Ten moves George Negus to 6.30pm and goes for 90 minute 5pm bulletin
Ten has shaken up its new early evening news schedule after less than two months. However, it is sticking with its two-and-a-half-hour sweep of news and current affairs.
Now instead of Ten News at Five running for an hour before George Negus at 6pm and a separate bulletin at 6.30, News at Five will run for 90 minutes before George Negus at 6.30pm. The 7PM Project won’t be affected.
The move by Ten is contrary to rumours this week the the network was about to halve its commitment to early evening news.
The existing state-based News at Five presenters will continue to present, while the 6.30 bulletin presentation team will now move onto the general roster including the late news. There will be no job losses.
According to this morning’s announcement from Ten about the moving of 6PM With George Negus: “This change in Ten’s early evening schedule is in response to audience feedback, which has been strongly supportive of the program as a unique, credible commercial television offering, yet has revealed a preference for it to be scheduled in the more traditional public affairs timeslot.”
Negus failed to find the half a million audience targeted by show EP Tony Ritchie.
Last night it rated 335,000, while in the same timeslot Seven News rated 1.19m and Nine News pulled in 974,000. The 6.30pm bulletin rated 337,000.
News at Five is a far better performer for Ten. Last night it rated 740,000.
David Mott, Chief Programming Officer at Ten said: “We are making this alteration in the early evening news schedule based on feedback from viewers who value competitive, intelligent and incisive news and public affairs programs.”
He added: “We are strong supporters of quality news, comment and analysis and believe that Network Ten should remain a leading player in this space.”
The move follows the launch of a review of ten’s strategy following the ousting of CEO Grant Blackley.
Ten is currently locked in legal action with Seven over the start date of new CEO James Warburton
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Formatting fail.
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A remotely intelligent current affairs show at 6.30pm?
I think that could gain some traction at 6.30pm.
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changing the times of a show that is not working wont increase viewers. Maybe replace George Negus with Charlie Sheen – “Winning”!
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so long as I still get to watch George I don’t mind
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6.30pm with George Negus just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Staccato auto cue reading with George Negus does though…
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Negus is my homeboy
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An interim decision until they can move Neighbours back to the main station @ 6pm.
The challenge is what goes into the current Neighbours slot on ELEVEN
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6.30 should make a difference as more people will be home from work at this time. However, I’m not on the OzTAM panel, so I don’t matter.
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They should bring back Frontline – now that was journalistic brilliance!
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Bring back The Simpsons.
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Sure this was a forced move but it has the potential to be a real winner. People who want real news & current affairs at 6.30 instead of the slapstick humour of Today Tonight/ACA have somewhere to turn now.
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I’m with Jules. Bring back Simpy’s. I’m positive it’s more informative anyway.
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At least I’ll now have something to switch to for my daily 6.30pm ceremonial switching off of the TV…
If Ch10 can just reign in George’s ‘bad dad’ jokes during the intros and outros a bit they might be onto something.
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as others have said, making it an intelligent choice to TT and ACA is a good move
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Lets face it we all cant get enough of the stories on ACA/ TT such as speeding fines, the unemployed surfing everyday, pensioners that cant afford electricity, single mums bleeding tax payers dry, the new weight loss drug, clothes to make you slimmer etc. Who needs georgy boy when you can have gold class journalism like this?
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Fungus Face, you ain’t channel Ten’s demo.
Bring back The Simpsons I say.
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No better time to do it, ACA & TT in recent days have sunk lower than anyone thought possible and seem to believe they can hurt, exploit, buy and use anyone and anything they want. I really hope this works for Ten.
It has the potenial to mimick the ending of a great Western: The two Bad Guy Bullies are about to burn the town to the ground, but wait! Out of a pile of rubble a defiant fist emerges. “By George he’s not dead” the towns folk say as our once down trodden hero emerges, he didn’t ask for a fight, but if it’s fight he must… Then so be it………….. stay tuned next week….
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Ever since the Chasers went off TV, ACA/TT have been spreading crap everywhere with no satrical humour to stop them.
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…REMOTELY intelligent GEORGE NEGUS…HAS AMPLIFIED THE OCKER SINCE HE ARRIVED ON COMMERCIAL TeleVision…
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