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Cheers - AE

Sunday 17 January 2010

Top Gear fucked.

Not because, as some have said, that it's kind of lost its way in the last couple of series. It's fucked in the Exile household because it's leaving its Aussie home on SBS for the Nine Network, which as I mentioned a few months back is one of a number of channels that struggles with keeping to a schedule:
This isn't the two or three minutes I used to tut about [back in the UK] - I shit you not, I've known things to start ten or twelve minutes late here. ... This isn't live event type TV that can overrun by the way. Obviously that can go tits up and play havoc with the scheduling, though how anyone here is expected to actually notice when that happens is anyone's guess. No, we're talking about regular pre-recorded programs, many of them US imports and therefore running at a convenient 40 minutes or so long to allow for plenty of ad breaks and guff such as 'this program is brought to you in association with a product you don't want and might not even have the right genitals to use properly'.

...

Execs of channels 7, Nine and Ten, I suggest you get a fucking clock each and learn how to use it before someone comes round and inserts one in you with the instruction to start the next program every time your arse rings.
Needless to say nothing's changed since September except that it's got worse. They do the rating holiday thing that the Yanks do, which means they don't make much of an effort this time of year. So we can expect the new Top Gear format to be along the lines of cutting the 58 minutes or so running time down to 40 or less, to often but not always run an ad break right after the title sequence and another about 30-60 seconds before the credits roll - yes, on top of all the other ad breaks - and to annoy the shit out of everyone by plastering on screen graphics with 'Coming Up Next On Nine - Shit You Can't Stand' on the screen at random intervals. It's pretty much a given that it'll start several minutes late and overrun by slightly longer.

Now I'm sure that this has come about because Nine has offered the BBC more money than SBS. Okay, fair enough. But I'll make a prediction here and now - Nine will fuck off the Top Gear fans enough that increasing numbers will simply download it illegally, viewing figures will drop and Nine will give up on it. Hopefully before that happens the BBC will wise up and start making it available to download for a small cost directly from the Beeb itself instead of some poor quality pirated shit or a cut to fuck version shown on TV.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

G'day. I couldn't agree more- channel nine is shit and they obviously think we have nothing better to do than wait on them while they yell adds at us waiting for one episode to start- one that they cant even promo accurately! I think the programmers care factor goes along the lines of 'Lets just stick on an add for an episode that we arent even gonna play- fuck 'em, the audience are brainwashed/ deaf by now anyway and we are not here for hearts and minds- we just want eyes/ears on us at channel nine!'
Top gear has obviously been shitting nine for a while now. they tried their shows in competition, to no avail. imagine the desk thumping at nine, greedy fuckers! Just shows that money wins again- but i know without a doubt if i try to watch nine play top gear i'll just have to work very hard to not pull the plug, in the end it will be mythbusters for me or whatever else sbs have on! Just on principle nine are a pack of thieving jealous cunts who can't let sleeping dogs lie. Pack of dumb shits! Bring top gear back to sbs!!

Angry Exile said...

Top gear has obviously been shitting nine for a while now. they tried their shows in competition, to no avail.

On top of which Seven has got Fifth Gear if I remember rightly. I imagine buying TG is as much about getting one over on their commercial rival as on SBS. Still cunts though.


Bring top gear back to sbs!!

I have to say that my first year in Oz TG on SBS was several months behind and I'd seen the entire series before leaving the UK. SBS were pretty gentle with what they cut to make room for ads and still fit it in an hour long slot but all the same... it's not often I have something good to say about the BBC (or the ABC for that matter) but it's one of those shows I would prefer without ads and would be prepared to download for a small fee. Still waiting for the Beeb to fucking sort that one out of course.

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