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How 10 staff convinced execs to make The Bachelor

When female staff members were hooked on overseas seasons of The Bachelor, 10's Stephen Tate knew he had to have the show.

10 may well owe its success with The Bachelor to some its female staff, many of whom were hooked on the international series.

As fans of the show, they convinced network bosses to pick up the rights for an Australian series, now approaching its 9th season.

Speaking at Screen Forever last week, Stephen Tate Head of Entertainment and Factual Programs, Network 10 said, “Bachelor had sort of languished for many years. Nobody really thought that Australia would like it and it was actually some of the female staff here at 10, who came to me and said, ‘You really need to be making The Bachelor because we’re completely invested in the various versions around the world.’ I thought ‘there’ something in this.'”

Tate also spoke about 10’s revival of Australian Survivor after one season struggled on Nine.

“In a way, Survivor was the same. It had been tried unsuccessfully, twice. The first time it was tried in Australia, the network had a gun to their head. They basically were told in order to have the (US series), they had to make the show,” he continued.

“I know many of the people that were on that foundation series. It had all sorts of difficulties because the network didn’t really want to make it. When we decided to do Survivor, we knew there were at least 600,000 superfans in the Australian market. If we were going to do it, we had to do it properly. Otherwise, they would turn on it immediately.

“So the first few seasons were very much a loss-leader for us financially, we absolutely over-invested. But the production company put every single dollar on the screen. And that’s that’s why it’s still on air.”

The Masked Singer has been another success story on which Tate gambled.

“When we first saw it, we went, ‘This is insane. It’ll never work!’ And then lo and behold, it actually did end up working in another English-speaking market. So we had to sit up straight. With Idol in my DNA, I was actually very excited to be making music television again, as bonkers as it.

“We were lucky enough to be the successful bidder and we’ve had great success with it.”

6 Responses

  1. Does anyone realise how utterly disheartening it is to know that people who have nothing to do with development and program making can influence a commissioner’s decision? Jeez, next we’ll hear stories of kids deciding what gets commissioned!

  2. All of the shows mentioned are garbage regardless if viewer numbers..

    The 3 main networks need to focus on good local dramas, comedy and similar…the heyday of 70s, 80s and even 90s local productions are sorely missed

    1. Comedy has moved on, it’s to fractured now. Comedy company, the big gig, full frontal, fast forward wouldn’t work now. Maybe Good News Week may work.

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