Television news, reviews and gossip with Holly Byrne
SUNRISE host David Koch scores his dream gig, Nine celebrates advertising popularity, more reunions for Neighbours’ 30th anniversary and more in this week’s wrap.
WORKING the Christmas shift may not be on many wish lists — but for Sunrise stalwart David Koch, scoring the gig hosting Seven’s coverage of Carols In The Domain is “a dream gig come true”.
The self-confessed Christmas tragic will be surrounded by his TV family — Sam Armytage, Natalie Barr and Mark Beretta — as well as his wife Libby and three generations of their growing brood for the seasonal sing-a-long on December 20.
With the final ratings consolidating another win for Seven’s breakfast show, including success over Nine’s Today in the Melbourne market for the first time since 2006, Koch and crew will have plenty to celebrate.
In a year that saw social media erupt over the replacement of Melissa Doyle with the younger Armytage, Koch said the ratings triumph was continued vindication and cause for more cheer.
“When you look at audiences for free-to-air TV this year, breakfast is about the only area which isn’t suffering, in terms of a drop off,” he said. “What I say to Sam constantly, because I’ve done it for a few years now, is ‘we don’t make the show for the critics and the media, we do the show for viewers’ and we’ve had a terrific year.”
The final figures for the five-city metro breakfast battle saw Sunrise average 353,000 viewers to Today’s 294,000.
Next up, Koch is embracing his carols call-up, after eyeing off the job from his family’s spot in the crowd in previous years.
“Every year I watch whoever is hosting the carols and think ‘I wish I could do it’ and this year I get my chance.”
So dedicated is he to the annual event, he revealed he’d been running a “black market” in tickets for years to swindle enough freebies for his extended family of 14 to attend.
With his four grandkids — Matilda, 7, Oscar, 5, Lila 3 and Jax, 2 — all primed to join in the Christmas tradition — Poppy Koch has made them one promise: not to sing.
“You’ve heard me do karaoke on Sunrise. I think I’m a terrific singer but basically I’m tone deaf and hopeless.
“So I’ll be up the back when The Wiggles come on, with my microphone turned off.”
NINE DRINKS TO RATINGS WINS
WHILE the last week has been a disastrous one for Nine in the ratings — with the Big Brother season ender and One Direction special on ACA both going south — the network has found other reasons to toast its year at a drinks party on Tuesday night.
As Seven again won bragging rights in the ratings round-up for total people in 2014, Nine claimed wins in the “advertiser preferred” demographics of 25-54, 18-49 and 16-39.
Finishing with a 29.2 per cent share of the prime-time audience, Nine can also boast the three highest rating programs of the year (Origins 1 and 2, as well as the NRL grand final) and the only program to achieve an average national audience in excess of four million (Origin 2).
Nine News won its 6pm battle, averaging 334,000 viewers to Seven’s 256,000.
Nine’s flagship 60 Minutes beat rival Sunday Night (which has the added struggle of finding a new EP after the exit of Mark Llewelly last week).
Next year should prove a fierce battle between the renovation reality shows, with The Block’s Fan v Favourites (averaging 2.265 million viewers for five-city metro) and Glasshouse (2.687m) hold off a solid challenge from Seven’s House Rules (2.070m).
OZ COUP FOR FOODIE KHOO
THE BBC’s new cooking queen, Rachel Khoo is poised to film an Australian version of her wildly popular UK series, The Little Paris Kitchen.
Khoo, left, who has won a global audience with her modern twist on French cuisine, flies into Melbourne next week to begin promoting the Australian premiere of her cooking show which airs on SBS next year.
She is also expected to announce the production of a locally-based series with Fremantle Media.
MATT’S STILL ON THE TV MENU
MEANWHILE, it appears Matt Moran’s Paddock To Plate series has been put on simmer by Foxtel, which is yet to commission a third season.
Moran, recognised as a “food force” in the local industry for his extraordinary success as a chef and restaurateur (he’s working on his ninth eatery at Barangaroo), was tight-lipped when contacted about his TV future. But a Foxtel spokesman reassured this column Moran would “continue to play a role” on the pay-TV network.
“We love Matt and continue to work with him, we just haven’t made a decision (on commissioning) yet.”
MORE NEIGHBOURS TO COME HOME
A QUICK trip to Ramsay Street last week gave this columnist a sneaky peek at the reunion special for Neighbours’ 30th anniversary. Adding to news of Delta Goodrem’s role, Paul Keane (who played Des Clarke from 1985 to 1990) was filming scenes with lifer, Stefan Dennis. Others to confirm for the March special are Melissa Bell (Lucy Robinson) and Stephanie McIntosh (Sky Mangle).
ONE TO WATCH: Rafters Narek back to school
THEIR more experienced co-stars, Alex Dimitriades and Aden Young, have been the selling point for new SBS series, The Principal, but it’s the young cast who have impressed director Kriv Stender.
None more so than former Packed To The Rafters and Dance Academy actor Narek Arman, who is certain to hit the headlines for his role in the TV drama — inspired by the challenges facing schools like Punchbowl High — playing vulnerable teen Sami Vivas, who is lured to take up a radical’s life supporting ISIL.
TV GOSSIP: Li Lin takes down TV rivals
IF her cult status was not already assured, the latest spoof for The Feed, starring SBS news favourite, Lee Lin Chin, should guarantee it.
Taking the lead from The Anchorman movies’ hilarious showdowns between network TV rivals, it’s a tribute to the power of Chin’s personality that industry rivals, including Karl Stefanovic, Sandra Sully and Derryn Hinch agreed to appear in a similar Broadcast Battleground skit (a must-watch online).
But an acting note to all those involved: don’t give up your day jobs.
DON’T MISS: An encore innings for Hughes
THE death of cricketer Phillip Hughes has unified a nation in grief and galvanised his family, friends and supporters around their memories of this loveable, talented lad from Macksville.
In a fitting tribute by Fox Sports, those touched by his passing can relive his famous double-ton Test against South Africa in 2009.
The youngest player ever to notch up a century in each innings of a Test match, it is a powerful reminder of his talent, gone too soon.
FOX SPORTS 3, 7PM, TONIGHT
Originally published as Television news, reviews and gossip with Holly Byrne
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