Well, it had to happen one day, didn’t it?
Two and a Half Men is about to hit GO - with double episodes after Big Bang Theory at 8.30 Sunday nights from July 4. This is the first week that Underbelly is not on Nine so Nine’s strategy here could be to build up the Sunday night on GO further to help the network win the night even if the primary channel doesn’t do so well.
This means, that between Channel Nine’s weekday 7pm strip, the recently added (on and off though) 9pm Tuesday night ep, 7.30pm Monday Two and a Half Men episodes, and the two now added to GO, the show is now on NINE times a week! Back to how it was last year, and further dilution of the GO brand into something more like 9TWO.
Meanwhile, Nine and GO’s other hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory is down to three episodes a week on GO and one on Nine with the Sunday night double on GO from 7.40 remaining, an episode at 8.40 Thursday on GO and 8pm on Nine - four times a week.
But wait - there’s more. Top Gear in some markets also runs four times a week. The main episode on Tuesday night on Nine - always promoted as “supersized” or a “Top Gear Special Event” - then two on GO - Sunday night 6.30 and Thursday 7.30. The 4th is Friday night on Nine at 7.30pm, which is not seen in NRL markets due to live NRL coverage.
Three Nine shows on both Nine and GO. Three shows played over and over. Three shows that are rating well enough on both channels to justify their over exposure.
Two more shows airing on both Go and Nine now are CSI and CSI: Miami. CSI: New York currently is on GO only. CSI is not rating that well for either channel.
The five shows played on both GO and Nine occupy a combined total air time of 15 hours per week - and that excludes any last minute changes and encores that cross from Nine to GO like V, Australian Druglords and The Footy Show (AFL) as well as any children’s programming that appear on both channels.
