The cost cutting continues at Nine, with more programs ditched,
delayed
or
“rested” before they’ve seen the light of day.

Suspicious Minds and the third series of The Block were casualties last week. Now the Watercooler hosted by 60 Minutes queen, Liz Hayes, an afternoon chat show due to start on Easter
Monday,
has
gone. Nine says it has not been axed but merely delayed – before it
started?

The second series of Body Work, a plastic surgery based program hosted by Susie Wilks who went off and Danced with the Stars on the Seven Network for a while, is also being “delayed”.

Nine still has the second series of Celebrity Makeover and the new Celebrity Circus to come, along with Our Place, a replacement for Scotty’s Place that was a proposed replacement for Burke’s Backyard.

But while Nine is resting its ideas, Seven has started work on a
13-part
series
based on the Guinness Book of Records, and has a comedy program coming from Melbourne.

The official explanation is that Nine is conserving money for the
prime
time
battle with Seven (and Ten to a lesser extent). The real story is
that
costs
are being slashed in programming outside of prime time because of
the
need to
bring overall spending down as revenue slows.

CRIKEY: Meanwhile, Glenn Dyer examines the long road back for Nine on the site here.