| Winners & Losers | |
|---|---|
Winners & Losers title card |
|
| Format | Drama |
| Created by | Bevan Lee |
| Starring | Melissa Bergland Damien Bodie Virginia Gay Sarah Grace Francis Greenslade Blair McDonough Jack Pearson Stephen Phillips Denise Scott Zoe Tuckwell-Smith Melanie Vallejo Tom Wren |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 22 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | John Holmes |
| Producer(s) | Maryanne Carroll |
| Location(s) | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Running time | 44 minutes (60 including commercials) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Seven Network |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original run | 22 March 2011 – present[1] |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Winners & Losers is a Australian television drama series first broadcast on the Seven Network on 22 March 2011. It was created by the producers of Packed to the Rafters and is aired in the show's former time slot. Winners & Losers focuses on the lives of four women living in Melbourne, after they win a large amount of money in the Oz Lotto.
Contents |
Winners & Losers was created by Bevan Lee. Lee wanted to create a drama focusing on females for a number of years before the programme's creation.[2] He also created Packed to the Rafters.[3] While the former is focused on family relationships, Winners and Losers concentrates on friendships and is aimed at a younger demographic. Lee said it focuses on the "fun and drama of how we all carry the inner loser inside us, no matter how much life makes a winner of us."[3] Lee said the programme's genre is "charmedy" consisting of drama, comedy and charm.[2]
The series revolves around the lives of four women: Jenny Gross (Melissa Bergland), Bec Gilbert (Zoe Tuckwell-Smith), Frances James (Virginia Gay) and Sophie Wong (Melanie Vallejo). The girls were "the losers" in high school. Ten years later, they realise they are really winners once they are reunited at their school reunion and afterwards, win the Oz Lotto.[3] At the time of early production, the main actresses were required to spend time together off set to build believable chemistry between themselves.[4]
A pilot episode for the programme was created and shown to a research group. Network Seven's head of drama, John Holmes, said the research produced the expectation of high ratings.[2] The series began airing on the Seven Network from 22 March 2011,[1] four weeks earlier than originally planned.[2] The fourth season of Packed to the Rafters was put on hiatus to allow Winners & Losers to air in its timeslot. The move was part of a programming strategy, with the aim of attracting a high viewing figures.[2] The first episode gained the highest ratings of the evening,[1] averaging at 1.7 million viewers.[5] The Seven Network decided to air the second and third episodes back to back, securing the highest ratings once again.[6] The programme continued to fare well with ratings in the following weeks.[4] However the ratings for episode seven indicated that Winners and Losers had lost over four hundred thousand viewers.[5] Though it was considered a ratings success and is among the twelve most watched programmes in Australia.[5][7]
On 5 July 2011, Seven announced that it had renewed Winners & Losers for a second season in 2012.[8] Filming for the new season began on 23 August 2011 and Lee said viewers would see big changes.[8][9] He told the Herald Sun, "We turn the girls' lives on their heads in a pretty major way in the final episode (of series one). That will give us a new launching pad for season two."[8]
On 23 August 2011, The Sunday Telegraph reported Winners & Losers creator, Lee, was writing a script for a potential spin-off based around Jenny's family.[10] The paper said the writer would deliver a script to Seven executives, with the possibility of the show going into production in 2012.[10] However, a few days later Seven revealed there are no plans to develop a separate project.[11]
| Actor | Character | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Virginia Gay | Frances James | [3] |
| Melanie Vallejo | Sophie Wong | [3] |
| Zoe Tuckwell-Smith | Bec Gilbert | [3] |
| Damien Bodie | Jonathan Kurtis | [12] |
| Blair McDonough | Matt O'Connor | [12] |
| Denise Scott | Trish Gross | [12] |
| Melissa Bergland | Jenny Gross | [3] |
| Francis Greenslade | Brian Gross | [13] |
| Sarah Grace | Bridget Gross | [12] |
| Jack Pearson | Patrick Gross | [14] |
| Tom Wren | Doug Graham | [15] |
| Stephen Phillips | Zach Armstrong | [12] |
| Actor | Character | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Michala Banas | Tiffany Turner | [12] |
| Lachlan Woods | Chris Jones | [16] |
| Natalie Walker | Donna Wong | |
| Nell Feeney | Carolyn Gilbert | [12] |
| Greg Stone | Steve Gilbert | |
| Paul Moore | Wes Fitzpatrick | |
| Mike Smith | Callum Gilbert | |
| Nicki Paull | Leanne O'Connor | |
| Bunworth Chris | Greg O'Connor | |
| Mahalia Brown | Tracy Robinson | |
| Nick Simpson-Deeks | Rhys Mitchell | |
| Mark Leonard Winter | James 'JB' Bartlett | |
| Jacob Allan | Charles 'Chugga' McKinnon | |
| Geoff Morrell | Paul Armstrong | |
| Glenda Linscott | Lily Patterson | [17] |
| PiaGrace Moon | Jasmine Patterson | |
| Madeleine West | Deidre Gross | [18] |
| Natalie Saleeba | Claire Armstrong |
Jim Schembri of The Sydney Morning Herald praised the series branding it a "fresh, brightly coloured, high-end soap." He deemed its characters as "some of the most engaging" roles on television.[19] A columnist of The Advertiser attributed the show's success to its time slot and "creative force Bevan Lee."[4] A columnist for The Age empathised with the good response the programme generated. They said the series had "powerful themes of friendship, karma and justice for the underdog", which were portrayed in a subtle tone in comparison to other programmes.[20] They branded it "an engaging hour of televi sion" due to inclusion on comedy and a "large cast of lively characters." However they noted some of the "fresh" storylines were similar those featured in shows such as Sex and the City.[20] Whilst their fellow colleague Paul Kalina said the programme had played it safe by using fimiliar elements that made Packed to the Rafters a success.[21] Bridget McManus from the publication reflected her opinion that the programme had lost its "edge" and had started to resemble a "poor girl's Sex and the City."[22] She noted the main problem was that "potentially interesting characters" were overlooked by the four females. McManus felt they were tired stereotypes, describing them as "the virgin, the damned whore, God's policewoman and a clown."[22]
A CD titled Winners & Losers (Music from the Hit Series) was released on 8 July 2011.[23] It contains songs by various artists which were used in the programme.[24] The CD peaked at 24 in the ARIA Album Charts.[25] The complete first season of Winners & Losers was released on DVD on 21 September 2011 in Australia.[26]
In March 2011, Winners & Losers was picked up for international distribution by FremantleMedia Enterprises. FremantleMedia represent the show worldwide, outside of Australia and New Zealand.[27]
| Country | Channel | Year | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Zealand | TV One | 2011– | [28] |
| Poland | Fox Life | 2011– | [29] |
| Slovenia | POP Brio | 2011– | [30] |
| United Kingdom | ITV2 | 2012– | [31] |
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