debritz.net - Television

Where's Wally? On Nine, of course

debritz — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 23:34:46 -0700

Is this the non-scoop of the century? I've just received a press release saying Wally Lewis will speak exclusively to Channel 9 news tonight about his mystery illness. Of course he will; he works for Channel 9. It'd be a surprise if he told all to anyone else.
Update: Wally revealed he is epileptic and, of course, he deserves our best wishes.

TV or not TV in 2007

debritz — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 13:20:10 -0700

After the departure of Tracey Spicer from Ten and Naomi Robson from Seven's Today Tonight, Crikey is calling it the "boning season" in television. Of course, officially neither of them were actually sacked - Robson made her own decision to move on and Spicer's contract expired. It makes one wonder, however, how many more departures will occur over the festive season. The rumour mill is already running hot, but I have it on good authority that one Brisbane TV program that is routinely written off around this time of the year will definitely be back in 2007.

Naomi tells all

debritz — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 22:38:51 -0700

This just in: Naomi Robson, whose future as host of Today Tonight has been the subject of much discussion in recent weeks, will make a "special announcement" on the program tonight.
Update: She's leaving; more here.

Dancing with the truth?

debritz — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 13:01:08 -0700

I guess it's a matter of how contrived you want your "reality" TV to be. Gold Coast chess champ and Dancing with the Stars contestant Arianne Caoli is under fire because she's allegedly a well-trained dancer - even though she told host Daryl Somers that she'd never had a dance lesson. My care factor's pretty low, but people are voting on this thing and the producers owe it them to preserve some integrity in the process.

All I know about Fatty

debritz — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 02:59:00 -0700

For some reason, some people have been visiting this site for information about Paul "Fatty" Vautin. I assume it's something to do with a blog item I wrote after I ran into Fatty a few months ago at a Channel 9 function for The Footy Show (NRL version). All I can tell you about Fatty is that he grew up in vaguely the same part of Brisbane I did and that he played for Wests Mitchelton rugby league club before hitting the big time as an A-grade player and now a TV personality. He seems like a reasonable kind of bloke and he still makes time to support his old juniors club, which is a good thing. This site might be helpful if you want to know more.

Talking politics

debritz — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 23:25:00 -0700

Opposition leader Kim Beazley's gaffe in calling Rove McManus "Karl Rove" reminded me of former Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, whose clumsy way with words was legendary. When asked what he thought of (the satirical television program) The Gillies Report, Bjelke-Petersen purportedly replied "Well, it's a very long report and I haven't read all of it yet."

ARIA update

debritz — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 14:44:59 -0700

As I said on my other blog:

And the Michael Cole Award* for most boorish behaviour by a visiting celebrity involving a bottle of liquor goes to Johnny Knoxville. In other ARIA Awards news, didn’t Queenslanders Bernard Fanning, The Veronicas and Troy Cassar-Daley do well? I thought it interesting, though, that the two awards based on actual record sales went to industry “outsiders” (i.e. people who don’t fit the image that the music biz likes to present and don’t get played a lot on mainstream radio) - dance act TV Rock featuring Seany B (biggest-selling single) and reborn boy band Human Nature (biggest-selling album)..

* Michael Cole was the star of The Mod Squad who, in a tired and emotional state, swore during the Logies telecast in 1973.

Ideas the key

debritz — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 21:27:06 -0600

"Market research is crap. It doesn't tell you what people are going to like, it tells you what they already like. What you want is bold, fresh ideas. You will never get that from advertisers, commercial people or businessmen." So said the obviously still feisty former ITV boss Sir Denis Forman, 89, in an interview conducted before university media and communications students. He also said: "In the 50s, we had at least two quiz shows in the top 10 ITV programmes, made for absolute peanuts. Now that's the way to run a TV service." Read more here.

TV tussle

debritz — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 04:51:12 -0600

"Diva-like conduct is certainly not unusual. You have a lot of egos there, and you have a lot of creative people who think they're more creative than the other." That's what TV historian Tim Brooks said when asked about reports of fights on the set of Grey's Anatomy between actors Isaiah Washington and Patrick Dempsey. He cited incidents in Moonlighting, Desperate Housewives and Charmed.

Shatner still beaming

debritz — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 16:13:43 -0600

There's no stopping Star Trek's William Shatner. According to reports from the US, he is about to host a TV game show called Show Me the Money. According to a BBC report, contestants in the show will have the chance to win millions of dollars by answering trivia questions but will also risk losing everything they have accumulated. Should be a doddle for a man who can pilot an interstellar aircraft.