Yasmin's back on the shelf

You’d have to consider yourself pretty unlucky in love when even a much hyped national television campaign to find you a partner fails to raise much interest.

Network Ten‘s ‘next big thing’ Yasmin’s Getting Married has been yanked from our screens because …. well …. no one really cared enough to watch. The executives at Ten have reached for the remote and hit the off button.

Poor Yasmin will have to resort to some more good old fashioned ways to find herself a husband.

This report from News.com.au tells us that not too many people tuned in to start with but those that did kept switching off.

Less than 800,000 viewers across five capital cities tuned in to watch the series premiere on Tuesday. Numbers dwindled to daytime levels by the end of the one-hour curtain-raiser.

Ten will replace the program with US cartoon Futurama weeknights at 7pm (AEST) from today while it considers the future of the prime-time slot.

The programme was scheduled to run for nine weeks and culminate in a wedding once a panel of judges had sorted through the 5000 applicants who were vying for Yasmin’s hand in marriage.

Yasmin hasn’t simply been left waiting at the alter, she’s had her dreams sacrificed at the alter of television ratings.

I must admit that I’m quite pleased that the show’s been cancelled. Feel free to call me old fashioned but I consider that choosing a life partner is a little bit more serious than attracting fleeting TV stardom. I hope that Yasmin finds happiness with a guy who’ll treat her well and they’ll build a strong future together but I don’t think that trying to do that in the glare of the TV lights and the surrounding publicity is a wonderful recipe for success.

I’m tired of television networks screwing with people’s lives so that they can simply boost ratings and make more money. And if you think it’s not as simple as that, this latest hiccup demonstrates that it really is only about ratings. The ratings didn’t happen, the show gets canned.

I have no problem with television stations trying to increase ratings and create wealth for their shareholders, that’s just business, but when they do that without any concern for the welfare of those involved, something is terribly wrong.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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About the author

Rodney Olsen

Rodney is a husband, father, cyclist, blogger and podcaster from Perth Western Australia.

He has worked in radio at Perth's media ministry Sonshine for over 25 years and has previously worked at ministries such as Compassion Australia and Bible Society.

The views he expresses here are his own.

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7 Comments

  • I doubt the network would have screwed with her life that badly. The fact that she went on television with this in the first place probably shows where her priorities lie.

    In anycase, there are those of us who believe that “Reality TV” is just a way to use out of work, B-grade actors who work cheap in order to fill a timeslot.

  • I think that it’s probably good news for Yasmin. At the risk of sounding like an old Catholic Priest – it is a sad endictment on the TV station to treat the holy sacrament of marriage in such a inappropriate way. I agree that the station in question is stooping pretty low in many areas of programming, simply to chase what it thinks might produce ratings. And remember that ratings are only a vessel for what they are really chasing: advertising sales.

  • this is great for 2 reasons.

    Firstly, it is a silly idea and, as you said, not a good recipe for a successful marriage I do not think.

    Secondly…I LOVE FUTURAMA!:D:D so am VERY happy to have that on WOOT!

  • yeah I still wish her all the best, but I agree with you – not really the primary idea of marriage is it?

    Mind you I heard somewhere that she is the HR Manager at some company so perhaps there is some kind of Kosmic Karma happening here…

    Best of luck to her.

    (Oh, and me? I was one of the people who didn’t switch her off after one episode – I just never switched on to Yasmin And Her Moneygrubbing.)

  • HR manager gets sacked from own TV show!

    well, I thought it was funny

    I’ve had interesting experiences with HR people in the past

    karma indeed!

  • Futurama rules! Nearly as much as the Simpsons:-)

    The thing I most hate about ‘reality’ shows is the abuse of the word ‘reality’. I mean, how real is it to get trailed around by a bunch of TV cameras and associated people?

    Even when I was working in TV I only had 1 camera with me, and it certainly wasn’t pointed at me most of the time 🙂

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