Fresh from winning this year’s ratings the folks over at Seven have more reason to celebrate – they’ve just managed to steal Thank God You’re Here - one of Ten’s most popular shows.
TGYH regularly gets between 1.4 and 1.7 million viewers and received a Logie for most outstanding comedy last year.
The show’s production company Working Dog, which includes Rob Sitch, Santo Cilauro and Tom Gleisner who are best known as the team behind The Late Show, Frontline and The Panel, have sold the show to Seven for $1 million an episode.
Ten will be devastated by the defection as the show easily pulled one million viewers an episode this year even on repeat.
Ten has already suffered a dodgy year with the collapse of their massive Big Brother franchise, flagging ratings for Australian Idol and other experiments like Kenny’s World falling short.
TV Kingpin Gleisner, who brokered the deal and who appears in the show as the rather perfunctory judge, is unrepentant saying after a year off the show needed a freshen up.
Working Dog was also worried about access to studio space - their old Melbourne studio is unavailable as it is being used for Neighbours.
“Having taken a year off, it felt right to try some new things with the show, including a different home,” he told a Sydney newspaper.
“We could have stayed with Ten and both Seven and Ten made generous offers… I don’t think we would have gone broke staying with either.”
“It’s a big production [money wise]. You are building five sets a week, unlike a sitcom where you build and shoot in the same living room every week,” he said.
“We push the envelope as far as we can with authenticity and love the costumes and props to be the real deal. We don’t scrimp and we will continue going in that direction.”
Working Dog rested the show this year so they could complete two series of The Hollowmen a political satire airing on the ABC.
TGYH has been sold in several countries including Canada, Denmark, Germany and the US.
Gleisner also confirmed The Panel won’t be returning.
“My feeling is [it] is finished,” he said.
“We never did the big final show but it feels like we’ve got so many other ideas and projects we’d like to move on.”
