Hey Hey not here to stay
Posted July 18th, 2010 by debritz
I speculated in a tweet a few days ago that Hey Hey It's Saturday might not come back after its mid-season break, and I got some interesting responses. A lot of what is said about Hey Hey comes from sentiment, a deep affection for the original show that was part of so many Australians' childhood and youth. But the cold, hard fact is that, despite the success of last year's reunion specials, it just isn't cutting it in 2010. Spencer Howson points out that Hey Hey Red Faces judge Red Symons told him on 612ABC that the show will be back later this year, possibly on a Saturday. Hey Hey currently faces tough competition on a Wednesday night from the all-conquering MasterChef, but there's not much evidence to suggest it would do significantly better in another timeslot. And, when you factor-in the enormous costs of "live" television -- Daryl Somers' undoubtedly large salary, the band, the touring acts etc. -- Hey Hey is expensive television, and TV networks don't like to spend big money unless they get big returns. According to last week's figures, Hey Hey had an average national audience of 849,000 against MasterChef's 2.1 million and, in its second hour, Lie to Me's 950,000. Of course, MasterChef is a formidable opponent and, as I said in my tweet, Hey Hey probably deserves a run when it isn't competing against the single most popular show on TV. It may come back after the Commonwealth Games but I doubt we'll be seeing it again next year. Surely Nine can't afford to throw good money after bad. While there are examples -- like Neighbours and Seinfeld -- of programs that built momentum after very slow debuts, you must remember that Hey Hey isn't a new show, it's a revival of a show that hit its peak in the 1980s. The Nine network desperately needs to plough what original production money it does have into a show that has MasterChef potential -- the realistic chance it will pull in big ratings numbers, and thus advertisers' dollars, regardless of what's scheduled against it. Hey Hey isn't that show.
I reckon Hey Hey should quit while it's behind.
I can think of better things 9 can spend money on (news, election etc.)
Nine could once boast, that it could get 200,000 viewers in south east Queensland at 5:30, on a weekday for a great program, until it was axed by outside forces at the peak of it's successful run.
While another program on at primetime, on once a week is getting a third to half of that great 5:30 program's figure in SEQ, quite often, alongside the fact that 200,000 viewers at 5:30 is now restricted to the weekend advertorials on 7, and a advertorial (most importantly, a local program) often beats the problematic primetime Nine program each week.
The problematic program is Hey Hey.
The advertorial beating Hey Hey is Seven's Great South East on Sunday afternoons.