Karl grimaces upon reading the full list of too-obvious Nine TV show names. Source: NewsComAu

Gyngell deserves every cent. The Bondi brawler has fostered a creative environment at Nine unlike any in the Australian media landscape.

There’s no better example than the super-creative TV show names at Channel Nine.

When Nine commissions a show, it always makes sure it gives it a name that really zings.

The network starts the day with that show about stuff that’s happening today. The show is called Today. So clever.

After Today, while it’s still morning, there’s Mornings. Booyah! How’d they think of that one?

See Tony, it’s called Today because it’s on right now, as in today. “Sorry Karl, not quite with you. Explain it one more time, please.” Source: Supplied

Oh, and there’s Weekend Today. It runs on weekends. Because of course it does.

Current Affairs is a strong suit at Nine. They subtly reference this fact with their flagship nightly program A Current Affair. Give those people the Walkley for show-naming awesomeness.

Still on current affairs, Nine has Sixty Minutes. Guess how long it runs for? Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

Sunday was another high quality Nine current affairs vehicle before it got axed. Guess which day it ran on?

YEAH, BUT WHY IS BIG BROTHER CALLED BIG BROTHER? THE SHOCKING TRUTH.

Heard about Nine’s new reality show Kalgoorlie Cops? You won’t believe what it’s about.

The Voice on Nine is a show about people with voices. Don’t worry if you don’t quite get the reference. It’s a subtle art, this TV show naming thing.

Seen RPA? It’s about stuff that goes on in a big hospital which just happens to be called RPA. Such a brilliant tie-in.

Tracy was genuinely shocked when we explained the subtle reason for the name of the show she hosts. Pic: Keryn Stevens Source: News Corp Australia

Being a snow lover, I remember a Nine show which used to run on winter weekends called The Snow Show. It was about snow, of all things.

And then, of course, there’s The Cricket Show. It’s that show that comes on during lunch at the cricket. In the grand pantheon of Australian televisual history, it’s hard to imagine a show which has been so exquisitely named. The production meeting must have taken days. Entire pizza joints would have run out of olives and anchovies while Gyngell and his crack TV show naming unit thought up the title for that one.

But for all Nine’s brilliance in the art of literal TV show naming, there are a couple of shows we just can’t understand.

Michael Slater has the rare privilege of hosting both The Cricket Show and (the NRL version of) The Footy Show. He has no idea how either show got its name. Source: Supplied

Australia’s Funniest Home Videos is definitely not that, nor has ever been. Nuh-uh. Not by a long stretch.

And what’s with the The Footy Show? Anyone would think it’s a show about, you know, footy.

Someone must have missed the memo about how it was really supposed to be called the Cross-Dressing, C-Grade comedy Hour.