Saturday, December 6, 2008

They're Not Here Anymore


I don't blame Thank God You're Here, or Working Dog to be specific, for jumping ship.

Let's face it. When a large object is sinking... what is the best thing to do?
That large thing is Channel Ten... oooh sorry, Network Ten. Channel Seven apparently offered the "Dog" a million dollar deal to come to their network... and who wouldn't?
Especially in this financial crisis, who would rather have loyalty, integrity, blah blah blah, over a huge wad of cash?

Seven has just won its second consecutive ratings here. I won't bore you with statistics but Seven has well and truly snatched the crown from nine.
And Seven isn't afraid to splash a bit of cash around. Last year it poached Kash and Kim from the ABC, to great success. A year before that it still had Dicko, who it had tempted with another multi-million dollar deal... to not so great success- after a gig hosting the ill-suited My Restaurant Rules, he was shoved in lycra and dance to the Muppet Show theme on Dancing with the Stars, and in the next series he found himself judging for one week on the same show... the only non-proffesional dancer to sit on the panel.
Even though this was mostly a failure, it was during the years building up to seven's big win in 2007. However, the message is still clear, if you spend money, you make money.
Thank God You're Here is sure to be a success. All of the ingredients are there, Shane Bourne has already been at Seven for two years now, it would be no problem to get the supporting cast back- as two of them (Nicola Parry and Toby Truslove) are already on This is Your Laugh with Andrew O'Keefe, and it wouldn't be too much of a problem to get the rest back together, including the very cool Ed Kavalee.
The only problem I see is that of one H. Blake. He is arguably the stand-out performer on TGYH. His ability to think on his feet is exceptional and mirrors the idea of the show. Of course, I am not forgetting about Shaun Micallef, who could also be argued as being another stand-out. Anyway, I don't think Hamish would be allowed to appear on another commercial network just for a couple of appearances on TGYH, as he is contracted to Ten. Hamish and Andy have been rumoured to be in talks for their own show for quite a while, and I wouldn't think that he would leave Ten.
Nevertheless, with Working Dog still at the helm, I have no doubt that the show will be just as good, if not better, than before.

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