Listing shows here is not intended to be venomous. Not everything works (Live From Planet Earth, anyone?). Some shows need more ‘time in development’. Other shows are simply misguided from the start, or on the wrong network. Either way, I’m sure we’ll see our share of misses in 2012. I hope for the sake of TV being made in Australia that I’m wrong, but let’s start with these shows…
ABC1
Auction Room – Hosted by William McInnes, it’s a look at Australia’s thirst for antiques and auctions, and smacks of Antiques Roadshow. While there will be a market for this kind of program it’s not going to be massive.
Photo Finish – A reality show about photography on the ABC, hosted by Andrew Gunsberg. There’s at least three things wrong with that last sentence. Gunsberg is an avid snapper himself so there’s at least an alignment, though I wouldn’t have placed him at the helm of this show or this format on the ABC.
SBS one
Freddie Flintoff vs The World – While a majority of people will say “who’s Freddie Flintoff”, the remainder will say “we didn’t like him in the first place”.
Channel 7
Revenge – While it’s likely to do massive business for Ch7 thanks to a very strong promotional campaign, I can’t get past the premise that the girl in question gets her revenge and that’s the end of it. Season one may be great, but subsequent seasons look to trail out like Prison Break (poor photocopies of the first premise, delivered poorly with each subsequent season). How much hate can one person have to seek so much revenge? Meh.
Channel 9
Hamish & Andy in London – While I’m sure Hamish and Andy are enjoy the spoils of their manager’s contract negotiations their 2011 series proved they are best when not tied behind a desk. Given this year’s jaunt for the team will be to London (in an Olympic year with Ch9 broadcasting the event in Australia – fancy that) and they’ve already conquered the UK in a Caravan of Courage, what’s left for them to discover other than waking up in some random English girl’s bed after a night on the drink? The Tube, I guess… something to do with the Tube.
The London 2012 Olympics – A contentious claim, I appreciate. The Commonwealth Games didn’t do well for Ch10 in 2010 for a number of reasons, and the difficulty for Ch9 will be the timezone difference. Morning events in the UK will go alright in our evening primetime, but finals/medal races are usually in the afternoons and evenings, and that puts them in the depth of night for Australian viewing audiences. If the network devotes large portions of the day to what happened overnight they’ll lose out to the other networks showing a package in their breakfast news and everyone is up to speed. Very few ratings points to be gained here for such a large expense.
Channel 10
Reef Doctors – Not everything Lisa McCune touches turns to gold, and this is likely to be one of those situations. In premise it sounds like “Sea Patrol Grounded” without the military overtones, and the mooted love triangle that’s alread being promoted sounds kinda bent outta shape. Placing the show on an island will allow for lots of picturesque diving/boat/swimming accidents. Ahh, the life of a tropical doctor with too much time on her hands thanks to not many patients on the island.
My blog, my opinion. I’m likely wrong anyway. These predictions are made (in most cases) sight unseen/only having seen a promo/read the premise from a press release. What do YOU think will be a miss in 2012?
OMG, Reef Doctors sounds like a Simpsons “day time soap” parody.
Unless it becomes Reefer Doctors Mon.
I wouldn’t be judging before you even see them. Have an open mind. I know about one of the shows you have talked about and all is not what it seems. I can say no more.