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TV Lounge

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1,665 Responses

  1. Hi David, I’m aware that 10 have the bulk of the Traitors series from around the world, but I cant find the Canada or Ireland offerings anywhere. Do you know who, if anyone, has these rights in Australia

    1. Both are coming this month to tenplay. I forget which dates but one of them is soon and one near the end of the month. Tenplay will probably say.

  2. Knoxy will probably note this at some stage, but Seven really are the king of split schedules and programming pre alterations aren’t they? Peaking during the old MKR era with AFL and COVID including BH&G. Back again tonight with Sunday night AFL and next week with H&A dropped for an earlier 7pm Farmer launch, after Kings Birthday AFL clash (last year’s was 7News’ highest for 2025). But I just think it’s jarring and unnecessary, often random and disruptive. Take tonight, bottom of the barrel West Coast v Essendon, which will even have Melburnians changing the channel… Would love somebody from the network to better qualify these and explain their strategies.

    1. When I saw the promo for the first time “7pm Monday” I thought it must have been a mistake. Then I checked.
      They’re dropping the highest rating drama for a rehash of an old “reality” (I use the term lightly) program?
      Guess I’ll be looking elsewhere for 90-100 minutes to take me up to HYBPA?!

      1. Seems ridiculous to drop H&A which is rating the highest it has in years to maybe one up Farmer. Do the people they are trying to target know about the “special time”?

        1. I haven’t seen the promo, but wonder why 7 continue to mess about with the chedule when as people have highlighted H&A is enjoying a high ratings period….

      1. They are obviously at least a little bit concerned that Farmer won’t quite land where they want or need it. Perhaps with a lot of FTA rival noise currently and the World Cup on SBS literally around the corner which will disrupt things. I mean as others say, why else heavily impact Home & Away and its amazingly loyal fan base when its had one of its strongest runs in years. And I don’t buy the ‘oh networks always encore reality shows’, as ripping up your Friday or Saturday prime time main channel (even if usually only movies) sends the signal you’re desperate for as many eyes to see the brand as possible. In the past when Nine and Seven have done this, they do not rate and it used to only be for shows who’s launches disappointed.

  3. Wow! All programs listed under Daily Pick are viewable by streaming only. No free-to-air. Is that a first?
    There are 3 Simpson episodes coming very soon exclusive to Disney +.

      1. Where is relevant post? What about old school people that don’t have access to streaming services or Pay TV? Not me but do know some such as my grandmother in a nursing retirement home.

  4. Does anyone know what has happened to ABC News Victoria 7pm anchor, Tamara Oudyn?
    She hasn’t been seen on air for weeks, with a roster of other presenters in the chair.

  5. Do we know if Budget Battlers will be returning this year? I did do a search on it but couldn’t find anything. I’m not into the Block or MRR but I quite enjoyed this one for some casual viewing. Comparable to Space Invaders which I also watch sometimes. Jess is such a lovely down to earth person I would think a lot of people find her very relatable. I can’t remember how well it rated or not though.
    PS when is the new format lounge going to be on board David?

  6. Something I’ve been meaning to mention here for a little while now: The double episode reruns of “It’s Academic” on Channel Seven, in the not particularly kid-friendly timeslot of 4am Sunday mornings!

    The episodes that have been on-air of late took ages to finally make it on-screen the first time around, being produced in 2014 but not shown on 7TWO until Late 2015/Early 2016…by which time, all the contestants (who of course would be about 23-24 years of age now) realistically would’ve graduated from the primary schools they were representing!

    For what it’s worth, you’ll be waiting quite a while for the season to run in its entirety. Nonetheless, it’s still mildly amusing stuff to look back on from a 2026 perspective especially with less than impressive prizes on offer to say the least: earphones and copies of the Monopoly board game! 😜

  7. Hi David. I used to enjoy watching NZ entertainers the Topp Twins on ABC TV. Is it possible to mark the passing of Dame Jools Topp please, thanks.

    1. If you are talking about Nate Byrne I too am also glad the lovely fella is back, although I somehow managed to miss him on News Breakfast this morning. Thanks Maev!

      1. I did also…. watch on my phone every so often if awake…. He is such a nice young man…. followed his ups and downs from the get-go!

  8. Don’t know if people have been waiting but 7 will finally show The Rookie S8 on June 8.

    The show aired in Jan 2026 and finished the final episode of the season 2 weeks ago.

  9. Does anyone know if the upcoming CNN series Craig Ferguson: American On Purpose (following on from his wonderful memoir of the same name) is going to be available to watch in Australia any time soon? Thanks. Still my favourite late night host of all the ones I’ve seen.

  10. It doesn’t look like Mildura VIC, and from next month Griffith NSW, Riverland and Mt.Gambier SA will be the only markets to lose access to Channel 10. I read somewhere in an article today that WIN are looking at ceasing transmission of Channel 10 in Regional Western Australia and the Northern Territory in six months time. It’s one thing to cut off access in smaller markets, but we’re talking two big states here. That means in Western Australia, only Perth metro viewers would be able to access the network on a terrestrial platform whereas in Northern Territory, no one would be able to access the network on a terrestrial signal at all. This is something that needs a rethink as soon as possible..

    1. How about Tasmania, Spencer Gulf & Broken Hill and Remote Central & Eastern Australia (which would cover all of the Northern Territory except the Darwin market)? SCA previously was responsible for the transmission of Ten in those markets, these days it’s probably done by Seven Regional…but most likely played out from NPC at Frenchs Forest in any case.

      Overall, it seems to me like WIN want to focus solely on their Nine affiliate operations. Although I still reckon anyone who thinks there’s a chance that a local news service may be re-instated on NTD in Darwin (a capital city that is smaller in population than a whole slew of major regional areas in the Eastern part of the country) is being overly optimistic!

      Northern NSW/Gold Coast is of course, has more than a big enough population to support local news bulletins. However, within time I’m almost certainly expecting to see a diminished service from WIN compared to what NBN viewers are provided right now!

  11. I know Netflix debut a lot of series (and I’m getting the feeling that they don’t promote all of them very well, after fairly recently mentioning that ‘The Beast In Me’ wasn’t even on the TV Tonight website), so David can’t post an article for all of them. But I’ve just found another one not on here, which may be my TV Show of 2026 thus far; ‘Legends’. It’s an absolute ripper from the same creator (Neil Forsyth) as fantastic series ‘Guilt’ (remade as ‘Reckless’ down under) and ‘The Gold’.

    1. Yes some shows do get missed! There are various shows streamers push as priorities, and others not. So it can get confusing if some are old titles getting a “rerun” on streaming. I does what I can!

  12. Hey David, is there a possibility that The Masked Singer could return to Australian TV in the future now that I’m A Celebrity has officially been axed?

      1. Thanks for responding, David!

        It’s just that with 10’s decision to “rest” I’m A Celeb, the US and UK versions of Masked Singer rating decently in their respective countries plus the fact that Eureka (an Australian production company) are set to take over production of the US version of Masked Singer, it looks like the Australian version could be coming sooner!

  13. (NewsFlash) “Why is Sunday night programming so hell-bent on crime factuals, many of them not even Australian made? A grim way to start the week”.
    Agree completely. I’ve been thinking about that all week. Whatever happened to the ‘must watch’ family-genre Sunday night offerings? Whilst I despise streaming for what it does to FTA I find myself searching Netflix for a movie that I haven’t seen for a while.

    1. I’m sure each channel have a few good episodic shows in their catalogue that haven’t made FTA yet. Sunday night would be a great slot for them so they can get rid of the “Debbie Downer” crime crap…

  14. At exactly midday, all the 9 channels in Adelaide switched to HD. I was watching 11:30 News on my old TV then at 12 it all went dark. Not many channels remaining on my old TV lol

    1. Woah, that’s a major development!

      Rather unsurprisingly, the change hasn’t yet been made here in Sydney (and presumably not in other markets either) with those rather blurry, grainy MPEG2 SD channels still on-air. Given Nine’s ratings status in this market though, they’d probably need to run a major promotional campaign and maybe even reports on the 6pm news alerting viewers to the change.

      Either way, you’d have to say this increases the chances of SBS going all-MPEG4 and at least mostly HD on August 21 when the VICELAND > SBS2 rebrand is expected to take place.

      1. I wish they’d at least make the normal channel numbers the HD one and 70 / 90 etc the SD version. I know they won’t do that though.

        1. Well, Seven’s main channel is exclusively an MPEG4 HD one on 7/70/71 these days.

          One can only assume it may now be a similar story (except with their channel positions obviously being 9/90/91) for Nine in Adelaide…and other markets if/when the switch is eventually made.

    2. Just checked my TV in Adelaide and normal ch9 in not HD but 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95 and 99 is HD. Why change all of them but leave the normal 9 SD??

        1. Nobody in Australia has had access to analogue TV since 2013.

          The absolute baseline transmission standard for Australian TV these days is (generally low bitrate) MPEG2 SD. In metropolitan Australia at least, the video streams of all HD channels transmitted on DVB-T have been in MPEG4 since April 2017. I think it was more like 2018 for most of regional Australia, but these days MPEG2 HD transmission has been confined to the history books just about everywhere AFAIK.

          Anyway, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before all remaining MPEG2 SD channels disappear in favour of Australia having all-MPEG4 and at least mostly HD DVB-T transmissions. Seven only gave Melbourne viewers of its SD main channel a short reprieve between converting 7TWO to MPEG4 HD on December 10 and turning off the remaining MPEG2 SD service on February 27, so don’t be at all surprised if Nine has a similar plan for its MPEG4 transition in other markets and/or SBS uses the August 21 SBS2 relaunch to go all-MPEG4.

          1. ok a non digital TV. Walk into any bush pub that doesn’t have fox and there is probably a TV on the wall that can only get 7, 9, 10 and 2. No 20, 30, 50, 60 or 80 series channels on that old boy..

  15. David, last Tuesday night, S2 Ep 15 of Doc was scheduled to be shown. It never aired, probably due to budget analysis over runs. It is yet to be re-scheduled and isn’t available on 7plus. Do you have any idea when it will screen?

  16. It’s official, WIN is pulling the plug on the relay of Channel 10 programs and channels into the Griffith, Riverland and Mt Gambier from June 30th 2026. This is going to make it harder for 10 to secure not only the AFL down the track, but also the NRL as well. This will affect 10’s regional broadcast presence..

  17. Next month will be two years since the Mildura relay of Channel 10 was shut down. A closure that should never have happened (yeah I know it wasn’t doing financially well, but all areas should be able to access all FTA channels. That includes Channel 10). Now theres word somewhere that the joint owned 10 relay stations in SA and Griffith will either be converted to a straight relay of 10 Adelaide or possibly may be shut down soon as well. The last thing 10 needs is a reduced regional footprint, they’ve already lost Mildura, now they may lose yet another market. Becoming a possible scenario sadly where unless you live in regional areas on the east coast, it’ll be impossible to get a local linear relay of 10..

    1. Apart from needing some interesting commercial arrangements, I don’t get why the Nine or Seven affiliate in Mildura (or anywhere else this ends up happening to) can’t at least include say 10 (main), 10 Comedy and 10 Drama in their multiplex and drop some of their own less viewed multi channels and shopping channels. Surely having 10’s channels there would do better in potential viewers and therefore advertising revenue?

      1. If Ten was to disappear from Griffith and the MIA, that would surely reduce the chances of them picking up the NRL broadcast rights to zero?

        It’d be one thing to not have the coverage available in Mildura, which you’d think is a predominantly AFL-supporting market, with no more than a couple of thousand NRL viewers at most. But Griffith and the MIA, a region in the key league state of New South Wales (which I believe receives predominantly Sydney-aligned TV services) not having access to Ten would be completely unacceptable to Peter V’Landys, Andrew Abdo and co, I think.

        Sadly, it wouldn’t surprise me if Ten eventually disappeared from terrestrial TV in all markets outside the five main capital cities, aggregated markets along the East Coast and *maybe* Tasmania. Our third commercial network just doesn’t have the strong news/sport output of Seven or Nine, or the likely government-mandated obligations to be available everywhere that you’d think the ABC & SBS have.

        1. I think until today, chances of 10 gaining rights to the NRL were high, not so much now after today’s announcement. It nearly happened to the Seven affiliated WIN stations last year, but after two days those services were restored. No doubt Seven having two major sport codes, as well as being the top news service and network made restoring those services possible.

          Apart from maybe a few primetime reality programs and of course the 8:40pm comedy lineup, 10 have a news service with less resources, no major sport code, timeslots outside of 7:30pm that need improving and no morning tv presence. If they had a two major pillars, two being a top rating sport code including an improved and strongly resourced news department, the 10 services in Mildura and three soon-to-be affected markets would also be restored in a heartbeat..

  18. More observations that may interest Rusi.

    Having seen Jack Mahony present Sport on tonight’s NBN News, it’s obvious to me that the pre-recorded “cut-and-paste” format of WIN News was holding back his talents there. Seemed quite conversational during the pre and post-segment banter with Jane Goldsmith about the Jets’ loss, whereas he was OK but nothing to get excited about alongside Jared Constable.

    While she’s been around for a couple of years now, Risa Utama is a NBN News reporter who I could eventually see going onto bigger and better things. Serious when she needs to be but also expresses an enjoyably quirky side from time to time as the reporting matter allows! 🙂

    Of course, with NEC shareholders expected to vote on the sale of NBN to WIN this upcoming Thursday (May 21) it’ll be interesting to see what happens then! But in the meantime, it seems Nine’s parting gift to NBN might be this week’s viewer competition for the Disney on Ice show being held in Newcastle this July.

    1. Thanks for the observations @SydneyCityTV. Having seen Jack Mahony a few times. He’s quite good at the sports segment. I wonder if he will be retained by WIN as a reporter. Risa’s great too, she

      After this Thursday, I’d like to think we’ll know a little bit more about WIN’s plans for NBN. One things for sure, it’s very unlikely ‘9News: Late’ will continue to be presented from NBN on Sunday nights post-takeover. I’d like to think though there will be a transitional period between the end of the sale and when WIN takes over playout and news presentation where Nine will continue to provide NBN’s playout and news operations/presentation for the time being while WIN prepares their studios and station equipment..

      1. Jack joined NBN News shortly before the sale announcement, however I’d be very surprised if there weren’t rumours swirling around internally for some time before then. Given that WIN News Southern NSW/ACT was without a Sports presenter last I checked (and having presenters read both News and Sports doesn’t make for exciting viewing…), maybe we’ll see Jack move back to Wollongong once the sale is formalised.

        I highly doubt Nine News: Late will still be presented from Newcastle on Sunday (and sometimes Thursday!) nights post-WIN takeover of NBN although would still think the network might try and hang onto Jane Goldsmith for future Sydney/national presenting opportunities, especially with Sarah Abo and likely also Sophie Walsh expected to go on leave soon.

        While I’m at it, how is NRN or Ten Northern NSW/Gold Coast going these days? Are WIN still doing the Local News Updates or have Ten proper finally taken over, ala ex-SCA markets? Either way, I’m sure I’m not missing out on much!

        1. Yeah, you’re right there. Jack will probably move back down to Wollongong as I can’t see WIN keeping the Honeysuckle studio post-WIN takeover. They will likely move sales and newsroom operations to an office location somewhere in the Newcastle CBD and the Nine-esque NBN set will probably be shipped up to Nine Gold Coast for their news set. Jane will probably move to Nine Sydney around then, can’t see her staying at WIN going back to just general reporting/a behind the scenes role after 15 years of weekend news presenting and 9 years of national presenting. Surely with the vacancies you’ve mentioned, there’d be a role of sorts for her in Sydney.

          Regarding the NNSW/Gold Coast updates, WIN are still providing ’10 News’ branded updates on the 10 Newcastle relay.10 will likely takeover News update production in-house out of its Pyrmont studios by the time WIN completes the sale of NBN..

  19. There is 1 episode of the series V (the 1984 one) missing from amazon prime, episode 6, so instead of 19 episodes, there are only 18 of possible 19, why the stuff up and having a non complete series on amazon? I know you can buy the 84 series, along with the original and final battle as well as the remake on itunes, and the itunes one has all 19 episodes.

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