Australia’s last remaining regular free to air music TV show has been given the chop. Video Hits, Channel 10’s regular weekend music show hosted by former Recovery host Dylan Lewis and Faustina ‘Fuzzy’ Agolley is set to finish up on August 6th with a two hour retrospective of the best parts of the show’s 24 year history.
After Network Ten initially refused to confirm or deny the rumours, Video Hits executive producer Rachel Moor said: “We plan to leave the music landscape as we arrived – with a bang! It will be a big celebration that honours what the shows achieved over the years, what it has brought to music fans and the music industry as a whole.”
While often cringeworthy, the show launched the (occasionally dubious) careers of Axle Whitehead, Kelly Cavuoto, Hayden Guppy and Nathan Sapsford in addition to the current hosts and remained an outlet for music on TV in Australia, even if it was aimed at a younger age group with more commercial tastes than that of other music fans.
Falling victim to wide ranging cuts at struggling network Ten under new boss Lachlan Murdoch, many industry observers have expressed surprise at the show’s axing, with the general consensus that it was two of the cheapest hours of TV produced in Australia. It further suggests that in Australia more and more people are turning to the internet for their music and music TV consumption.
With that knowledge, it’s not a bad time to reveal that Tone Deaf was commissioned to produce a pilot music TV show back in March of this year. Funded by industry interests, we’re currently in discussions with a number of programming outlets to commission it as ongoing music TV show, which music fans and the music industry in Australia desperately need. You can check out the abbreviated format of the Tone Deaf TV pilot here.
