Word on the 'Street' is: disgusted

Highview  Home and Hospital residents (left to right) Evelyn Huston, Mary Swale, and Margaret...
Highview Home and Hospital residents (left to right) Evelyn Huston, Mary Swale, and Margaret Phelan. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
Tuesday and Thursday nights will not be the same at Dunedin's Highview Home and Hospital soon.

Television New Zealand's decision to move Coronation Street from its twice-weekly 7.30pm slot to each weekday at 5.30pm has disgusted residents who love the show.

From the middle of next month, the soap swaps timeslots with MasterChef Australia for the last three weeks of the cooking show's run, but Coronation Street may stay at 5.30pm permanently, TVNZ has said.

Highview quality manager Janine Shaw said residents were having tea at 5.30pm and could not watch TV at that time. Mrs Shaw, a fan herself, would tape the show for residents - but she hoped TVNZ had a change of heart.

It was unreasonable to expect elderly people to change their habits to watch the show because routine was crucial to people of that age, Mrs Shaw said.

The show had been part of residents' lives for decades, she said.

Taping the show might not be ideal for 83-year-old resident Mary Swale, who liked to tuck herself in bed in front of her own TV for the show.

Asked what she liked about the show, she said: "The whole thing.""I'm disgusted about the time [change]."

Margaret Phelan (71) said 5.30pm was completely impractical.

"Most people are busy between 5 and 5.30."

Most people were either cooking tea, eating, or perhaps putting children to bed.

"You can relax at 7.30. Everything is over, the news is over ... it's ridiculous."

Bev Sutherland (73) was "sick of the sight" of cooking programmes in primetime. Often, it seemed there was nothing but cooking shows on TV, on a host of channels at the same time.

TVNZ spokeswoman Georgie Hills said ratings would determine whether Coronation Street stayed at 5.30pm or moved back to primetime.

TVNZ believed the show's fans would still watch at 5.30pm, but it would await viewing figures for confirmation. It had expected the strong reaction to the time change.

"We absolutely know how deeply Coronation Street fans feel about the show. They have made it a Kiwi viewing institution for close to 50 years," Ms Hills said.

A positive thing for viewers was an extra 30 minutes of the show airing a week, which helped close an 18-month time lag with the United Kingdom.

- eileen.goodwin@odt.co.nz

 

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