Television

Nine set to revive Burke's Backyard   Author: eNews staff and agencies | May 1, 2007, 13:55

There’s strengthening talk that Don Burke is returning to the Nine Network with his program, Burke's Backyard, around two and a half years after being flicked by the network in a bitter and nasty parting of the ways in late 2004.

The program, which is likely to feature Scott Camm as well as Burke and others from the former sister program, Backyard Blitz, will return to Nine after the National Rugby League competition proper finishes and the finals start.

At this stage it will return towards the end of September when the Friday night semi-final matches are finished.

The timeslot will be the old 7.30 pm on Fridays where the program was a standout success from 1987 to about three or four years ago when ratings crumbled.

Seven's younger looking Better Homes And Gardens dominates the 7.30 pm Friday night slot, averaging 1.2 million or more viewers most weeks.

Better Homes And Gardens has a broader lifestyle appeal and is not just garden driven like Burke’s Backyard was for many years. Although more lifestyle segments were introduced it was essentially a gardening program built around Don Burke.

That loss of viewers accelerated in 2004 as the average audience tumbled down to around a million people, and sometimes less.

Nine, under then CEO, David Gyngell, decided to kill it off and offered Burke a number of specials in Australia and around the world. Burke angrily rejected that and stormed out. The split with Nine was spectacular.

Since then he has lost his other program, Backyard Blitz, because of falling audience numbers (although it would have held up an end this year on Sunday evenings mixed with other programs). Blitz's fall wasn't helped by inept programming by Nine as the program, was moved to Friday nights at 7.30 pm early last year and then back to Sundays at 6.30 pm, which was its old timeslot.

It's believed the return will only be for the remainder of the ratings year, until early December and Nine will assess the performance.

Nine can't bring it back any sooner because it is committed to broadcasting two NRL games on Friday nights in Sydney and Brisbane from 7.30 pm on Fridays. Unless that changes next year a permanent home at Nine on Friday night would be hard to see for Burke.

Part of the problem for Burke and his program was not only were viewer numbers falling but the age profile was getting older.

Older viewers, 55 plus especially, are the only growth area for Nine at the moment: it is losing share in all other major demographics. So BB would appeal to them in a sort of nostalgia, Back To The Future Way.

Burke has negotiated with Foxtel for a program without much success.

Nine is currently showing the Perth produced Garden Gurus program on Saturday's at 5 pm.

ACP Magazines has been publishing the Burke's backyard magazine for years and its sales have been sliding slowly, so the pressure for a TV program would have come from PBL Media magazine which wants as much cross platform material as possible.

But the drought and concerns about water has hurt the gardening and nursery sectors badly, forcing closures and cuts in staff and advertising.

Yates, the seeds arm of Orica is being restructured at a cost of $10 million to try and 'right-size' it for the changes in the gardening and associated industries.

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