Ten fast tracks The Shire into schedule
Ten has caught the TV market by surprise by putting controversial “dramality” show The Shire into the schedule in less than a fortnight’s time.
The show will go to air a week on Monday – July 16.
The move comes just days after it was widely reported – and strongly denied by Ten – that the show had been shelved.
Ten aired a “first look” promo of the show last night. According to Ten: “The series follows the lives and loves of a group of young Australians who are destined to become some of the most talked about people in Australia. Now you can meet the hot surfers, the vivacious models, the girls next door, the on-and-off couples, the loveable rogues, and the entrepreneurs who are set to become household names.”
Lara Bingle mark 2. It’s going to be awful. Count me out.
An Australian version of the Shire… that’s a double negative that I doubt will make it a positive… ew.
Maybe i’m missing something but why are shows like this and Big Brother distancing themselves from Jersey Shore, which actually rated well? (overseas at least)
I for one, can’t wait
Jersey and Geordie Shore works in many markets.
This is what the younger viewers default to and this is who Ten want to attract.
@ Stanley – younger viewers default to those shows because they are good (subjective).
This is on the other hand will be a watered down version because they’ve bowed to the public’s pressure of not portraying the Shire as such. This will fail horribly and MTV will come out the winner as they have the real versions on their channel.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
It will probably work for one season, they’ll do a second season with new people, and then whole thing will be dropped after a few episodes lost from everyone’s memory.
I think The Shire is based on The Only Way Is Essex which was huge in the UK. The difference between the two being that Essex is a place that has a long tradition of ridicule by the British middle class who see it as the home of fast cars, easy women and all things crass and lower class. The Shire doesn’t have that significance in the Australian consciousness. The problem is compounded if you can’t find the right people to perform the humiliating scenarios dreamed up by the writing team. So I wish Ten luck but the odds are against it rating big numbers. I would have thought the Gold Coast would have been a better choice. We all know it is tacky and crass but seen as a fun party town for this demographic.
Actual success for this program relies on an Xfactor(not the program the term generally) character or moment. If there is someone like a “Snooky” then it may get and hold a reasonable audience, be it very young so not large. This concept in an Australian guise was always going to be tried and TEN are the only one’s who could try it. Good luck to them.
How bad can it be? Really – how bad can it be?
I agree that this show is too Sydney-centric, even the title is a Sydney in-joke. The Gold Coast would have been a far better location. Because of tourism, the Coast is seen as belonging to all of Australia rather than “The Shire” which is simply an enclave of Sydney. The Gold Coast is well-known as a fun, party strip with larger than life characters and has a more cosmopolitan feel.
Having lived in Sylvania 20 years ago when the fly-on-the-wall doco ‘Sylvania Waters’ and the redoubtable Noelene and Family were appalling viewers the English-speaking world over, my neighbours took to reassuring friends outside Sydney that they lived in fictional suburbs such as ‘Gymea North’ and ‘Southern Kogarah’. I simply took to saying that I lived in The Shire, added my postcode and left it at that.
NOW where will I run and hide?