The final edition of Media Watch for the year airs this week. The reason I mention this is that the ABC’s new editorial policies threaten to turn Media Watch into Big Questions.

You can see the final episode before the show possibly jumps the shark on ABC on Monday the 30th at 9.20pm, and Thursday the 2nd at 12.20am.

Or on ABC2 on both Wednesday the 1st and Thursday the 2nd, at 7.45pm and 10.15pm.

Or there is a video podcast.

From TV.com:

Four more new series–ABC’s Help Me Help You, The Nine, and Men in Trees and NBC’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip–have received orders for additional scripts.

Only five freshman series–NBC’s Heroes, CBS’s Jericho and Shark, and ABC’s Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters–have been given full-season orders. That is half of the 10 new shows picked up for a full season at this point a year ago.

Well, it’s a start and it’s better than getting canned, especially Studio 60 (the rest I don’t care).

Does seem to be a particularly tough year, and I don’t see it getting any easier. With production costs going up and up all the networks want is guaranteed, instant hits which by it’s very nature means less creativity, more bland, safe crap.

RB

Another big show…

Firstly, it’s back!! After many weeks away Letters To Boxcutters returns, with a very interesting look at that horrible Mentos ad (You know the one - big nipples).

Also, we take a look at the new Ch 10/UK co pro Tripping Over.

In Fall we examine 30 Rock and Men In Trees

And we sort the trash that will be Jason Alexander’s Comedy Christmas.

Plus News and Pork and oh so much more.

It’sa all here:

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Tell us where to go: hooray@boxcutters.net

Trailer for the new series of 24. Looks exciting.

Jack should have kept the beard though.

This is something that I am not buying at all. Appart from the fact that the breaks last longer than the quoted 60 seconds (including 20 seconds for ten’s promo for it) I am starting to think that these ads are spliced in at shorter intivales than the usual 8 min odd. In other words, the audience is being manipulated into staying in front of the Telly rather than getting up because its not the standard commercial length. On the other hand I think from a promotional point of view its working, yet there is something rather underhanded about it.

Because of time constraints on the show, I didn’t get a chance to fully cover my feelings on the new ABC policy so I thought I’d put it here for the record. You can read the extract from Mark Scott’s speech at the Sydney Institute below if you’ve missed it in the media feeding frenzy over this week.

The critics that Mark Scott speaks of are, invariably, right-wing, conservative supporters of the Howard government - people like Andrew Bolt, Gerard Henderson (who is the executive director of the Sydney Institute - who happened to host the speech) and Piers Ackerman - people who support Australia being part of the invading forces in Iraq, the locking up of asylum-seekers in detention centres, the denial of climate change and the refusal to sign the Kyoto agreement, the new “work choices” industrial relations legislation that reduces the pay and conditions of Australian workers and the reduction in public funding for the ABC.

And the reason why they are loud, bully-boy critics of the ABC is because the ABC hasn’t played the part of a cheer squad on each of these issues as they’ve arisen and they don’t like being challenged. Mark Scott’s new policy simply panders to these thugs and gives them more air time than they already have to spout their lies and to proselytise for their church of the far right… not to mention the more extreme groups of the right who will be compulsorily included so that we “hear the full range of voices” “on contentious matters”.

For example, this means that if there’s a program that deals in evolution - say Walking With Dinosaurs - which some claim is a contentious matter, the ABC would have to give air time to creationists to argue their case for creationism or, as they’ve repackaged it, Intelligent Design. A similar thing has happened in various states in the US in the schools’ curricula with ‘Intelligent Design’ being taught in SCIENCE classes, in order to refute Darwin’s theory of evolution and consolidate the belief that the Genesis book of the bible is a literal document of how God created all life.

Already, even without any new policy, 774 radio in Melbourne has filled their afternoon and drive programs with Richard Stubbs and Lindy Burns - two presenters that distinctly lack the intelligence of their predecessors who present programs that waste two and three hours every day covering crap like world massage day and whether footballers should be held up to greater accountability because they’re role models.

Already we’ve got Helen Razer cutting off guests because they say that newly appointed, conservative ABC board member, Keith Windshuttle’s denial of the Aboriginal stolen generation is akin to holocaust deniers - because she’ll lose her job.

The new ABC policy marks the beginning of the end of the ABC being anything but an excuse for dead air that acts merely as an exercise in covering its own ass, lest the vocal, far-right, conservatives be offended.

Now let’s take a look at who’s at the controls of the ABC: Mark Scott is the Managing Director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He was previously the senior political adviser to former NSW Liberal education minister, Terry Metherell.

According to a report by Crikey.com.au, while editor-in-chief of metropolitan newspapers at Fairfax, Scott overturned a decision by the editorial staff at The Age newspaper’s to call for a change of government at the 2004 federal election. Accoding to Crikey, “a decision was taken to call for a change of government. That decision was then overturned by Mark Scott, Fairfax’s head of metropolitan newspapers, who apparently made the rather extraordinary claim that backing [Opposition Leader Mark] Latham wasn’t in the commercial interests of the company.”

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This clears up the teaser I mentioned from Crikey on the show this week… or does it?

I have not been boned, says Nine’s McGuire

By Brooke Williamson - October 20, 2006 12:00am - Article from: The Daily Telegraph

CHANNEL 9 chief Eddie McGuire yesterday denied he was out of favour with senior PBL management, despite being a notable omission on the new company’s board.

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In a week of speculation about the future of television in this country, we get Tom Elliot back in to put everything into perspective. We then blow that persepctive away with our discussion of the ABC. In our ongoing look at new shows from the US fall season we get some perspective on Brothers & Sisters and Dexter. We also have Quotes, some Porkand a whole bunch of TV news.

Our perspective:

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Your perspective: hooray@boxcutters.net

We’re getting a lot of good discussion going on in the comments on this here blog - especially with the new shows in the fall season out of the US at the moment…

I mentioned very briefly and very spontaneously in Pork this week that we might get a few of our regular commenters on board as fully fledged contributors to the blog - make new posts about what you’ve seen on the telly or on the interweb, all that sort of stuff…

I think you guys know who you are… if you’re keen to write the occasional post, send us an email at the usual address - hooray@boxcutters.net - and we’ll set you up.

Also, while I’m here, we’d love to get to know you in the comments section… Now that a security hole in WordPress has been patched, self registration is turned back on and it’d be great to be able to see who’s saying what in the comments area of the posts.

BB

Hot on the heels of Heroes Jericho becomes the second of the new fall season to get the nod for a full series.

Good to see, although I am sure Brett would think maybe they should have just picked up every second ep!!

And Ugly Betty makes it three. Good news for Channel 7 who have both Betty and Heroes.

EDIT: Brothers And Sisters picked up as well.