Nine’s Australian Open coverage dominates the night… and early morning
As Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas once sang, “It’s 3am, I must be watching the tennis.”
As last night turned into this morning, and then into whatever the hell you call 3:30am, the strangest thing happened.
I, along with thousands of Australians, remained glued to the television, unable to lift my overtired body up the stairs and into the hyperbaric oxygen chamber I bought from the Michael Jackson estate – despite knowing full well I had to get up and work in the morning.
Why were so many Australians in such a transfixed state? Not the bloody blood moon again was it?
No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t even the Home Shopping being aired on Seven that kept us up — although that reminds me, I need to ShamWow the windows this weekend — and it wasn’t Steve Colbert cracking jokes at the plum time of 3am over on Ten that did it, either.
The lax child-safety-standards on Skippy (on 9Gem) wasn’t the reason for the sleeplessness, nor was it the sharply-lit drama of Bold and the Beautiful on 10Peach that did it.
Adam Dovile was making a wooden chess set on Better Homes and Gardens, over on 7two, but even that action wasn’t what had Aussies glued to the tube.
Hell, even RAGE on ABC — the king of early morning television stimulation — wasn’t what was keeping us up, muttering “just one more fish-eyed video then I’ll go to bed”.
It was, of course, the Australian Open.
Despite adding an extra day to proceeding in order to avoid the games volleying into the early hours of the morning, the main game still started at 11:15pm, and ended at 3:40am.
The culprit was a rain delay, coupled with the longest tie breaker in women’s Grand Slam history, both of which pushed the match-up between Russian Daniil Medvedev and Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori to the witching hour, and then into another witching hour.
Even Medvedev wasn’t having it, telling the crowd: “Honestly guys, I would not be here – thanks for staying.”
He continued: “If I would be a tennis fan, I would be, ‘ok, let’s go home. We are going to catch the end of the match on the TV.'”
That’s good advice, and welcome news for Nine, who have been battling for dominance in the enviable 3am time slot for years now. If they can empty out the arena early and get all those eyeballs on the televisions instead of the actual court, that’s a ratings bonanza!
It’s also good news for the overseas channels carrying the Australian Open, who suddenly have the biggest matchups airing at a reasonable time. Medvedev’s family and friends, for example, could have turned on their Elektrosignal TV set at the plum time of 6pm, and caught the final ninety minutes of the showdown.
What a treat, and what a smart way for the Australian Open organisers to showcase Melbourne and the event to the world.
After all, as they say, it’s always prime time somewhere.
Got a tip?
Nathan Jolly is the Deputy Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
Linkedin
Have your say