.
    Having said that Australian drama could learn from Nordic productions, they generally make shows that have audience appeal not just for their own community but globally as well, their stories are generally well written, well produced and natural, with very little superficiality.

  11. This is probably the nail in the coffin for me…. i watched ep 1 and 2 – didn’t love it but probably would’ve kept watching. Bumped to late night I will not tune in and at this point I probably wouldn’t bother to seek it out on 7+ either.

  12. I am not one to be a conspiracy theorist but perhaps this show was set up for failure in order to support the argument that Australians do not want television drama. A sacrificial lamb to their campaigns makes a lot of sense in this context.

  13. I always support aussie dramas … but this is the first time in all the years i have watched two episodes and think it is crap ..the storylines are all over the place and very bad acting ..
    sorry no more for me …. goodbye ….

  14. Two deaths in first ep of characters the viewer had no time to invest in. Remaining characters, it was difficult to find a nice one. Didn’t go back for 2nd ep. Tens The secrets she keeps was way way better!

  15. While it’s unfortunate to see local dramas fail, any drama needs enough of a ‘hook’ in its first episode to encourage the audience to return. Unfortunately, BTW just didn’t have it.

  16. I find the promos for the program just very poor, didn’t match the show. And the show had promise, but was just far too fanciful. When you have so much good quality programming elsewhere, it’s not worth it

  17. First episode to me was a bit confusing, and I lost a bit of interest after the relentless commercial breaks. I guess I am getting spoilt with Prime and Netflix programmes.

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