Video Hits (Australian TV series)
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Video Hits is an Australian music television show that first aired in June 1986. It broadcasts on Network Ten for three hours each Saturday and Sunday morning.
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[edit] History
From the late 80s 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 currently 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 is broadcast live without an audience. The chosen artist picks songs they want played along with their own past and present videos in a format similar to ABC's rival music TV show rage.
Video Hits turns 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.
A new show called Video Hits First premiered in September 2006. The format is to show the top 10 video clips from the ARIA charts and it also features competitions and interviews with artists.
[edit] Program format
Video Hits generally plays Top 40 Australian and overseas titles as well as clips that are being promoted but not in the charts.
Video Hits supports Australian music, featuring local artists such as George, Frenzal Rhomb, The John Butler Trio, Little Birdy, Delta Goodrem, The Hampdens, The Cat Empire and The Sleepy Jackson. In 2006, it begun to mimic its ABC rival rage by playing more alternative artists like Korn and The Used.
Video Hits also hosts various competitions through SMS. In 2005, the show gave away more than $650,000 in prizes.
[edit] Presenters
The new format introduced in 2004 included two regular hosts Kelly Cavuoto and Axle Whitehead - former contestants on Australian Idol in 2003. After Cavuoto was sacked in late 2004, Whitehead took over as a solo host of the show. He has since interviewed many artists including Black Eyed Peas, Kanye West, Coldplay and Pete Murray. The host of Video Hits First is Faustina "Fuzzy" Agolley who began hosting the show since its inception in September. Axle resigned on November 1, 2006 after exposing his penis at the 2006 ARIA Awards, which were held 3 days eariler[1]. With Axle's resignation Fuzzy will take over as host for Video Hits as well, until February 2007, when former MTV presenter Nathan Sapsford will begin presenting duties.
