GNW Night Lite: Ten, 8:30. – The Guide 15/11/99

This show needs to spend the summer break brushing up its image. Crudity for crudity’s sake is seldom entertaining – even if a hyped-up studio audience seems to indicate otherwise.

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And Here’s the News – Daily Telegraph 16/12/99

At last a confirmation there will be only one Good News Week next year. Ten Network programmer David Mott says yes, GNW and GNW Night Lite will be combining into one show in 2000 but, apart from that, he’s giving away no details, including which night of the week Ten plans to screen the hybrid version.

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Into the Breach – Daily Telegraph 6/1/00

With the departure of Hey Hey It’s Saturday from Nine’s schedule, Ten has moved to fill the light entertainment gap with a revamp of it’s Saturday evening/night programming.

Good News Week is expected to make its appearance in its new format on Saturday nights. No hard detail about the show yet. While some industry insiders say GNW and GNW Night Lite will be combined into a two-hour show, Ten sources say it will be a 90-minute combo.

The network’s new one-hour music show featuring local artists will go to air early on Saturday evenings. This one will be produced by Peter Rix, who helmed the ARIAs for Ten last year.

It’s believed that Ten isn’t overly happy with the pilot and it will need some work before it gets the network’s blessing. And still no word whether Molly Meldrum will be host.

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Mikey’s special full of froth and bubble – Daily Telegraph 7/1/00

With Good News Week going back to one program a week and taking the tittle GNW Night Lite, those working on the show will have a bit of free time to do other things.

Mikey Robins, for instance, is making a one-hour special for Ten, the subject of which is close to the Aussie male heart – pubs.

The program is being made by Good News Week Productions and will be the first of a series of special made by the team.

"Mikey will be visiting pubs in Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmania and also talking to celebrities about their favourite watering holes," said a Ten spokesperson.

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Oil Be seeing you in Charity Gig – Daily Telegraph 17/2/00

Another Dili connection: the year’s first Good News Week, airing on Network Ten on February 26, will feature Midnight Oil, taxiride, and the Dili Allstars which all contributed songs to the album Liberdado – Viva East Timor.

The record is now on sale and all proceeds will go to East Timor.

Joining host Paul McDermott and panel leaders Mikey Robins and Julie McCrossin will be Nick Giannopoulos, star and co-writer of the film, The Wog Boy, which opens next week.

Also on parade in GNW will be Federal Minister for Justice and Customs Senator Amanda Vanstone, Amanda Keller, and, making his first appearance on the show, the former deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer.

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Thumbs up – the guide 6/3/00

The good news is that these exuberantly talented people have pegged themselves back to one session a week of their formula-driven happy hour. Except that it’s a happy hour-and-a-half, which is a stretch.

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Good News for the 'Poptarts' - The Daily Telegraph 6/3/00

While the wannabes in Popstars on the Seven Network lurch from one headline to another, they're smiling at Good News Week over at Network Ten. Without having to do any auditions, the show is enjoying some success with the five runners-up in the Popstars quest.

They tracked them down and, billed as the Poptarts, they appeared on last Saturday night's show and will make another another appearance this Saturday night.

They had only three hours to get together for the show and the response has been phenomenal, said Ten programmer David Mott.

"They are incredibly talented, as we discovered on Good News Week."

There's some talk that Ten has further plans for the Poptarts, including a special. "We are discussing a number of other things with them," said Mott.

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Sydney Morning Herald 18/3/00

By contrast, five rejected Poptarts appeared on Good News Week (Ten, Saturday) and came across as a bunch of real, live girls. They had a ball, singing and answering questions about the chosen Poptarts, those judges, that Celine Dion song. It was good energetic television. Everyone on the panel seemed tempted to pinch the Poptarts to see if they were real. Paul McDermott was damn near charming and, a wek after the drudgery of the Mardi Gras commentary, the lovely Rove McManus was in truly sparkling form.

Good News Week is The Littlest Hobo of programming, a gypsy of a show which has roamed from one network to another, and had a little rest on just about every night of the week for 30, 60 and 90 minutes at a time. It's a game show. It's a variety show. It's a party hat, a turtle. I don't know what the hell it is, but for a show that was looking a little tired, it seemed to have gained a second, or 18^th wind.

Certainly, Saturday seems a comedy home, and with guests like Rove McManus, GNW may become the new, dare I say it, heck, why not, Hey Hey It's Saturday. So if Paul McDermott is Daryl Somers, does that make Mikey or Julie the pink ostrich?

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Robins' Admiration society - Daily Telegraph 16/3/00

Spotted dining together at Catalina's this week were Austereo managing director Brad March, Triple M program director Guy Dobson and Good News Week star Mikey Robins.

March has never hidden his admiration for Robins' work, who presented breakfast on Triple J for seven years until turning his attention exclusively to television.

Asked afterwards about the lunch, Guy Dobson said no formal proposal was on the table yet.

"We've gone out for several lunches with Mikey in an endevour to get him to do some stuff for the Triple M network. He's a very talented TV and radio performer and unlimately down the track we'd love him to do some stuff. Apart from that he's a good guy to lunch with."

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Good News dispute - 23/3/00

The word is that a legal dispute between the producers of Good News Week and the UK's Hat Trick Productions may have been resolved.
    Hat trick producers a show called Have I Got News For You, first screened on BBC in 1990, and produced annually ever since.
    According to a pile of legal documents, Hat Trick claims it was anxious to expliot the format in Australia and a director, James Mulille, visited Australia in 1994 and met with Ted Robinson who produces GNW first for the ABC and now for Network Ten.
    Among the stream of allegations and denials in the papers, Robinson denies that the format of GNW is a copy or a substantial reproduction of Have I Got News For You or untilises the format on that show.
    This week Robinson wasn't returning calls. And Ten, whose legal team has been involved in the dispute,after initially confirming there was a dispute, later refused to comment any further.
    But a whisper that an agreement may have been reached between Hat Trick and the Good News Week team.

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Triple M Woos Robins - 23/3/00

Good News Week star Mikey Robins may join Triple M within the next couple of months.  Austereo managing director Brad March said Robins might join the station around May but he refused to say what shift Triple M had in mind for the television comedian.  Sources close to Robins say a natinal program in the drive slot is a possibility but March denied this.  "It could be a combination of things," was all he would disclose.  Club Veg present the drive program in Sydney and rate well.  But Austereo insiders say the two comedians, Mal Lees adn Vic Davies, whose contracts expire at the end of the yearm are not considered network material.  Mikey Robins was also short on details, saying that he'd love to get back into radio but there was nothing concrete to report.

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