Leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief. So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.
Yes, my friends. The end is nigh. After a three week period of utter ratings dominance – one that seems set to continue tonight – Channel Seven has announced their flirtation with animal videos is coming to a close.
The …Make You Laugh Out Loud series will air its fifth and final episode next Tuesday night, featuring the triumphant return to the original source material for Cats Make You Laugh Out Loud 2.
The series of specials has routinely drawn in over a million viewers nationwide, and has soundly beaten Channel Nine‘s competing The Hotplate three weeks straight. Seven is looking to extend that winning streak to four tonight with Animals Make You Laugh Out Loud, before Cats 2 brings it home for the show’s finale.
Seven programming chief Angus Ross told News.com.au that the decision to end the show’s run was a philosophical one.
“You certainly don’t build a network around funny dog and cat clip shows. You jump in for a short while. It is a bit like magic shows. You jump in for four or five weeks that will work and then that’s enough.”
‘Course if we spend less time focusing on the fact that there were only five episodes of the shows produced by their overseas production company, and more on trying to believe that Seven’s made a conscious artistic decision to get out of the game, we’ll all probably sleep a lot better tonight.
Ross went further, stating that the ratings boon the specials gained was a result of people potentially tiring of the facsimile reality programming wars currently being waged by TV networks.
“What it has shown is that people were looking for a laugh.”
“What is lacking across all networks is the opportunity to have a very basic laugh at something funny.”“Everything in TV goes through cycles. This year laughs have been missing a bit. If cat and dog videos were all people wanted my job would be very easy.”
Farewell, sweet animal-based programming. We’ll always have YouTube.
Animals Make You LOL airs at 7:30pm tonight on Seven. Cats Make You LOL 2 will air a week from today.
via News.com.au.
