Howzat!

Former England captain and cricket commentator Tony Greig has died after suffering a heart attack. He was 66.

Greig had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer, but he suffered a heart attack at his home on Saturday morning and died at about 1.45pm (EDT).

“He was rushed into St Vincent’s hospital. The staff of the emergency department worked on Mr Greig to no avail,” St Vincent’s spokesman David Faktor said. Continue reading »

Puberty Blues and Redfern Now lead the way in the 2nd annual AACTA Awards with the ABC landing the most nominations. The 2nd AACTA Awards will be held on Wednesday 30 January 2013 at The Star in Sydney.

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST YOUNG ACTOR
• Brenna Harding. Puberty Blues. Network Ten
• Ed Oxenbould. Julian.
• Saskia Rosendahl. Lore.
• Lily Sullivan. Mental. Continue reading »

The Nine Network today ends the official ratings period for 2012 as Australia’s number one primetime network for people 25-54, 18-49 and 16-39 across the 5 Cap City. Delivering more weekly wins for key demographics than any other network, Nine has delivered 14 out of the Top 20 programs, including the highest rating program in primetime – The Voice Winner Announced recording 3.325 million viewers across the 5 Cap City. Continue reading »

With the third Cricket Test being held in WA, Nine’s coverage eats into prime time for most of the country resulting in several split market variations on Nine for the week. This is the first week of summer as well.

Sydney and Melbourne (AEDT time zone):

Sunday Dec 2

6.30pm – Third Test – Australia v South Africa
8.30pm – 60 Minutes
9.30pm – The Mentalist
10.30pm - CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Continue reading »

From Puberty Blues to Howzat and Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo – Australian audiences sure love their nostalgia with shows set in previous decades regularly performing well for the networks. Undergound: The Julian Assange Story definitely delivers on this point. Set in the late 80′s and early 90′s, this telemovie tells the story of Julian Assange and features retro props like computers from the time, “Telecom” telephone booths,  rotary dial phones, cassette players and mobile phones the size of a house brick. Continue reading »

Finally – all those shows annoying us in promos during The Olympics, commence airing on Nine in the first week “after the Olympics”. Big Brother, Underbelly Badness, Anger Management with Charlie Sheen, The Farmer Wants a Wife – now with 216 dates, and Howzat. Still not scheduled, and likely to start in subsequent weeks, is Dallas and House Husbands. UPDATED AGAIN: 60 Minutes is NOW NOT back until August 19. It was in, but now is out again. Continue reading »

HOWZAT! KERRY PACKER’S WAR – PREMIERES SUNDAY, AUGUST 19 AND SUNDAY, AUGUST 26, AT 8.30PM ON NINE

The most-antipicated drama of the year, HOWZAT! KERRY PACKER’S WAR is how legendary media mogul Kerry Packer, played by Lachy Hulme fought a cricket war by secretly signing up 50 of the world’s greatest players to form a breakaway tournament. Continue reading »

Seven, Nine and Ten are now all heavily promoting their new shows that will takes us from now or after The London 2012 Olympics to the end of the 2012 ratings year. This year, there is an abundance of Australian produced content to fill our screens including new and returning titles.

UPDATED September 10.
Continue reading »

Produced by Southern Star John Edwards for the Nine Network and Screen Australia, the highly anticipated two-part mini-series Howzat! is currently filming in and around Melbourne for six weeks.

Lachy Hulme (Beaconsfield, Offspring), leads an outstanding cast of some of Australia’s most sought after actors in the mini-series which tells the story of how Kerry Packer took on the cricket Establishment and won.

In 1976 Australian businessman Kerry Packer, annoyed at not having been granted TV broadcasting rights by the Australian Cricket Board and fearing the game was dying, threw the cricket world into turmoil by secretly signing up fifty of the world’s best cricketers and creating ‘World Series Cricket’. Continue reading »

Rob Carlton – who last year won widespread acclaim for his portrayal of the media mogul in ABC mini-series Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo – will not reprise the role in Channel 9′s Packer story in Howzat!

Scheduled to debut later this year, the mini-series will instead feature Lachy Hulme (Offspring) as the former owner of the Nine network.

According to a source, the decision to replace Carlton was made after Hulme’s audition tape impressed program producer, Southern Star’s John Edwards, and Nine Entertainment CEO David Gyngell.

The source said Gyngell, who thought Carlton was outstanding in Paper Giants, was “blown away” by Hulme’s portrayal of Packer – with whom Gyngell was extremely close.

In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Carlton confirmed he was recently told his services were no longer needed.

“I had a fantastic time on Paper Giants and was proud of the work I did,” Carlton said. “Obviously I was really looking forward to doing Kerry Packer with Channel 9 and I thought that’s what we were all moving towards.

“My understanding was we were in the middle of negotiations with John Edwards … and then he told my agent he had decided to move in a different direction with the lead character and that’s as much as I know.”

Ironically, Carlton is nominated to win an AACTA Award this week for his performance in Paper Giants. Carlton will also act as a presenter at Tuesday’s lavish industry event.

“I’m looking forward to getting together with my colleagues from the industry and having a fun night,” Carlton said of the rebranded awards.

Howzat! – set to explore Packer’s creation of World Series Cricket in the ’70s – will be the second Nine series helmed by Hulme this year, with his portrayal of trapped miner Todd Russell in Beaconsfield to soon debut.

Carlton, meanwhile, will soon be seen in feature films, Questions For Ben, and Mental, with appearances in ABC’s Mabo and the new Andrew Denton game show, Randling. He is currently starring in local Foxtel series Conspiracy 365 that airs on FMC.

Source – The Daily Telegraph