History
From the late 1980s to 1999, the show highlighted songs featured in the Australian Music Report chart each week. This fluctuated from a Top 40 format to a Top 30, Top 20 and in early 2008, just a Top 10 countdown. In the 2000s, the show switched to the ARIA Report. In the late 1990s, an "Interactive Top 10" was introduced with songs supposedly voted in by the public. This was later stopped after claims of vote rigging. One case in particular saw a song by Australian singer Rani (called "Always on My Mind") chart in the Top 5 of the interactive chart for more than six months, having sold poorly in shops and getting very little airplay.
In 2003, the show reached 1.5 million viewers every Sunday in metropolitan markets.
From 1986 to 2004, the show featured a non-stop video clip-based format. In 2004, the show introduced a new look and format that included feature interviews each week and clips from different music genres.
During late 2005, the show was broadcast live on Sundays with a live audience. Special guests appeared on the show to co-host, such as The Veronicas, The Black Eyed Peas and Melissa Tkautz to name a few.
In 2006, the show was broadcast live without an audience. The chosen artist picked songs they wanted played along with their own past and present videos in a format similar to ABC's rival music TV show rage. As of April 2007, the show still continues with this format.
Video Hits turned 20 years old in 2006 and celebrated with a special event featuring a countdown of the Top 100 Video Clips of the past twenty years, compiled from online and SMS votes. This countdown was shown again in 2007, with slight differences in the list; however, "Thriller", by Michael Jackson, was voted #1 both times. Instead, in 2008, a special entitled A-Z of Pop was shown.
A new show called Video Hits First premiered in September 2006. The premise for Video Hits First is that it is rated G and suitable for all audiences, after claims throughout the media that certain music videos were sexually explicit. The format also shows the top 10 video clips from the ARIA Charts and it also features competitions and interviews with artists.
Video Hits abandoned its top 10 on Saturdays in 2008 (which was moved to Video Hits First from Video Hits in 2007) and its top 20 on Sundays much earlier in the 2000s.
In mid-late 2009, regional affiliate Southern Cross Ten dropped the show, in order to air their own chart show, known as Hit List TV, based upon the nightly radio show of the same name that goes to air across Macquarie Southern Cross hit stream stations. The show is hosted by Tim Dormer and Renee Peterson (hosts of radio program The Hit List), and shot on location at Gold Coast attractions including Movie World and Sea World. This also helps the network fulfil, albeit cheaply, their local content requirements imposed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Tim replaced Matty Acton who relocated to Sydney for a position at 2Day FM.
In July 2011, it was announced that the show would be cancelled due to a major restructure of Network Ten. The last episode aired on 6 August 2011. The last song played was Every Teardrop is a Waterfall by Coldplay.
Read more about this topic: Video Hits (Australian TV Series)
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