It's surprising just how much TV viewing time the Olympic Games has sucked up at our place.
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Every week I write about a TV show in this space right here and, when I sat down to bash something out, I'd realised I'd watched pretty much nothing but the Olympics for the past week.
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The post-dinner hours were spent flipping back and forth between whatever Channel 7 channels were showing the Games, hoping to find an interesting sport to watch.
Sometimes that wasn't possible, and so I'd end up watching the golf (fun to play, not to watch) and BMX (not really a sport at all but a pastime) or pretty much whatever they were offering up.
While we have Foxtel and Netflix at home, there wasn't a thought to flick through them during a lull in the Olympics coverage.
That, I guess, was because Channel 7 has excelled in making it appear that there are no lulls. They regularly show that graphic with something like eight screens each showing a different sport - making it feel like there's always something happening.
Just about the only non-Olympics things I watched in the last week was the Dragons games (though I wish hadn't), Have You Been Paying Attention? and The Cheap Seats.
I watched the latter because I'm a big fan of the former - both shows are created by the Working Dog team known for the likes of Frontline, Utopia and The Hollowmen.
They're also know for misfires like Funky Squad and Pacific Heat and so far The Cheap Seats belongs in that group.
Hosted by HYBPA regulars Melanie Bracewell and Tim McDonald, it's an hour-long comedy show that riffs on the week's events.
It aired just before the Olympics - which seems like a weird time to premiere a series - and the ratings haven't been great. By the second episode they'd been pretty much cut in half.
That's understandable because it's very hit and miss. That is partly down to McDonald, who is often the weakest link comedically when he appears on HYBPA.
It also feels really stilted and scripted down to the nth degree - even the ab-libs feel like they were worked out in advance.
After a few more weeks it may have worked out the kinks but the questions remains - will the network give it that much time?
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