Nine axes Australia’s Got Talent
Channel Nine has axed Australia’s Got Talent (AGT) after just one year on the network, Mumbrella can reveal.
Nine acquired the rights to the show, produced by FremantleMedia, in 2012 after Seven dropped the show due to ratings falling towards the end of its five year run. It is thought the high production costs of the labour intensive competition are behind the decision to drop it.
However, ratings for AGT failed to materially improve for Nine as it was pitted against Seven’s blockbuster hit The X Factor. Although ratings started out at over 1m per episode they dwindled in the middle of the series with the show only breaking the one million metro viewer mark again for its last couple of episodes after The X Factor had ended.
Nine’s acquisition of the show also led to an embarrassing legal stoush with rival Seven when it moved to poach then X Factor judge Melanie Brown, better known as Mel B, for the show. Seven took out an injunction which prevented the former Spice Girl from switching to the network as she was still under contract with them.
Brown is now available to work for Nine after a year’s absence from Australian TV because of the injunction, and she will appear as a judge on The Voice Kids Australia due to start later this year. The move also puts on hiatus the television future of another judge, Kyle Sandilands, who had appeared on the franchise on both Seven and Nine since 2010.
He appeared alongside ‘Ginger Spice’ Geri Halliwell, former winner Timomatic and British comedian Dawn French in the last season.
The AGT winner announcement averaged just under 1.4m metro viewers when the show ended in November after The X Factor averaged 2.43m for its winner announcement two weeks prior.
At the end of last year a Nine spokesperson had told TV Tonight the show would be coming back in 2014.
Megan Reynolds
It sunk when Kyle Sandilands appeared.
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Television channels have become like cartage contractors.
Have cart need payload.
The pale amateur theatricals have done it again. It seems to me that Television channels have been so accustomed to having money that they throw it about like rice at a wedding. They are so lacking in theatrical knowledge that they depend upon others (outsiders) to load them up with program ideas. Trouble is, the internet is providing much more, much more cheaply.
They have shoved the entire theatrical compass into the light entertainment slot.
Along with sport, that’s all that is left to load up on, and there are too many carts available.
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Kyle will pop up somewhere else. Wherever he goes, I’ll be watching.
He’s talent – no matter what some people have to say about him, he’s intriguing, funny, witty and great fun.
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The decision to axe AGT is disappointing for it was miles ahead in entertainment value vis a vis THE VOICE (contrived) and the X FACTOR (yawn).
The real, enduring stars of the world of Entertainment come from the Country Got Talent franchise….just look at Paul Potts, Amira, Richard & Adam, Only Boys Aloud and Susan Boyle to name just a few!
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Please dont axe it keep AGT going my nana & i watch it when it comes on and very entertaining pls dont axe it keep it
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perfect time for Ten to pick it up… even at those declining rating levels it will top their ratings by a mile
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About. time “Australia thinks it’s got Talent” was bumped.
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I’ve always wondered why must AGT have singers alongside performers? Surely I am not the only one who feels this is not an equal kind of footing between those who are naturally gifted with great voice boxes vs the hand-eye-body-brain coordination type of talent?
I always felt there’s also a tendency for more viewers to go with the singers/bands because Australians love music and are partial to that genre (eg Voice, X Factor, Idol etc), which seems to leave the performers out in 2nd place (eg Cosentino), which is a bit unfair.
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