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Never say never for The Cube

Up against MAFS & Hard Quiz, 10 doesn't rule out a better timeslot for The Cube.

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Should The Cube move to Thursday nights on 10, in the run up to Gogglebox and away from Married At First Sight and Hard Quiz?

Beverley McGarvey, Chief Content Officer & EVP, ViacomCBS Australia & New Zealand says the show was only shot in January, a tight turn around to its February launch but the network is happy with the ITV Studios product.

“The show is excellent,” she tells TV Tonight. “Andy Lee is such a phenomenal host because he’s so warm, and empathetic with the contestants. But he’s also really funny and drives the show really well. So we’re happy with the quality of the show.

“Obviously, we would like it to be rating a bit higher but coming in on Wednesday night against Married at First Sight is pretty hard. And Hard Quiz is obviously pretty hard as well. So we’d like it to be doing more, but we’re very confident in the quality.

“It’s also the sort of thing that takes you a bit of time to find, coming into Wednesday nights in the middle of February is pretty challenging the way things went this year with the tennis. Everybody’s schedules had to shift a little bit around up.”

This week the show drew 317,000 viewers, nearly half that of Hard Quiz. Any thoughts on moving the show to another night?

“I would never say never. Every single morning we look at the situation and think ‘Would we be better here… better there?'”

The Cube screens 7:30pm Wednesday on 10.

29 Responses

  1. I think the real problem here is Beverly McGarvey. Channel 10 has been on a downhill trajectory since she took over as Programme Manager. Andy Lee is actually a refreshing host but the show was way too slow for me. This may have changed but I couldn’t last more than one episode.

  2. I enjoy watching the cube but please add a time remaining on the top right hand corner. It makes it hard for me to know how many seconds the contestant has left. ALso, get rid of the slo-mo there is too much suspense.

  3. I’m not sure moving it to go head to head with both the NRL and AFL on FTA is the answer either?? Maybe 7.30 Sat leading into new eps of Ambulance is a better outcome, noting there is no FTA NRL to compete with.

  4. If Beverley McGarvey thinks Andy Lee is “warm”, I’d hate to think what she considers cold and indifferent. For me, he’s like a fish out of water. Mind you, I gave up after episode 1!

  6. I’m fine with Wednesdays…I don’t think they should totally remove slow-mo, as it does have a role to play in some games, although they should slightly speed it up as it does go for a little too long.

  10. I hate the pacing of the show, Simple decisions are drawn out for too long trying to build tension but to me it leads to boredom & the remote control …..

  14. Oprah with Meaghan and Harry proved that the only thing that can compete with the noise of MAFS is something noisier. Poor scheduling from 10. The Cube is a good show and if they persevere with it somewhere else in the schedule then it would double it’s ratings easy.

  15. I’m absolutely loving The Cube. ITV Studios have done a terrific version for Australia. I’ve never particularly been keen on Andy Lee and was disappointed as his announcement as host but he’s won me over and is fitting in very well indeed. Eight episodes just won’t be enough for me this year.

  16. I’m trying to give this a chance, it just feels clunky, Andy is good, but it doesn’t have the polish of the UK version, maybe they alienated the audience overdoing the slo mo on the first episode and those weird cuts to break…which were amateurish at best (like something you’d see on c31) you have to wonder who signs off these things

  17. I think Thursday would be a good idea.

    But has anyone else noticed a pattern forming with the show, no episode pays out more than $55,000 thousand dollars. Starting to wonder if it’s a budget issue or something

        1. The Chase rarely gives away anything. ABC shows how to make a top rating program on a budget of nothing, without the requisite slo-mos and fly-around cameras.

          1. I’ve always wondered if it is the same brass mug being “won” on Hard Quiz every week?

        1. Guessing that is $50k + $5k. Someone getting two rounds from the jackpot is pretty decent. Hotseat for example gets nowhere near that most days.

          I do think one issue with the revival is changing the Trial Run lifeline for the swap. The Trial Run, which gave players the chance to try a game before deciding if to play, would at least see players often try a game viewers might not see otherwise and often tempt them on as well.

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