Seven pulls out Peter Allen series, X-Factor, for September

Seven Network is pulling out Peter Allen: Not The Boy Next Door and the return ofThe X-Factor next month as part of its Super September campaign to maintain impetus as the highest rating TV network.

A teaser last night for the two-part Peter Allen: Not The Boy Next Door indicated a strong script from Michael Miller and Justin Monjo, crisp direction from Shawn Seet and a strong contribution from 24-year-old NIDA graduate Joel Jackson in the lead role.

Inspired by the global success of The Boy From Oz musical, Not The Boy Next Door traces Allen’s early days in a conservative homophobic NSW town with a troubled father and doting mother, to his heady openly-gay days in New York and hits as I Go To Rio, and his death in 1992 from AIDS-related throat cancer.

The all-star cast includes Sigrid Thornton as singer Judy Garland who served as his manager when he arrived in America, Rebecca Gibney as his mother and Rob Mills as Allen’s first musical partner Chris Bell. Not The Boy Next Door is the latest collaboration for Seven with Endemol Shine Australia, which produced the high rating INXS: Never Tear Us Apart and Catching Milat.

This year’s X-Factor sees Dannii Minogue and Guy Sebastian joined by Chris Isaak and James Blunt. They replace Redfoo, Ronan Keating and Natalie Bassingthwaighte. The shuffle took place after last year’s series was down 25% in audience numbers. The 2014 grand final, when 15-year-old Marlisa Punzalan won over singer-songwriter Dean Ray and siblings Brothers3, won the night’s ratings with 1.316 million but was still 35% down on the 2013 grand final which drew 2.03 million.

Other winners thrown up by X-Factor were Random, Altiyan Childs, Reece Mastin, Samantha Jade and Dami Im.

Other shows in Seven’s Super September are the premiere of global hit game show The Chase Australia hosted by Andrew O’Keefe, new Australian drama 800 Words with Erik Thomson, new Australian series Beach Cops based on Sydney’s northern beaches, Gold Coast Medical, Mesmerised with stage and television hypnotist Peter Powers and fast tracked new US shows Heroes Reborn, Quantico and The Player.