Ten revamps early evening line-up, ‘no decision yet’ on The Renovators and Junior MasterChef
Ten has made its first programming changes of the new year since the arrival of new boss James Warburton in a major rethink of its early evening strategy.
News and current affairs show The Project will be moved to a “permanent residence” at 6pm, running for an hour on Monday to Friday, and half an hour on Sunday.
Ten News at Five will return to its one-hour format at 5pm, Sunday to Friday.
And in an aggressive move in entertainment, The Biggest Loser has been moved to 7pm on Monday to Thursday, putting the show head-to-head with Nine’s weight loss show XS Baggage. A love-seeking ‘singles’ version of the show will launch on January 23.
Ten’s chief programming officer David Mott told Mumbrella that the move was about “bringing closure” to Ten’s early evening offering.
“We’re confident that The Project can live and breathe as a one-hour show, having seen a 10% increase in audience in the 6.30pm time slot,” he said.
The Project was previously The 7PM Project, which followed the axeing of 6.30PM with George Negus in October last year.
“We want Ten to be the corner stone of early evening with a very credible alternative to traditional news offerings. But we don’t expect to be consistently winning the 6pm time slot. There are great shows on other channels and we can’t compete on the same level. Which is why we’ve gone down this alternative route.”
“There is an appetite from the younger generation for news in bite-sized pieces – in the same way that Google and News.com.au presents news. The first 15-20 minutes of The Project will be about delivering hard news. Softer pieces will be introduced in the second half of the show,” he added.
In a press release, Warburton commented:
This announcement continues our focus to set the agenda in 2012. We’re back where we should be, an hour of news at 5pm and shifting The Project to 6pm – 7pm is the perfect contemporary news offering against traditional competition.
Early evening stripped entertainment programming at 7pm was a space Ten introduced to the TV landscape and previously dominated. We see this move as an opportunity to reclaim that space and we have the shows to do it.
Ten have some of the best big franchise shows in the market with The Biggest Loser and MasterChef Australia and we must make more of what we’ve got. These changes compliment our recent Super Sunday programming line-up announcement and take a step closer to resetting that connection point with our viewers by offering bold and exceptional programs throughout the evening and the entire week.
Mott said that “no decisions have yet been made” on the future of two of Ten’s weakest performers of 2011, The Renovators and Junior MasterChef, which are rumoured to be axed.
“We’ll be making a call on these two key shows soon. We’ve been having some great dialogue with James [Warburton], but he needs a bit of time to put his bag in the corner of the room,” he said.
He was also coy on his own future at the network, which has been subject to speculation since the arrival of Warburton at the beginning of the year.
“I’ve very much enjoyed my time working with him since he’s come on board. He’s been terrific. You’ll have to ask him,” he said.
The first key move made by Warburton was the appointment of Mike Morrison from Sapient Nitro as chief sales officer in the first week of the new year.
Good to see Ten returning to some of their tried and tested formulas. It sounds like James really has the best interests of the viewing audience in mind and not just what rates. Let’s hope we will see a return to sticking to timeslots and not reshuffling every 3 weeks.
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Using all their big guns on one night…. I know they say win Sunday and you have a good chance of winning the week but seriously, what will fill the rest of the week?
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How original….two shows about fat people trying to lose weight on at the same time competing against each other?
Sometimes it’s really hard to say whether TV is made by stupid people for clever viewers or the other way round. Suffice to say you’d never get me watching this inane twaddle.
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About time! Well done James.
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And this is why I have Foxtel
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Lucky I sold my TEN shares years ago. Geez what a basket case. Has anyone had an original idea in Australian TV in the last 10 years. Reality crap followed by reality crap copy. Tragic stuff. There are so many great books to read and DVDs are plentiful.
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It’s funny every ones an expert in hindsight, George Negus is one of the best media talents in Australia but it didn’t work the way it was formatted. Masterchef is loved by Australia but JM just wasn’t as good second time around. The Renovators missed out by only 10% in being a great hit, with that 10% tweaking it could easy be a world beater in its Genre in Hindsight if it wasn’t for The Renovators going 6 nights The Block would still be a 1 night a week show, Biggest Loser is so good Nine is copying it with Excess Baggage.
James Warburton you have a lot to work with there and as far as I am concerned its all up from here.
P.S network shares are up this week
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Alright Channel 10, you’ve got the early evening sorted, but what about that pesky post-9pm zone? Here’s my reality TV idea – ‘So You Think You Can Root?’.
12 people from across Australia all want to be porn stars, but a different challenge each week sees the numbers whittled down until just one claims the right to go to LA and star in a big-budget porn flick (plus a years supply of botox and anal bleaching).
Challenges like “The Speed Hump” and “Bush Tucker Trial” will soon sort the wannabes from the real contenders.
Trust me James, it’s a guaranteed ratings winner. AND a great property – spinoffs like “So You Think You Can Art Direct?”, “So You Think You Can Drink?” and “So You Think You Can Do Your Own Surgery?” will keep Ten at the top for years to come.
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Don’t axe Junior Masterchief. It’s one of the coolest thing on tv.
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