Rage (TV Program) - Top Fifty

Top Fifty

Prior to 2006, from around 5am or 6am to 9am on Saturday mornings and 4am to the end of show on Sundays, Rage would switch to the weekly Top Fifty from the ARIA singles chart. Rage aired the Top 60 chart from 1 September 1990 to 9 March 1991, and from 8 June 1991 to 6 March 1994. If a video from the Top Fifty was unavailable, unsuitable or non-existent, it would be replaced by a splash screen of the "Rage" logo with the position attained in the charts for the week, the artist's name and the track's title. Also, the videos shown until 6am were uncensored (after this, the rating was set back to G-rated material). However, some clips were unavailable in that form, particularly due to heavier restrictions on clips which originated in the United States. Sometimes, two different video clips for the same song were shown in the one session. When this happens, it was often a live (or sometimes remixed) version that was shown earlier in the night/morning, while the "mainstream" censored version shown after 6am was shown in the Top Fifty due to classification laws in Australia which prevented adult-oriented material being shown in the after-6am timeslot. Since 2005, Rage is classified PG when it carries over after 6am.

Rage has previously had to censor and remove videos which have breached advertorial and editorial guidelines for ABC TV. For example, in 1991, Adidas logos were blurred out in a music video by New Kids on the Block and in 2005 a music video by the Bratz Rock Angelz was removed due to its advertorial content. Post-2000, Rage is more liberal and lenient with censorship compared to how it was in the '90s. For example, Rage, by their own discretion, opted to broadcast the Crazy Frog music video "Axel F" uncensored, showing the exposed penis of the frog, deeming it to be non-offensive.

From 2005, the Top Fifty was added to the ABC2 digital channel programming schedule as well from 8am to 11am. The Top Fifty was also broadcast to Asia on ABC Asia Pacific and has a large cult audience in Asian countries due to the prevalence of pop music there. It is now broadcast to Asia on Australia Network showing new release pop music videos.

The weekend of 22 and 23 July 2006 was Rage's last broadcast of the Top Fifty countdown. In its place at 10am to 11am on Saturday mornings is a preview of the upcoming guest programmer or special. Rage programming on Sunday mornings includes a mix of new and hit songs. The decision to remove the Top Fifty countdown was made by ABC management, not Rage production staff, and was soundly criticised by Rage's viewing audience, which flooded the program's official message boards with complaints. The cessation of the Top Fifty countdown was due to ARIA initiating a commercial association with a telecommunications company; as the commercialism breached ABC guidelines, the Top Fifty could therefore not continue to be shown by Rage.

In 2008 and 2009 Rage broadcast an assortment of clips on ABC2 Saturday afternoons.