It's not often that I take time out from the usual Tube Ray Army programming ("REALITY TV LOL WHATS UP WITH THAT") to insert some momentary genuine commentary, but it looks like it's that time of the month.
With the exception of their curious decision to cancel
So You Think You Can Dance while it was in its prime (taken from us too soon, RIP babydoll), if there's one Australian television network I've always had plenty of time for, it's been Ten.
You've probably noticed a theme emerging throughout Tube Ray's history, which is my intense hatred of pretty much everything that Nine manage to do - well, Ten is the anti-Nine, and not just because it's the next number along in the dial.
Where Nine stops and starts, shifts and delays, ruins chronologies and disrespects viewers' dedication to good television, Ten has taken some interesting punts and stuck with them.
Look at The 7pm Project - not my favourite show by any stretch of the imagination, but it's hard to think of any of the other networks (beyond perhaps Aunty) having allowed it to live for longer than a handful of episodes with the way it started out.
In Ten's hands, however, the show has been able to breathe and find its feet, and has now settled into a rather appealing groove. A regularly irritating and befuddling groove, but a groove nonetheless. That's a sign of a great network.
Likewise, I'm always impressed with the way Ten handles the non-ratings season, regularly airing shows that wouldn't get a look-in during the year proper, instead of just wheeling out endless repeats of
Flipper the movie starring Jessica Alba and The Gold Coast.
So, when I read this morning that it could be all set to change if James "I Told My Friends About One.Tel, Now I've Got No Friends" Packer gets his way, I did this:
And then a little bit of this:
As it went
in the business pages this morning, "A second leg to Mr Packer's investment in Ten involves cutting costs by axing the network's expensive plans to boost its news service between 6pm and 7pm, part of which involved installing news and current affairs veterans George Negus and Chris Masters."
Wait, it gets worse!
"Mr Packer would rather see a cheap alternative of reruns of programs such as
The Simpsons."
It's all business-related, of course, but that's something to dread when it comes to quality and/or imaginitive television programming.
"Business" is usually the reason why great new Australian content goes down the toilet like a lead turd on Seven or Nine (admittedly plenty of it isn't great, but surely the initial outlay in development demands a few more airings than, say, ONE EPISODE).
On the other hand, it always struck me that Ten's business model was to create content that viewers want to watch, and let said content create its own dedicated fanbase, which in turn creates the perfect market for megabucks advertising/sponsorship (see:
Idol's glory days).
It remains to be seen whether Packer will indeed get his way, but given the business section referred to it as a "$250-million raid", I don't feel that confident.
So, if there's any sanity left out there in this crazy TV universe, please, Santa: let little George Negus get his Christmas wish and keep up the good original content at Ten.