Hey TV Networks, would you please stop changing the time slots of our favourite shows?

By BEC SPARROW

So apparently the Scott Rush interview on Sixty Minutes last night was a cracker.  So many people are talking about it. Some people are saying Scott Rush seemed high on drugs throughout the interview (how does that work in Bali???). Others were sceptical about his wealthy fiancée – Nikki – bank-rolling his drug habit in jail. People on my Facebook feed were wondering how exactly Scott and Nikki were planning their future when it looked like he’d be in jail for the rest of his life.

Me? I don’t have an opinion on the show. You know why?

BECAUSE I MISSED IT.

And do you know why I missed it? BECAUSE CHANNEL NINE KEEP CHANGING THE TIME SIXTY FREAKING MINUTES IS ON TELEVISION.

And I, for one, am over it.

House Husbands. Grey’s Anatomy. Under the Radar. Offspring.  Extant. Winners and Losers. Sixty Minutes.

(And let’s all bow our heads for a moment and remember The 7pm Project which morphed into The 6pm Project. Then the NOBODY KNOWS JUST ROLL THE DICE AND TAKE YOUR CHANCES Project.)

Holy Head Spin, Batman. It’s killing me. To all the TV networks I say this: Just pick a time-slot and have some respect for your viewers (remember us! We’re the annoying people who watch your programs and allow you to bombard us with adds for toilet duck).

I’ll help you.

From now on, Sixty Minutes can be on at 7.30pm every Sunday night.

See? Easy. That wasn’t hard. (Hang on for a moment, I’m just going to add Television Network Programmer to my CV…)

And don’t get me started on this latest trend for shows to start just after the hour or half-hour. Since when do shows start at 7.40pm?

WHAT IS THAT?

Steve Molk from Molks TV Talk says this is the new law of the jungle when it comes to TV programming. So we need to get used to it.

Bouncing shows around in timeslots is now a weekly occurrence, usually to suit whatever reality “juggernaut” slides in before regular programming. It used to be saved for programs that didn’t fare well in a spot but if the Network believed in them they’d get moved to another night/time with the aim of settling it in there for people to lock in with. Or if they were really bad, moved to the ‘all new’ time of 2am. It’s also a response to balancing the lead in and putting their show up against other shows that it could/will beat.

House Husbands this year has taken a beating – three night changes across the season, with a sliding start time based on the ever-extending finishing times of the programs before it. Don’t get me started on shows no longer being able to run for an hour… now it’s all 68/73/87 minutes!

It’s rare a program can handle multiple changes and maintain an audience as casual viewers are usually the first to go.

We’re not asking for much. As the viewers you seem to so desperately want (and yet treat so badly) we just want the following:

• For TV programs to have a consistent time-slot.
• For TV programs to start and finish on time so that when we record them, we manage to see how Downton Abbey or Winners and Losers or House Husbands ends.
• For you to play episodes IN ORDER and to air a complete season in one go and not, you know, stop mid-way through for NO REASON.

Is that really asking too much?

Have you missed a show recently because of programming changes?