Live blog: FlashForward and The Apprentice Australia
5.50pm Welcome to Mumbrella’s first ever live blog, in what’s a massive week for Australian telly.
Tonight sees the debut of Seven’s big sci-fi hope FlashForward. It did fairly well in the US telly ratings last week, but will it do as well here?
And that’s followed by The Apprentice Australia, including our home town hope Lynton Pipkorn. (That’s assuming that because he works in marketing you feel like you’re on his side.) I’m just trying not to think of the UK version where the marketing person has always turned out to be a tool.
And hey, as I’m at it, we’ll be talking about Ten’s The 7pm Project too – they’re going to discusssing the Vegemite iSnack 2.0 debacle.
What do you reckon? Any ratings predictions?
Here’s mine: 1.5m for FlashForward; 1.3m for The Apprentice.
More from just before 1900 AEST…
6.55pm. Chicken burger? Check. Chips? Check. I’m settled in for the coming kicking for Vegemite. It’s gotta be an open goal for The 7Pm Project…
7pm Project
7pm Looks like it’s a marketing special. They’re also going to be talking about prisoners making telemarketing calls. Right now, Hughesy’s riffing on AFL stuff…
7.08pm Standard stuff so far – more topical stuff on the young yacht girl’s solo thing. Okay topical chat, not may laught though. First time I’ve seen The 7pm Project in two or three weeks. At least the cast are looking a lot more comfortable and settled. Wish they’d get on with the Vegemite stuff though.
7.13pm Now it’s obesity. They are covering their bases. Puts me off my chicken burger.
7.19pm Arj Barker’s getting some laughs on the “dust storm tragedy”. “I’m thinking of anyone who washed their car that day…”
7.21pm Dave Hughes: “Some audiences are really stupid”. I think the punchline’s a bit obvious there, isn’t it?
7.23pm Not getting many laughs out of the prisoners making marketing calls segment despite what you’d have thought was its potential. Again Arj Barker to the rescue… I’m not sure the next piece on oil spills is going to have much more comic potential. Still, they’re setting quite a pace…
7.26: Massive gear change – not many laughs out of environmental disaster. They’re on a break now. No sign of the Vegemite saga yet. Clearly they plan to overrun the show somethign chronic. Who’d a thunk?
7.30: They dedicated about two minutes to the Vegemite stuff, despite plugging it as the main item. Still, it was topical and hilarious. If you hadn’t looked at Twitter all day.
7.30: It looks like I haven’t been missing much in the weeks since I last saw The 7pm Project. They certainly blew a comedy opportunity with the lame Vegemite stuff. It was like they knew it had huge possibilities, but realised at the last moment they’d got nothin. More, or better, writers neeeded perhaps?
Time for a break before FlashForward in about an hour…
Flash Forward
8.30pm: Right. I hope this is worth it. I’ve rejected all opportunities for previews, downloads and other sneak peaks. Looking forward to Flash Forward inordinately.
How late do you reckon Seven will overrun?
8.37pm: It’s starting…
8.40pm. The stars are all so rugged… no unbeautiful people in this reality…
8.42: A trip to an AA meeting – bit of backstory for us there…
8.44 Ooh. A car chase. And a crash. And everybody’s unconscious…
8.48. All this chaos reminds me of the opening of Lost.
8.49 We nearly went 12 minutes without an ad break. Seven, you’re spoiling us…
Marks out of ten so far? Seven from me. Strong opening, I thought. Surgeons unconscious in operating theatres; suicides narrowly averted; exploding petrol tankers. What’s not to like? Twitter likes it so far. Can’t remember the last time I saw Twitterati sentiment this positive about a show on Aussie telly.
8.52. Back from the break
8.56. Slow motion running, sad music, epic scenes. A kangaroo???
And. Another. Break… Already. I’m warning you Seven, if you overrun, I’m still turning over for the Apprentice.
9.01 “I love you but I’ve gotta to go”. Hero cop husband; hero doctor wife…
9.03 It’s just like ER. Did I just hear the line “He’s taking a turn for the worse”? Do they really say that in hospitals? “We’re losing him!”
9.04. How convenient that everyone saw the time and date in their premonitions.
Another break already. You’re kidding…
9.07. Twitter’s still loving it, although plenty of people noticed the bus with the not so subtle ad for Desperate Housewives on it.
9.14pm
“How can you compare seven billion stories?”
“You could create a website!”
Brilliant. Anyone know WordPress?
9.15pm I feel very disloyal not turning over to the ABC for Media Watch at this point
9.17 And who needs a website when you can do the same thing on a wall with PostIt notes?
9.18. I’ve just had a horrible vision of the future. The TV programmes are over-running by up to three hours beyond advertised; there’s another bloody CommBank ad with that wacky Amercian ad agency and look – there’s a new Telstra ad with the rabbit kid. Only now he’s a juvenile delinquent.
9.22 “It’s like a sign from God.” New script please…
9.24. The characters are already calling it, get this, a “flash forward”…
9.27. We’re on another ad break. I should turn over for The Apprentice in a mo (come on Lynton!) but I’m sure Nine’ll start it at least ten minutes late. Won’t they?
9.29 Moody bit. At least most of the characters have found time to wash the blood off themselves now.
9.31. Seven and Nine should both be on their next shows. Naturally neither one is showing any sign of doing so anytime soon. It’s always nice to be shown so much respect as a viewer.
9.36 Cliffhanger. Someone was awake! And The Apprentice is starting on Nine…
The Apprentice
9.37: “I can deliver a bunch of roses in one hand and a punch in the gut in the other”. Thanks, love.
9.38 If you take the looks of the stars of FlashForward, and add them to the looks of the contestants on The Apprentice and divide it by two, you hit something of an average.
9.42 I think this might be good, if you like laughing at deluded fools, as I do.
Quote from Bouris: “The prize is a job as head of our business devleopment unit. It’s a bloody important job.” Yes, I’m sure it’s just what the contestants drteamed of as kids. Still, it does pay $200k.
Some random contestant quotes:
“I’m born to be a business man”
“I’m the kind of guy who who sets the goals and always achieves them.”
(From our Lynton:) “I’m an alpha male.” (Oh no, it looks like he’s going to be the tool) (Scroll down to the comments section where Lynton tells us they made him say that…)
The girls’ team have decided to call their team Evetus (despite a bid by Carmen to call her team, erm, Carmen). The boys are Pinnacle.
9.52. Here comes the task. It’s gardening.
9.54. When did pinstripe suits come back into fashion?
9.56 Carmen and Mary-Anne hate each other already. Outstanding.
9.57 The boys are bidding to mow the lawn at the museum near Circular Quay.
9.58 But the girls bid less and get the job. Care factor falling….
10.01. Most of the Twitter debate so far is focused on the egoes and the girls’ bad hair. Which is fair enough. There are some traversties against hairdressing (I’m thinking of Carmen. She’s already the one to hate.)
10.04 It’s getting quite hard to feel excited about people offering to mow lawns. Even if not every pitch begins with “I was Miss Australia 2006.”
10.06 It’s early days, but it feels like this is losing its way a bit. It’s a repetitive series of scenes of contestants offering to mow lawns.
10.10 I’m sure I spotted that there was a car sponsor (Chrysler?) If I was them I’d be furious. The three big blokes crammed in the back of the people carrier look like they’re trying to break some sort of record. They certainly aren’t being conveyed in comfort.
10.14 Clunky product placement for Hard Yakka boots there.
10.16 This seems quite well cast to me – there’s a mixture of likeable and hateable characters, with several splendidly deluded. But there’s just not much of a story to be told. You really can’t build up much tension about people mowing lawns.
10.18. It’s becoming a catch phrase “Hello, I’m Miss Australia 2006.” No, Sabrina. You’re the gardener.
10.20 I’m feeling bad being mean about Lynton. He seems quite hard worker. The boys are gettiugn their digging done better than the girls.
10.23 Another ad break. Flash Forward and The Apprentice were both an hour long. But whereas FlashForward went by in what felt like half an hour, The Apprentice has really dragged, and it’s not over yet. Mind you, it does seem to be coming to some sort of climax as both teams run out of time. Mainly it’s about hoping that team Carmen falls flat on its face.
10.26. Nooo! I was mistaken. Apprentice is 90 minutes. More than half an hour to go, with only the hope of Carmen being fired to sustain me. The women’s two gardenign jobs both seem far less well done than the boys – unless there’s some tricksy editing.
10.29. Please – no more high fives.
10.33 I’ve a feeling the best is yet to come. The slippery boardroom battles to avoid getting fired are often a pleasure. But I’ve a feeling that they’ve turned a tight hour long show into a plodding 90 minute one.
If I wasn’t doing this, I’d have turned off the telly and gone to bed by now though.
10.36. Into the boardroom to find out who won…
10.40 That’s better. Tears from Carmen when her team slagged her off. And that was before they found out they’d lost.
10.41 Did I hear that right? Is the boys’ reward a spa treatment? How 21st century. We’re on another break. I’m looking forward to the bloodshed that should follow
10.44. I was right about the spa treatment. At the Observatory hotel, where the planting was. More product placement?
10.48. This is where it gets good. After the standard rowing, Carmen chooses Jane and Sabrina to come back into the boardroom with her. Clearly Carmen deserves to get fired, but she’s so nasty and stupid she makes good telly. Surely the producers won’t have let Bouris fire her on the first opportunity? We’re about to find out… after the break.
10.53: Taxi for Jane! Purely because the hateful Carmen makes better viewing for future episodes.
They’re wrapping up now.
It was a slow start, but there’s potential. Particularly if the rest of the episodes are 60 minutes.
10.57pm. That’s it for our first live TV blog. Thanks for joining me.
Tim Burrowes
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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The American dude is quite funny
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So far, so predictable. They’re just not funny enough.
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And that’s why I don’t watch the 7pm show.
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Nothing can be worth that amount of hype. We’re going to be disapopointed.
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Interesting blog post – will you do them often? Seems like more of a Twitter type activity to post live during a TV show, but will be interesting to see the response you get..
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The book was good – not sure whether it will make good television though.
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This one’s an experiment, Kimberley. We shall see!
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
7 will run it till 9.40
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I like it. I’m intrigued.
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am more intrigued with the live blog rather than the tv. Am enjoying sharing my lounge room with a few more people tonight.
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Flahsforward = iLost 2.0
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My money is on the Kangaroo being secretly behind the global blackout … seriously, he’s powered by that dark force, iSnack 2.0!
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I’m hooked
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Flashforward = iLost 2.0
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I think this is a great idea – we’re two hours (soon to be three) behind you all, so I can check in and see what’s going to be worth tuning in to. Twitter’s good that way as well. Cheers.
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can someone make me a cup of tea?
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we’re watching Vampire Diaries on Go!
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Why so many ad breaks! Show me more than 2 mins of tv show please channel 7! Otherwise, I’m hooked so far.
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Moving along nicely. A bit cliche though. Too many add breaks.
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I wish we had more stuff like this. Not sure they’ll be able to keep it up for a whole series though
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am getting hooked….
memories of events that haven’t occurred yet
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Too many bloody ad breaks.
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Just blacked out and saw what I was watching in 6 seconds time #flashforward #flashfail
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Aren’t there rules about how many adverts they are allowed to show? This seems like a lot, even for seven
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Very cliche – reminding me of Heroes. It’s losing me.
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@Luna I think they’re doing the ‘more breaks with less ads’ strategy
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There was an interesting segment on “It looks like an Ad, but is it?”, see here: http://www.abc.net.au/mediawat.....692252.htm
Thanks for the heads up and the novel preview (I must be the only person not on twitter), I’ll record it on my PVR and then skip the ads. I can’t watch live TV any more, drives me mad(der).
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ch 7 if your shows are so good you would not have to show more ads for them than the paying coustomers
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Apprentice sucks so far
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I’m a bit disappointed. It’s not that good. (Apprentice – I didn;t see fast forward)
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I can’t be bothered to stay up for the end. Good night all.
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Good night, Luna.
The Apprentice is so boring. Was I watching a gardening show on Ch 9 Saturday afternoon??? The Donald and even Alan Sugar would be laughing at Mark Bouris and co….
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Half the candidates on The Apprentice should be sacked tonight…..no wonder it’s hard to find good staff, the country is full of morons.
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Sabrina may be a MENSA member but she is so far removed from reality its hilarious.
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LOL @ GRANDMA
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Howard Jones_ You are do right about Sabrina. Did you notice that she also introduced herself as Miss Australia 2006 every time she met someone!
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The Apprentice was brilliant tonight. This is my new favourite show.
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Tim, they made me say it, honest!
The producers put you in a corner I tell you, it was either that or be branded a mummy’s boy or something worse…listen to Bert Newton’s Mum when she tells you that the Producer’s bend you over on the new Whirlpool ad.
You can’t win on these shows.
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Really enjoyed watching this tonight. Morello and the Miss World chick are my favourites. This is one of the best shows to come out of OZ this year. WICKED STUFF
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Good solid start… I’ll be watching!
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There was no way they were going to do much with the Vegemite thing. Lehmo from Before the Game announced the name during the Grand Final coverage. I assumed it was a Before the Game (Roving Ent) tie in.
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Really enjoyed that Tim – thanks
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I’m hooked….but agree 90 minutes was a bit long…..looking forward to next week….
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The apprentice tanked big time. Only about 600k viewers for the premiere.
Channel 9 won’t be happy.
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OMG the Apprentice oz SUCKED!
No one does it as well as Trump – why not actually try to be as good as him FFS?
It’s all laid out and formulaic, like buying a McDonalds franchise – you idiots!
Sir Alan Sugar sucked and Mark Bouris is as stupid as he is.
With The Apprentice (original) you could always guess who was going to be fired and why, because it was based on COMMON SENSE!
Sugar and Bouris just pull it out of their arses – Sugar even hired the final contestant after he LOST MONEY on the final challenge! WTF??
Bouris was attacking Sabrina Houssami even though she showed strengths in all areas of the first task! UNFAIR!
And then he didn’t fire that idiot Carmen even though she didn’t put a foot right!
UNBELIEVABLE!
I’ll never watch again…
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Hey Tim, maybe try CoverItLive next time? Integrating the comments into a stream that auto updates would be nice is all.
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Good tip, Warlach – ta
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
The Apprentice needs to be edited better if they want to hang on to the audience – the UK and US versions never show such a one-horse race for being fired (Carmen, obv) and then not fire them. It was obvious she was kept in to make good telly, which is what every version does, they just edit it better to make it less obvious. There’s no room for suspension of belief.
Showing her being by far the worse candidate then not firing her is a big own goal for the showcase episode, I doubt I’ll tune in again.
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I met the blonde chick and she told everyone at my work that she won
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Heather is the most stuck up chick I’ve ever met anyone would think she’d been on the celebrity apprentice. She thinks people judge her for her beauty but she is absolutley disgustingly ugly on the inside. She even started her own fan club – honestly love who do you think you are?
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