Live Aussie Drama Pre-empts Scripted Aussie Drama
January 17, 2023 
9 Comments
Prime has rescheduled tonight’s season three premiere of Five Bedrooms for next Tuesday at 8.30.
The drama series is being pre-empted by the channel’s live coverage of the Australian Open starting half-an-earlier than planned, at 9.00.
Prime is filling the 8.30 slot with a repeat of Border Security: America’s Frontline.
The same will happen Wednesday, when Border Security will usurp Massive Engineering Mistakes, and on Sunday, when it will replace The Way Down.
Prime’s also pre-empting Chicago: Hardcore Pawn on Friday at 7.30 for a 90-minute Pawn Stars block ahead of the Open.
The changes mean the latest season of Five Bedrooms now will premiere on January 24, the same night as the free-to-air debut of stablemate House of the Dragon.
Warning: preg_replace(): Unknown modifier '/' in /home/customer/www/screenscribe.net/public_html/wp-content/themes/headlines/includes/theme-comments.php on line 66
January 17, 2023 at 4:27 pm
Prime is one of the best FTA channels in NZ. The thing that lets it down is the constant airing of Pawn Stars, American Pickers and Storage Wars! If it pared those back a bit and added a bit more variety to the “general interest” stuff I think it would be a much stronger network. I love their new Saturday night comedy line-up.
Yes, Hamish, Prime has become a weird hybrid of premium drama, relentless reality dross and live or delayed sporting coverage. The amount of sport is a double-edged sword as its hampers the programmers’ ability to schedule with certainty, hence the reliance on Pawn Stars etc to plug holes. Ten years ago Prime was a much more ‘complete’ channel with its own well-formed identity rather than just a promotional FTA showcase for Sky’s pay-TV attractions.
I used to like watching Prime as it does not contain any FTA broadcasts that previously screened on SKY TV Pay Channels, but their programmes were reality programming and own imported programmes from the U.S., the UK and Australia. Now the network abandoned buying more newer Aussie and Brit fare in favour of their American produced premium dramas in recent years that some already on Neon.
Phillip, I reckon Prime should gone back to complete channel kind of focus and more focus on independent output deals and they should get a first film output deal. If SKY have not purchased Prime, TVNZ would have gotten the Olympic Games from 2010-2022 and TVNZ would have scored the rights to 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Will SKY offload FTA coverage to bigger broadcasters of major sporting events and leave a lesser known ones on Prime.
I see on ThreeNow they have added 2 seasons of Prodigal Son. Slowly but surely it’s getting better and better, just need a new app and stop having so many ads 😁
Is that Prodigal Son that aired on TVNZ over the last couple of years? Surely you must have see it there or on TVNZ+?
Nope, actually I notice it’s a Fox show so I’m surprised it hasn’t turned up on Disney+ 😁
Yes, that’s true, Trevor, but WB also produced it and distributes it in this market, hence turning up on ThreeNow.
Sorry Trevor. It is the same Prodigal Son. Formulaic, watchable but cancelled (understandably) after 2 seasons. More old fodder turning up somewhere else. Sigh.