At the risk of being labelled a Channel Nine basher, there is even more to say about Nine promotions that either stretch the truth or treat viewers with little or no respect. While the perception maybe that television is being more and more dumbed down these days, what Nine did with Survivor this week has got to be the ultimate in treating viewers like idiots.
Promotions running for Survivor this week (week 3 – Tue Jan 12) pitched the show as a double episode. Promotions circled around the elimination at the end of the show stating that “you won’t believe what happens”.
It was true – Survivor was on for two hours, but the first episode was a summary episode showing what had happened over the previous episodes so far. This episode would have been a great way for people who had not been watching the show from the start of the series to see what had happened leading up to the position we are now in. But for those of us who had already seen them all, it became quite boring. Even the ratings were down in this episode compared to the new full episode that followed it. Even during the summary episode, Nine were promoting the fact that you need to stay tuned for the next episode and see the elimination.
What Nine should have done is promote the summary episode so that people who have not watched the show or missed parts, could see how events had panned out. And for those who had already seen all the Survivor episodes, could use the summary episode to re-live the experience so far. And to keep people in who might otherwise tune out, tell us that there was going to be some unseen footage involved. And then – from 8.30 – see who goes next, etc. But – no – Nine did not use the opportunity wisely, instead hoping that the audience would think that it was perhaps a two hour episode with a very long “previously on Survivor” section compared to usual.
I have been watching Survivor Samoa from the start, and found myself watching only the first half of the summary episode before getting bored with it (as the events were too recent given that we get two episodes a week of it – so I remember them too well) and fast forwarding through to get to the start of the new episode.
Survivor Samoa continues on Nine Tue Jan 19 in another double episode from 7.30pm. Jan 26, Survivor is off for a week due to the Cricket, returning Tue Feb 2.
Survivor Heroes and Villains – the next series which puts the worst and the best of people from previous series together – including Russell from Samoa – premieres on Nine after the Winter Olympics. It commences in the US Feb 11.
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