Comedy Mysteries: The Chaser’s War on Scheduling

Remember when the ABC cut back their order for the final series of The Chaser’s War on Everything from eight episodes to six after the “make a Realistic Wish Foundation” sketch earned them a two week ban? The reason given by the ABC at the time was that their scheduling was so tight for the traditional Aussie comedy slot (9pm Wednesdays) they couldn’t possibly push everything back two weeks to make up for the two non-Chaser weeks.  At the time?  Sounded kinda plausible. And now? Well, after looking at this weeks schedule and noticing that crap UK series Star Stories is holding down the 9pm Wednesday slot for two weeks until Hungry Beast takes over, all that scheduling guff seems a lot harder to swallow.

Of course, after about two seconds thought this starts to make even less sense. Was there always going to be a two week gap in Aussie content right about now – and if so, why couldn’t the two cancelled episodes of TCWOE have filled the gap? If cutting the show order from eight to six was a punishment, why not say so at the time – it wasn’t like the ABC had shown any spine in standing up to the show’s tabloid critics before then. And what happened to the DVD release of the final series?  It was scheduled for the usual quick turn-around after the show wrapped on free-to-air, only to vanish from schedules with no release date currently in sight. Surely the commentary tracks and deleted scenes alone would make it worth checking out…