Olympic momentum continues Seven's Gold medal haul

Not surprisingly Seven finished first again in Week 35 (Week 27 of the Official Television Ratings) with Gold Medals going to The Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony, Packed to the Rafters, City Homicide, Border Security, The Force, Home and Away, Find My Family, RSPCA: Animal Rescue, Medical Emergency, Criminal Minds, Crash Investigation Unit, All Saints, Today Tonight and Seven News.

There were some forgettable performances as well namely Alan Sugar: The Apprentice and Ugly Betty while Make Me A Supermodel picked up bronze.

Gold medals were few and far between for the Nine Network surprising everyone when Doug Mullray’s Naughtiest Home Videos won its race, Getaway and The Footy Show but the much hypes series Wipeout and Hole in the Wall fought off for silver.

Ten had no gold medals this week but Australian Idol put up a good performance and maintained a healthy silver, there best Gold medal chances are to come this week launching Taken Out and Rush.

Seven won the week which looked like this:

SEVEN: 32.1%
NINE: 24.5%
TEN: 21.7%
ABC: 16.7%
SBS: 5.0%

OzTam

Tonight’s results will be most interesting in the key battles:

6:30PM
Jamie Durie’s The Outodoor Room (Seven) V Scott Cam’s Domestic Blitz (Nine)

7:30PM
Dancing with the Stars (Seven) V 60 Minutes (Nine) V Australian Idol (Ten) V Doctor Who (ABC)

8:30PM – 10:30PM
Dancing with the Stars / Criminal Minds (Seven) V Scorched (Nine) V Australian Idol/Rove (Ten)

Such good Australian shows on one night is making a viewers choice very difficult. I think Nine will win the night with a very narrow margin because of their choice to have Lauren Huxley on Domestic Blitz and three very interesting stories on 60 Minutes plus an Australian tele-movie should win them the night unless the Dancing with the Stars juggernaut works on Sunday.

As for the rest of the week:

Seven News and Today Tonight will dominate the news war with Nine but the 7PM slot could get interesting with Ten attempting to challenge with new dating series, Taken Out. Viewers may be pulled away from Seven’s Home and Away and Nine’s Two and A Half Men making the 7PM slot very competitive.

Monday will go to Seven with Border Security, The Force and City Homicide edging between 1.6 – 2 million viewers

Tuesday will go to Seven with RSPCA Animal Rescue, Find My Family and Packed to the Rafters but expect Ten’s new drama Rush, which will air at 9:30PM to beat All Saints. Nine may pick up some later viewers with it’s raunchy new series, Secret Diaries of A Call Girl debuting in the 10:30PM slot.

Wednesday will again be won by Seven with Medical Emergency and Criminal Minds but the hour of Two and A Half Men from 7PM could beat Crash Investigation Unit and Hole in the Wall may challenge Medical Emergency. Don’t forget there is good TV on the ABC with Spicks and Specks and The Hollowmen from 8:30.

Thursday is Nine’s with Getaway and hopefully somewhere close to 2 million viewers for the debut of The Strip.

Friday should, as per usual go to Seven with Better Homes and Gardens plus the first round of the AFL Finals.

Saturday could go to Ten with their screening of the AFL Finals in primetime while Seven show the movies Freaky Friday and Pretty Woman and Nine screen Australia’s Funniest Home Videos followed by Zathura: A Space Adventure and Hellboy.

The week should be won by Seven but not by the same gap as last week, expect about a 2-3% gap between Seven and Nine. My picks of the week is Rush on Ten and The Strip on Nine and it will be interesting to see if Packed to the Rafters can retain it's huge audience, almost 2 million viewers tuned in last week, but will they be back?

It's not all peaches and cream for Seven

Mediocre, moreover a disappointing result for Seven’s much hyped Make Me A Supermodel last night only returning 936 000 viewers but what is more of a worry, is the once dominant Ugly Betty is in trouble only attracting 536 000 viewers last night in it’s new 9:30PM time slot.

It won’t be long before Betty is bumped to 10:30PM or pulled from the schedule. Another American series that has had a difficult year on Seven in 2008 along with Heroes, Prison Break and Lost plus the failure of new series, Lipstick Jungle, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money, none of which have had the same impact that returning series Grey’s Anatomy or Desperate Housewives have and continue to have.

Luckily Seven have invested money into their Australian dramas like the stunning debut of Packed to the Rafters this week and City Homicide continues to rate well, both near the 2 million viewer mark while All Saints consistently rates above one million viewers.

Last night more people found their remote controls which had been stuck on Seven since the Olympics also seeing the gap close between Home and Away and Two and A Half Men which were only separated by 20 000 viewers.

The news and current affair hour was again dominated by Seven with Seven News still capturing 400 000 viewers more than Nine News but the news is a little better for A Current Affair which trails Today Tonight by 300 000 viewers.

Australia’s Naughtiest Home Videos was the biggest shock of the night winning the 8:30PM slot and being rewarded as the evenings highest rating show and Nine’s largest audience share last night. Kerry Packer may have axed the show mid-screening in 1992 but in 2008 almost 1.4 million people tuned in to see what was so bad about it.

Could Nine now turn this into a regular series?

Let’s hope not but the one-off special helped Nine win their first night this week and their first night since August 6 and the Olympics. Getaway also had more than 1.3 million viewers while The Footy Show ticked over the million mark to give Nine 30.4% of the audience share compared with Seven’s 25% and Ten’s 23.6%.

Despite Seven losing they will win the week and you would expect executives will not be too concerned that Thursday’s are a weak night but Nine are launching their new Australian drama, The Strip at 8:30 next Thursday which now has the opportunity to do big numbers. Next week will be more competitive – stay tuned.

Alan Sugar: You're Fired

In what has so far been a blockbuster week for Channel Seven, a slight hiccup was revealed last night when the highly promoted Alan Sugar: The Apprentice bombed. Surely Seven must now give the British version of Donald Trump the Jessica Rowe boning treatment, “You’re Fired”.

Despite Sugar bombing and bombing in a big way with only 583 000 viewers nationally, Wednesday still belonged to Channel Seven with strong performances from Seven News, Home and Away, Today Tonight and Criminal Minds which all attracted around the 1.4 million viewer mark, as well as new series, Crash Investigation Unit and the return of Medical Emergency. Nine’s one hour of Two and A Half Men from 7-8pm returned strong figures with 1.4 million viewers as well.

Hole in the Wall was down on its previous attempt where the game show debuted on August 6 with 1.6 million viewers but after the Olympics the show only attracted 1.2 million viewers in its second outing. These numbers are still healthy but indicate that the shows novelty may all ready be wearing thin like Wipeout’s series return this week which softened with 1.1 million viewers, down since the shows previous new episode on Tuesday July 29 with 1.5 million viewers.

People hurting themselves on obstacle courses or trying to bash through walls unsuccessfully being subjected to a pool has its shelf life. Although Hole in the Wall and Wipeout are genuinely funny, could these similar, novelty series screening in the same scheduele be overkill?

Australian Idol was again Ten’s strongest show with 1.2 million viewers but the network still finished third for the night overall with 22.5% beaten by Seven with 27.9% and Nine with 26.5% of the audience share.

Packed to the Ratings

Seven’s new Australian drama Packed to the Rafters debuted with a huge audience capturing 1.95 million viewers last night, 50 000 viewers shy of the magical 2 million mark.

Rafters continued Seven’s domination of the television landscape winning the night with 37% of the audience and by another huge 15.5% margin from rival Nine with 22.5%.

Find My Family also debuted with huge numbers, 1.74 million people in fact tuned in plus the new series of RSPCA Animal Rescue had almost 1.7 million viewers as well.

On Monday Seven owned the top 6 shows of the night but Tuesday it was seven as Seven News, Today Tonight and Home and Away were all around the 1.5 million viewer mark and All Saints had 1.3 million viewers, winning its slot at 9:30PM.

Nine News (1.13 million viewers) was beaten by ABC News (1.3 million viewers) while A Current Affair (1.1 million viewers) still had 400 000 less viewers than Today Tonight (1.5 million viewers).

Seven would be most impressed with last night’s result of Packed to the Rafters, continuing the resurgence of the Australian drama genre.

With new episodes of Ten's NCIS against Rafters, the series may be challenged but the biggest test will be next week, to see if Rafters can maintain its large audience.

Seven still riding on that Olympic success

It appears that perhaps TV audiences have forgotten how to change the channel because last night Seven flogged it’s competition without the Olympics.

Seven owned 34.1% of the total audience share with Nine languishing behind with 22% and Ten with 20%.

The Top 6 shows of last night were owned by Seven with City Homicide topping the night’s most popular shows amassing almost 1.9 million viewers. New series of Border Security and The Force were also around the 1.8 million viewer mark while Seven News and Today Tonight each realled in over 1.6 million viewers thrashing Nine News and A Current Affair by 400 000 and 600 000 viewers respectively. Home and Away also bit back at the competition Two and A Half Men had been providing with 1.5 million viewers as opposed to Men’s 1.1 million viewers.

It is no surprise that Seven were all guns blazing last night and comprehensively beating Nine and Ten because these networks are providing no compeition, instead Nine screened two movies and Ten also scheduled the out of favour Burn Notice. Australian Idol’s figures were however soft but OK with 1.2 million viewers tuning in.

Expect Seven to dominate tonight as well when they launch Packed to the Rafters. 2 million may be on the cards.

Let the Games begin

As the athletes party the night away in Beijing, so do Channel’s Nine and Ten, so they can resume (almost) normal programming and challenge Seven in the heated ratings war.

The heats have been run, the semi-finals and final to come but the true indication of how the post-Olympic schedule is shaping up won’t be known until next week.

Ten has jumped the gun, getting out of the blocks early by launching Australian Idol on the night of the Closing Ceremony but Nine on the other hand has been a little more cautious this week schedueling a whole swag of movies with snippets of their new schedule to start a fresh next week when all the competitors will be at the same start line.

Tonight’s closing ceremony will undoubtably win the week for Seven and the momentum is set to continue with cliff-hangers needing to be resolved on Home and Away, plus all new Border Security and an Australian version of Crash Investigation Unit starting tomorrow night. Add City Homicide to that mix and Seven will have little trouble defeating Nine’s screening of two movies and Ten with Idol.

Find My Family and Packed to the Rafters is Seven’s Tuesday night plus Alan Sugar is among the networks new shows being launched this week.

Despite Nine and Ten largely conceding the week, they are also handing Seven the momentum giving them a free-run to launch a bunch of new shows which may very well find themselves and audience before Nine and Ten pick up the slack next week.

The competition may be over at the Olympics but it’s starting to reach boiling point on TV.

Quiet for the start…

Three new drama’s on three different networks

Australia’s three commercial television networks have announced where each of their much anticipated new dramas will be scheduled.

Tuesday’s at 8:30 will be the home of Seven’s Packed to the Rafters and at 9:30 over on Ten, the brand new cop drama Rush will air.

Nine’s Gold Coast based cop drama, The Strip will screen at 8:30 on Thursday’s.

Rafters and The Strip have picked sensible and winnable slots and Rush has probably as well with NCIS as lead-in but it is disappointing to see Ten schedule a brand new Australian drama at 9:30.

Makes you think that Rush may in-fact embody its name, being rushed in production. Have Ten produced their own Canal Road?

Rush will also have to compete with Seven’s All Saints which has recently seen a deserved upward trend in the programs ratings, which is another reason why not to scheduele Rush at 9:30 because it is Australian drama against Australian drama. Commercial television is overloaded with foreign content, so to see two Aussie dramas competing against each other, in the same slot is poor scheduling and a slap in the face to the Australian audiences, making them choose which Australian drama they want to watch, not both, so one will get the axe.

Rafters starts next Tuesday with Rush and The Strip debuting the following week.

It’s great to see Aussie drama back and the networks investing money into producing new shows. Let’s hope each series has a successful season and they all are commissioned for a second series.

Fire up Bruce!

Seven Sport ace Bruce McAvaney has come under heavy criticism from fellow race callers and the general public because of his ‘underwhelming’ calling of the swimming at the Beijing Olympics.

His commentary has been described by Channel Nine sports commentator Andrew Voss, as “to cool for school” on 2UE’s Mike and Sandy Breakfast Show. Voss’ comments have summarised what the general public are feeling.

McAvaney is an excellent commentator and was Channel Seven’s face of the Olympics until this year when his younger, fresher faced colleague, Matthew White replaced him. Bruce is synonymous with the Australian broadcast of the Olympic Games, his knowledge is unrivalled and Billy Birmingham even created a special tribute to the Olympic voice under the guise of The Twelfth Man’s “Bruce 2000”. McAvaney calls the Athletics brilliantly but his lack of animation is not doing swimming any justice.

Arguably swimming would be one of the most animated and exciting sports to watch on television or live, second to the 100M athletics final. Channel Nine’s Ray Warren has been the voice of swimming for the Commonwealth Games and the Australian Championships as well as being heard on Foxtel but with the Olympic Games on Seven, we cannot hear the best caller in the business call the sport.

We barely knew that Stephanie Rice broke the world record, won GOLD and became the Olympic Champion in the 200m and 400m individual medley because of McAvaney’s hapless call.

Poolside interviewer Daniel Kowalski has also disappointed by forgetting important facts about the person he is interviewing, like the fact that the interviewee, Stephanie Rice or Eamon Sullivan just broke the world record.

Overall Seven’s swimming commentary has been poor. Luckily Duncan Armstorng is a member of the team but he and McAvaney have not developed a good synergy and he is also not the most animated character.

Swimming commentary needs to compliment the visual excitement by getting you sitting on the edge of your seat and raising the hairs on the back of your neck but this is not happening with McAvaney’s call. The network has obviously left incumbent, Dennis Cometti at home to call the AFL. He has called the swimming for Seven at previous Olympic Games and does an excellent job, so why is he at home?

At least the next Olympics will be on Nine so swimming can be called by Ray Warren. Having said that, Warren commented at the Olympic Swim Trials earlier this year that he is no guarantee for London 2012 as he is not the best traveller.

Come on Rabs... Go for Gold. You know you want to be there – just push through. At least Nicole Livingstone and Gian Rooney will be able to lend a hand and hopefully Armstrong returns to that team because they are the best swimming callers in the country.

But for Bruce, it is time to fire up and call the 100M freestyle in about an hour’s time because this will be fast and it will need a champion call. You can do it Bruce...

If you’re not confident in Bruce McAvaney however then you can hear Nicole Livingstone as she is partnering Ray Hadley and they can be heard on 2GB and the Macquarie Radio Network, now there is a good race caller who is excited and animated.

TV on the Radio

Each week you can hear me talking TV news and gossip on Sydney's FM 99.3

At 8:35AM I will be talking TV with Andrew "The Bear" Reynolds.

This week we discussed:

• The Olympics - opening ceramony figures, Seven showing the AFL, Bruce McAvaney's call of the swimming which was so unenthusiastic we had no idea that Stephanie Rice had broken the world record, yet alone won the race and was the Olympic Champion - we need Ray Warren.


• Whilst on the Olympics we chatted about all the cross-promotion Seven is doing with their new shows such as Alan Sugar, Packed to the Rafters, The Outdoor Room and the like


• Two and Half Men's success and how the show is becoming very popular and funny, the Bear also likes it.

Tune into FM 99.3 and have a listen to TV on the Radio, Tuesday's at 8:35Am. More information found at their website http://www.fm993.com.au/

It's all Seven

It is no surprise that Seven took the week with a massive audience tuning into Friday night’s opening ceremony capturing more than 50% of the televised audience with more than seven million people nation wide tuning into the start of the Beijing Olympics.

Seven beat Nine by 10% last week, thanks to the Olympics which saw the figures:

Seven 34.8%
Nine 24.8%
Ten 18.4%
ABC 16.7%
SBS 5.3%

OzTam

Throughout the Games, Seven will be heavily promoting the new batch of shows which are set to launch after the Olympics. All ready Packed to the Rafters is being heavily pushed and a sexed-up Dancing With the Stars promotion has also aired, bringing the show into 2008.

Jamie Durie will be back on our screens with The Outdoor Room, a new series of Border Security plus the UK’s own version of The Apprentice. I hold my breath as the US version failed to excite viewers on Nine, the UK one looks no different however an Australian version might go down well with John Singleton perhaps?

If your sick of the Olympics then think again because Nine and Ten are screening a summer-esque line-up of repeats, failed programs and C-Grade movies.

All eyes will be on Seven and SBS as the Olympic action takes place over the next two weeks.

You cannot beat this television.

The Shebang she-bung

The future of Triple M’s poor performing breakfast program, The Shebang has been made for them with the announcement that co-host Fifi Box will be joining Channel Seven’s Sunrise program as weather presenter in 2009.

Box’s move to television has also forced Marty Sheargold to announce he will leave Austereo to pursuit other interests while Paul Murray will remain at Triple M is some capacity meaning there will be a new breakfast show in 2009.

Current Drive host Wil Anderson from the syndicated Wil & Lehmo show has indicated he has no desire to move into the cut-throat breakfast slot, a job he used to do with Adam Spencer on Triple J.

Phil O’Neill’s arrival mid-year could be the answer. O’Neill is currently familiarising himself with the Sydney audience again in the early evening and is an accomplished host who is more than capable of handling the breakfast slot.

Bianca Dye is an obvious co-host for O’Neill seeing as she is currently without a radio job and has recently been reported to have a few options on the table. Should Dye be offered breakfast and team up with O’Neill they would take on a new type of breakfast show that might be more like Kyle & Jackie O rather than a comedic based program.

Lizzy Lovette might also be a contender for a greater on-air role. Lovette recently filled in for Jackie O on sister station 2DAY FM and is now heard during afternoons on Triple M. Despite not having Breakfast or Drive time hosting experience, she could become an outside chance to partner O’Neill.

Management’s decision to axe Get This seems even more bewildering now that The Shebang has also been left out to dry. When Tony Martin, Richard Marsland and Ed Kavalee were shown the door, management said that despite the shows success it was not enabling listners to stay with Triple M.

In other words, non-traditional Triple M listners would tune in for Martin’s two hours of genius and then go somewhere else. So mamangements thinking was strategic… but the listner lost the best radio show on air.

Get This should have been retained and Get This should have been given there chance to do Breakfast. Now Triple M have to axe The Shebang which unfortunately failed when transferred from Drive to Breakfast.

Triple M Sydney has now axed The Shebang, Mick Molloy’s Tough Love, Get This and The Cage over the last three years. The station has struggled to find its identity attempting to combine music and shows and talk.

Unfortunately the Rock music genre is, at the moment not as popular as it has been over the previous few decades. Tastes and interests change and Triple M will find it’s place again in the market but until that happens it is a shame when quality radio programs are axed.

It’s Thumbs up for Two and A Half Men and Hole in the Wall

Commercial television gauges its success by ratings and this morning Nine would be smiling with the news that last night, Wednesday 6th August a brand new episode of Two and A Half Men was the nations most watched television program with 1.64 million viewers and their new gameshow, Hole in the Wall finished third and won it's slot capturing 1.56 million viewers nationally.

This is a big win and a strategic victory for Nine who had competition from Seven, Ten and the ABC with the Seven launching Make Me A Supermodel hosted by the glamorous Jennifer Hawkins but the program finished at Number 13 for the night with only 1.07 million viewers narrowly beating two hours of So You Think You Can Dance (American version) with 1.05 million viewers.

Nine won the night which read:

Nine 28.4%
Seven 27%
Ten 20.1%
ABC 19.7%
SBS 4.8 %

OzTam

Earlier this year, the op-inion questioned Nine’s decision to continually try and find Two and A Half Men a home after many attempts and poor ratings. Well I conceed and I become a johnny-come-lately because over the past few months this show has grown on me and I also find it very funny.

It’s no Seinfeld or Friends but it is a close substitute and the best American comedy on our television screens. Give it a go and obviously more people are giving the show a go with the 7PM weeknight repeats providing strong opposition to Seven’s Home and Away with Men winning the timeslot a few nights a week.

Home and Away has been forced to seen a number of new characters enter the Bay after the departure of Kate Ritchie, Mark Furze and Indiana Evans. After Sally’s estranged brother Miles (Josh Quong Tart) joined the show, he was followed by a raft of new faces including, Roman (Conrad Coleby) who brought daughter Nicole (Tessa James), new police woman Charlie Buckton (Esther Anderson), her sister Ruby (Rebecca Breeds), their father occasionally appears on the show with new wife, Home and Away veteran Morag (Corneilla Frances) plus Phuket refugee Jai (Jordan Rodrigues).

With six new regular cast members in six months, audiences have had to watch new characters and new story lines develop whilst Two and A Half Men has slowly been stealing some of the audience. Ten has also provided little challenge in the 7PM slot since So You Think You Can Dance and The Biggest Loser finished, now placing repeats of Friends against winning repeats of Two and A Half Men.

Last nights success of Hole in the Wall is not a surprise given the high ratings that Wipeout has been receiving. The shows objective is quite simple, get through the obscure and difficult holes in the wall or be subjected to falling in the pool.

Sounds simple enough but entertaining when you place attractive women in figure hugging space suits up against men who make the suits look far to small and the holes impossible to fit through so when contact is made the wall breaks and they are subjected to falling in the pool.

Nine will be excited by the success of Hole in the Wall and Two and A Half Men last night as the network gears up for a post-Olympic stampede in order to finish the year as well as they started.

VEGA starts to shine

Survey 5 of the latest Nielsen Media Radio Ratings has been released this morning with talk station 2GB (12.3%) holding it’s crown as Sydney’s Number 1 radio station up 0.7% despite losing Alan Jones for most of the survey. 2DAYFM (10.8%) remain Sydney’s Number 1 FM station whilst reclaiming the second spot overall as ABC 702’s (10.6%) ratings dropped 0.1%.

Its good news for 2GB that Jason Morrison (14.6%) has been able to hold Jones’ audience as the station would have been worried when Alan Jones was forced to take time off after her was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Morrison has in fact grown the audience by 0.8% although the full affect of Jones’ temporary departure will be witnessed in Survey 6.

The biggest winner is VEGA 95.3 FM (5.3%) who is slowly but surely finding their way in the market place, stealing (0.8%) ratings from WSFM (5.4%) and Triple M (5.6%). WSFM has taken the biggest hit, losing 2.1% while Triple M dropped a further 0.2%. Jen Oldershaw’s VEGA afternoons is the stations highest rating with 7.2% of the audience share.

MIX (6.8%) is also doing a VEGA increasing 1.2% during the latest survey but it was not Mix Mornings with Sonia and Todd (4.9%) that increased, in fact they shed 0.9% of their audience. Afternoons and Drive anchored by Lars Peterson grew by 2.5% propelling the station’s figures.

NOVA (8.2%) lost 0.4% of it’s audience but Merrick & Rosso & Kate Ritchie (9.0%) grew 0.3% but still trail 2DAYFM’s Kyle and Jackie O (10.8%) who extended their lead by 0.6% which is the same margin that sister station Triple M’s breakfast show, The Shebang (5.1%) grew by.

2UE (6.7%) increased slightly by 0.1% but Breakfast with Mike and Sandy (6.5%) lost ground, losing 0.4% and so did Drive with John Stanley (5.6%). Mornings with Steve Price (7.1%) and Afternoons with Tim Webster (6.2%) both increased, Price by 1% and Webster 0.3% while Stuart Bocking (9.6%) also grew his audience by 0.1%.

Weekends (10.5%) are 2UE’s strongest schedule with the decision to move The George and Paul Show to 8AM paying off and forming a new afternoon duo, Kearns & Robertson combining Chris Kearns with Clive Robertson have made 2UE Number 2 on Weekends only behind 2GB.

Unfortunately four of the five ABC stations took a dip in the ratings. ABC 702 (10.1%) only lost 0.1% as Adam Spencer (12.1%) is still Number 2 in Breakfast behind Morrison but Deborah Cameron (10.1%) increased her Mornings audience by another 0.7% only trailing 2GB’s Ray Hadley (13.7%) who grew his audience by 0.7%.

So after another survey, 2GB is still Sydney’s Number 1 station, followed by 2DAYFM, ABC 702, NOVA and MIX FM.

Seven News personnel changes?

Today Tonight host Anna Coren is rumoured to be leaving the Seven network at the end of the year after trialing with CNN’s Hong Kong headquarters last month.

Now Crikey reports that Sunrise co-host Melissa Doyle is unhappy with her current contract and may in fact be over Sunrise, so Seven maybe about to embark on a game of musical chairs.

Doyle may return to host Today Tonight if Coren were to leave meaning Sunrise would be on the look out for a new co-host, breaking up the successful “Mel and Kochie” formula that has come to represent Seven’s success over the last five years.

Current Sunrise newsreader Natalie Barr would be itching at the opportunity to anchor the early morning show. While other contenders might include former Nine personality Sharyn Ghidella, Samantha Armytage or Chris Bath.

Monique Wright may be a chance, Sonia Kruger wouldn’t look out of place but surely Seven wouldn’t give Jessica Rowe the gig she failed at on rival, Nine.

Kruger would be my choice. Not the obvious choice but her warmth and personality shines through on Dancing with the Stars and the stories she files for Today Tonight. Kruger has so far been under untilised in her television career and has the talent to provide a lot more.

Chris Bath would be Choice 2 but she has her eyes focused on Ian Ross’ job when he vacates the Sydney newsreaders chair but The Australian’s Mark Day last week wrote in Media and Marketing that a certain Nine employee who has just announced his retirement, will in the next few years have the “right amount of grey hair” to do exactly what Ross did when he joined Seven from retirement, a few years back.

Could Mike Munro end-up anchoring Seven News? Anything is possible… which would free up Bath to form a new Breakfast duo, “Kochie and Chris… which has a nice ring to it.

Sharyn Ghidella is Choice 3 and would also not look out place hosting breakfast television. Currently hosting the Weekend News in Brisbane and the news on Weekend Sunrise, Ghidella also use to read the news on Nine’s Today Show and has filled in as co-host on many occasions.

Assuming that Coren leaves Seven then the network may, like Nine be about to undertake their own shake-up of their Newsroom.

Daniel’s Dancing With the Stars on Sunday’s after Packed to the Rafters?

Daniel McPherson has been announced as the new host of Seven’s popular series, Dancing With the Stars.

Season’s 1-7 have been hosted by Daryl Summers who quit the show at the end of last year. While McPherson has had experience hosting similar formats, the ill-fated Channel Ten, X-Factor, he seems a shock selection after Larry Emdur, David Koch, Ray Martin, Andrew O’Keefe, Tom Williams and Grant Denyer had been mooted as potential replacements for Summers.

McPherson currently appears on Channel Seven’s top-rating drama, City Homicide so will have to juggle his commitments as will co-host Sonia Kruger who now has her own Breakfast radio gig with Judge Todd McKenny and as a reporter for Today Tonight.

Dancing has also been rumored to move from Tuesday’s to Sunday nights but not head-to-head with Australia’s most popular program, 60 Minutes. The role of 60 Minutes challenger maybe reserved for Seven’s new comedy drama, Packed to the Rafters starring Michael Caton, Eric Thompson and Rebecca Gibney.

Kath & Kim have previously succeeded against 60 Minutes but will Rafters have the same affect?

Moving Dancing to 8:30 protects the program from 60 Minutes and also with a younger host and cast for this series, takes the challenge to Rove, although one would imagine the ‘traditional’ audiences of Rove what not be interested in ballroom dancing?

With the appointment of McPherson, one of television’s most converted hosting roles has been filled and starts after the Olympics, stay tuned and good luck Daniel.

Blanda's Back

Sydney’s best commercial news reader Steve Blanda has returned to 2UE this morning after not being heard since the start of June.

Replacement Robert Spicer did a very good job filling the void but it's good to hear Blanda's voice again and, to even see his face.

He returns the morning before the latest Nielsen Media Radio Ratings are set to be released at 10AM tomorrow morning.

Has Jason Morrison been able to hold Alan Jones' audience at 2GB or will we see a new King of Sydney Breakfast radio, 702's Adam Spencer may now be Sydney's most popular breakfast presenter?

Seven fires up for the Olympics

With only four days until the start of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Seven carry the second half of the year momentum with another weekly ratings victory.

Week 31 (Week 23 of the Official Television Ratings) 2008 saw Channel Seven, take the overall lead as Australia’s leading network. Only 0.05% separates the 2007 victor, Seven from the resurgent Nine in 2008 with last week’s figures reading:

Seven 29.4%

Nine 27.0%

Ten 20.0%

ABC 18.1%

SBS 5.5%

Oztam

Nine’s 60 Minutes continues to be the nations most popular show but along with Nine News Sunday and Domestic Blitz, these were the only three programs the network had in last week’s Top 10 most watched shows and all screen on Sunday night.

Of the other seven shows in the Top 10 they were from Seven including The Force, Border Security, RSPCA: Animal Rescue, Seven News weeknights, Seven News Sunday, Better Homes and Gardens and City Homicide screened across every night of the week, except Saturday.

Whilst there is not much in it between Seven and Nine, the Olympics will swing the year to Seven, you cannot trump those ratings. If excluded, however, the year is still in the balance and could go either way, as a lot depends on the scramble to capture the audiences for the post-Olympic rush.

New programs are set to be launched with Seven and Nine experimenting with new formats, new dramas and new game shows. Expect to be bombarded with advertising about Seven’s new shows during their Olympic coverage.

This week Seven are launching a sneak-peak, of the Jennifer Hawkins hosted Make Me A Super-Model by screening the auditions. Seven are aiming this show squarely at the younger demographic, capturing what might be considered, a Channel Ten audience while Nine is also screening a sneak-peak of their new game show, Hole in the Wall.