Bert Newton an expensive flop for Nine

By Sarah Blake
August 12, 2007 01:00am

BERT Newton's multi-million-dollar rescue mission for Channel Nine has failed, with the troubled network axing the last of the veteran entertainer's regular programs.

From tomorrow, Newton's What A Year - which came last in Monday's ratings with just 548,000 viewers - will be replaced by a British program about life in Windsor Castle.

This follows the failure of Bert's Family Feud and the lacklustre ratings for 20 to 1.

Repeats of that cobbled-together program will continue to air sporadically but Newton has no permanent presence on the network's schedule.

Newton, 69, was poached in 2005 from Channel 10 - where he had carved a comfortable niche as presenter of Good Morning Australia - in an attempt to salvage Nine's flailing news ratings.

It was hoped his revived Family Feud would cut into the runaway success of Seven's 6pm news lead-in, Deal Or No Deal.

"It was a disastrous decision in the first place," media commentator Peter Cox said of the hiring.

Newton earns at least $1 million a year from Nine and recently had his contract renewed.

"Bert never really carried a prime-time show. He was a good second-in-command on In Melbourne Tonight for both Graham Kennedy and Don Lane," Mr Cox said.

"There is this mythology that he is a big star, but he was only ever successful on the morning program.

"That is a long way in the past and he is a relic and a dinosaur."

Newton 'not to blame'

A former Nine insider said Newton was not to blame for his failure to capture an audience.

"The initial idea was that Nine was going to rebuild its stable of stars but there have been too many changes and no other big names followed him," the insider said.

"Bert's What A Year was devoid of the things you need for good television.

"It's not entertaining, it's stupid and it appeals to nobody - so it's not really Bert's fault.

"And they could mount the argument that his star power is what makes 20 to 1 the moderate ratings success that it is, but in reality his ratings were no higher than with the original host, Bud Tingwell."

Another former executive at Nine said the fault lay firmly with poor choices from the network's director of programming, Michael Healy.

"He's on more than a million dollars a year and he keeps stuffing things up - I have no idea how he manages to stay under the public radar when the blame game starts about what is causing all the problems at Nine," he said.

Nine's 'full support' for Newton

A spokeswoman for Nine said Newton was unavailable for comment but that the network had recently renewed his contract and that he enjoyed the full support of management.

One of his former colleagues at Ten said many at the network were saddened at the disappointing response to his new programs on Nine.

"You have to understand, a lot of people loved Bert here," the source said.

"He was with us for a long time, but here he was a star because, with our youth line-up, he was kind of an oddity.

"Over at Nine, where their viewers and stars are a lot older, he was just another guy who had been around forever, so he couldn't really make a big impact.

"There was this whole cult thing that started to build about how 'Bert was cool' when he was a big name at Ten.

"Nine obviously hoped to cash in on it, but, once again, they didn't seem to get it."

Nine 'can't take a trick'

The former Nine insider said "the Bert Newton experience" was symptomatic of many of the network's difficulties.

"They can't take a trick and it doesn't really matter what Seven does, they can't lose at the moment.

"They have Sunrise, The Morning Show and now Kath And Kim," he said.

"Ever since Kerry Packer died, Nine has had this strange management style where they are trying to make television without spending any money, with all these cheap clip shows that cost nothing to make.

"The problem is that nobody wants to watch them.

"Nine doesn't need to worry about its opposition - it is now its own worst enemy."

Repeats last week of Bert's Family Feud attracted audiences of 293,00 viewers on Tuesday (compared with 534,000 for M*A*S*H repeats on Seven and almost a million for Ten's 5pm News).

Antiques Roadshow has again replaced the struggling game show in next week's television guide.

News Limited

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I think Bert was great in his time, but he can't draw anyone in like he use to... we often use to comment and ask why they can't get some new young blood in to do shows like Family Feud etc. Nine may think Bert didn't fail, but I think both nine AND Bert failed.