A Current Affair

A Current Affair, Nine, 6.30pm
Tracy Grimshaw tonight has an exclusive interview with Lady Gaga before her performance at Sydney Town Hall – to be renamed Sydney “Monster” Hall on Wednesday.

24, One, 8.30pm
Often copied, never bettered. 24 is the adrenalin-charged action series that pioneered real-time TV drama. Kiefer Sutherland stars in one of the decade’s most acclaimed series. See it from the start.

Rescue Special Ops, Nine, 8.30pm
The Rescue team attend an overturned bus on a lonely stretch of bush highway, only to discover it is full of female prisoners.

Teen Wolf, Seven, 10.30pm
Already bumped to a later time slot after last weeks premiere, tonight we see Scott struggle to balance his new life as a werewolf and the pressures of being a teen, all while avoiding werewolf hunters and trying to score a second date with Allison.

The Amazing Race, Seven, 8.30pm
The remaining teams depart chilly Europe and the competition heats up in the Middle East. In Israel, patience and an eye for detail are required.

The world’s most powerful celebrity, LADY GAGA, will take over A Current Affair next Monday in a special television event.

In her first TV appearance on a promotional tour of Australia, Lady Gaga will speak to Tracy Grimshaw for A Gaga Affair.

The interview will take place live in front of a studio audience. Afterwards, Gaga will engage Australian audiences in what promises to be one of the most talked-about performances in Australian television history.

“Lady Gaga is one of the most exciting performance artists in the world right now,” Grimshaw said.

“She is brave, provocative and passionate. And, I gather, can be a bit unpredictable in interviews if she chooses. So bring it on.”

A Gaga Affair will go live and exclusive at 6.30pm Monday, July 11, on Channel Nine and be streamed live at aca.ninemsn.com.au.

Lady Gaga’s new album Born This Way, featuring the current single The Edge Of Glory, is a phenomenon. It debuted at number one in 27 countries two months ago, with sales already in excess of five million. Worldwide, Gaga has sold more than 60 million singles and 23 million albums.

Born This Way topped the ARIA Album Chart on release and has remained in the Top 10. Lady Gaga has more than 39 million fans on Facebook and over 11 million followers on Twitter, more than any other person in the world.

Lady Gaga is in Australia for the year’s most “monstrous” event: Your All-Time Exclusive GAGA LIVE at Sydney Monster Hall, presented by 2Day FM, Vodafone All-Time Prepaid and Take 40. For Gaga’s little monsters right around the country, this exclusive event will be carried nationally on Nine’s digital channel GO! and on radio across Austereo’s Today network and the Southern Cross Media networks, followed by Channel [V] and online at take40.com.

A GAGA AFFAIR: Monday, July 11, at 6.30pm on Channel Nine

Channel Nine presenter Tracy Grimshaw this week celebrated 30 years on Australian television.

The 51-year-old A Current Affair host joined the Nine Network back in 1981, first working in the GTV9 newsroom.

“I can hardly believe it’s been that many years since I turned up at the GTV9 newsroom, wearing a beret and an outfit I’d sewn myself, ready for my close-up,” Grimshaw told the Herald Sun

“I thought I’d hang in for as long as I could before they realised they’d picked a dud and shuffle me back off to suburban newspapers.”

Grimshaw has spoken in the past of her choice of career over marriage and family.

“Age is almost irrelevant these days – almost. I think it’s a shame when women sometimes feel uncomfortable about disclosing their age. 

“The only way you can make that discomfort go away and the only way to address that weird stigma is just to stare it down, to refuse to be cowed by it or play by those rules.”

Source: Digital Spy

A Current Affair has been made to pay for its screening of Today Tonight’s interview with schoolyard bully Ritchard Gale back in March.

Nine’s ACA replayed the four and a half minute segment after it screened on Seven’s Today Tonight, prompting Seven to begin a breach of copyright case in court.

Nine’s CEO Jeff Browne has this week settled out of court with Seven and agreed to pay a $140,000 penalty for using the footage.

“Browne didn’t want to keep paying lawyers before it even got to court,” an informed source said.

“He agreed to pay $100,000 in legal fees for both and $40,000 for the story being stolen.”

ACA ran the segment unedited, with Today Tonight’s reporter James Thomas’ face, questions and narration without any credit for Seven or Today Tonight.

Source: News.com.au

A Sydney v Melbourne battle has begun thanks to a controversial Channel 9 promo for A Current Affair running down South that claims the show to be “made in Melbourne”.

Nine is pushed the current affairs show as being proudly Victorian despite many of its crew working out of Nine’s NSW office.

The promo declares ACA to be a Melbourne production and saying “the other 6.30pm shows all come out of Sydney – so how can they possibly understand the issues affecting us?”

However a breakdown of the last seven episodes of ACA sees Melbourne as the source of only nine stories while Sydney and Brisbane contribute 15 and eight respectively.

Rival shows were quick to point out the problems with the promo, with a Today Tonight staffer saying: “Grant [Williams, ACA’s NSW-based executive producer] is based in Sydney along with so many senior reporters and staff.

“So why treat Melbourne viewers as dills by telling them Sydney is irrelevant when the show is exactly the same around the country?” 

Source: Herald Sun

In A Current Affair exclusive tonight, global teen pop phenomenon Justin Bieber comes face-to-face with his hero, Casey Heynes, the Australian boy who became an international YouTube sensation when he stood up to bullying.

Bieber, who has also been bullied, became an admirer of Heynes after seeing the celebrated YouTube clip in which the 16-year-old Sydney student picked up a bully in the schoolyard and threw him to the ground after being repeatedly punched in the face for being “overweight”.

Currently in the middle of a sellout tour of Australia, Bieber flew the Heynes family to Melbourne for one of his concerts and invited them backstage.

Heynes, his parents and sister were treated to front-row seats for the first Melbourne show by the Canadian pop king who has already sold more than four million albums.

Midway through the concert Bieber invited Heynes to join him on stage, to the delight of the crowd, and A Current Affair’s cameras were there, capturing every moment of the special encounter.

This is an anti-bullying story that every family should watch. The crusade to stamp out bullying is a cause that Beiber takes very seriously.

“There’s nothing cool about being a bully,” he has said. “If you’re getting bullied, make sure to tell someone. If you’re a bystander, make sure to step in and help out.”

JUSTIN BIEBER WITH CASEY HEYNES

A Current Affair – Tonight at 6.30pm on Channel Nine

Hot off the success of Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo, Channel Nine have signed up Ita Buttrose to join the networks’ team in reporting for the Royal Wedding from London over the next seven days.

Ita appeared exclusively on A Current Affair on Friday Night (April 22) to discuss her thoughts on the Wedding including the dress that Kate would wear as well as her opinions generally on the big event and how the couple will more likely appear on magazine covers over the usual US celebrities in coming months.

She will work mostly with regular ACA host Tracy Grimshaw. Ita Buttrose said the role was fitting as she also reported on the 1981 Royal Wedding between Charles and Diana.

The Nine Network invites viewers to join the celebrations for Prince William and Catherine Middleton with extensive coverage of the Royal Wedding starting on Monday, April 25.
 
The Today Show is LIVE from Buckingham Palace – all week. Join Karl Stefanovic, Lisa Wilkinson and the team with all the latest in royal news.

Kerri-Anne Kennerley is reporting LIVE from London all week and filing stories from various royal locations.

Nine News is LIVE from London all week.

A Current Affair will be LIVE from London all week, with Ita Buttrose and Leila McKinnon joining Tracy Grimshaw and a host of royal watchers.
 
William and Kate: The Royal Countdown, a half-hour special hosted by Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson, will go LIVE from Buckingham Palace on Thursday, April 28, at 7.30pm.

After William and Kate: The Royal Countdown it’s a Right Royal Getaway at 8.00pm. Jason Dundas hosts from London as the Getaway team present holidays inspired by the Royal Wedding. Getaway takes a look at the couple’s favourite haunts during their seven-year romance. The Getaway special features Catriona Rowntree’s profile of London’s Goring Hotel where Kate Middleton will spend the night before the big day.

On Friday, April 29, from 4.00pm (check local guides) Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson host the lead-up to William and Kate: The Royal Wedding.

At 6.30pm on A Current Affair, Tracey Grimshaw and Ita Buttrose will be LIVE from Westminster Abbey and Leila McKinnon will report LIVE from the royal route, moments before Kate Middleton takes the ride of her life in a royal Rolls-Royce.  

From 7.00pm, William and Kate: The Royal Wedding will be hosted by Karl Stefanovic, Lisa Wilkinson and Dame Edna Everage, accompanied by royal experts and opinion-formers. The coverage will also be simulcast in high definition on GEM. From 8.30pm in NSW and Queensland the wedding coverage will switch to GEM to make way for Friday Night Football.  

There are squabbles both on-screen and off when it comes to the story of the schoolyard bullying victim who fought back.

Seven’s Today Tonight is accusing Nine’s A Current Affair of pinching its exclusive footage of the interview with bully Ritchard Gale from Monday night’s episode.

However, ACA is hitting back, accusing Today Tonight of stealing footage from its Sunday night interview with victim Casey Heynes.

On Monday, ACA used the Gale interview footage without attributing it to their rival and even kept in the questions and narration provided by Seven reporter James Thomas.

The same goes for Today Tonight’s use of ACA footage from Sunday night, except they edited out the questions and narration from Nine’s reporter.

Seven chief David Leckie regarded ACA’s use of their footage, complete with their reporter’s questions, as a breach and is pursuing a copyright claim against the network.

“I was absolutely gobsmacked and cannot recall anything like this happening before,” Seven’s Peter Meakin said.

“We all do grabs of each other as part of fair dealings, but we never use footage of other network reporters and that makes this larceny on a grand scale which would make Ronnie Biggs proud – and we’re taking legal action.”

Nine’s David Hurley hit back, saying: “It’s rank hypocrisy by any measure.

“TT bleating about anyone else re non-attribution is rather like Jack the Ripper whingeing about a rise in knife-related crime.”

Source: News.com.au

A few weeks ago, it was reported to be considering a current affairs based program to air at 6.30pm Sundays, to go up against Seven’s Sunday Night – a regular winner of that timeslot. This is in addition to 60 Minutes, that remains at 7.30.

Last night, the network unexpectedly aired a program called ACA Sunday – which appeared to serve a number of purposes.

Firstly, ACA Sunday featured a “Hey Dad” exclusive where another person has just come out speaking up about the wrong doings of the “father” from the show – the very same exclusive that Seven had been promoting all weekend as being first on Today Tonight on Monday night. Having this story airing on ACA Sunday means Nine got in first.

Secondly, ACA Sunday allowed extra coverage of Japan – which many viewers may have expected. With Seven having Sunday Night already airing at that time, it was a given that there would be updates on Japan during the program. 60 Minutes as well presented a story on the unfolding disaster.

Thirdly, ACA Sunday allowed Nine to test the waters of having such a show against Sunday Night. As it was clearly a decision made over the weekend, there was no time for promotion other than on Nine itself.

As a result, Customs moved back to 7pm, while Send In The Dogs Australia was not seen at all.

ACA Sunday was hosted by Tracy Grimshaw.

At this stage, there is no indication whether ACA Sunday will become a regular fixture for Nine on Sunday night.