Another children’s television show is gone in what is fast becoming a trend on commercial television
In a few short weeks a small, but dedicated, team will gather in Channel 10’s Brisbane studios to record the very last episode of Toasted TV. What started out as a replacement for Cheez TV in 2012 quickly established its own identity and became a favourite for children all around the country.
The show has changed over the years and is now hosted by Ollie McCormack and relative newcomer Lia Walsh. In fact, the timing couldn’t be worse for Walsh who only recently moved out of home into her own apartment. She is now locked into a contract without an income.
It’s understood the team of six had no idea the show would be finishing up until they were informed by management last week. The news came as a complete surprise.
A source told TV Blackbox:
“It’s really sad, people are devastated”
Channel 10 confirmed the news, telling us on Sunday afternoon:
“Toasted TV will finish on air mid August”
No reasons were given by the network as to why the decision was made but it follows Channel 7’s decision to axe all children’s programming amid a push from commercial television networks for the government to abandon local content quotas.
Speaking to TV Blackbox last year about the possibility of the Government relaxing local content quotas, 10’s Executive Producer of Children’s Television, Drew Jarvis, told me;
“I mean, first and foremost, I work in kids TV, so it doesn’t make me terribly happy, but look, I don’t agree with a lot of the arguments going. They’re often very generalised statements. Like how everyone has access to this now, so that they’re not needed. They, to me, and once again I’m defending my position, but I think they are very important, particularly now that everything is so global for young Australians.
The timing of the axing is interesting indeed, as the network prepares to launch a new channel called 10 Shake which will be aimed at kids. It’s believed a lot of content for the new channel will be sourced from Nickelodeon, which is owned by 10’s parent company ViacomCBS.
It was also recently reported the 10 Network recorded a loss of $227 million in the calendar year of 2019. There is speculation this decision was part of additional cost-cutting at the network.
