George Negus debuts with 606,000
Ten’s new approach to news met with modest success on its first outing, with 6PM With George Negus attracting an average audience of 606,000 – above the cautious 500,000 target set by executive producer Tony Ritchie.
The state based 6.30pm news delivered 535,000. The ratings are based on preliminary overnight metro figures from OzTam.
Analysis of the Oztam ratings by Ten says that 6PM With george Negus outoperformed the same day and timeslot in 2010 by 38%. The 6.30pm news was 11% up on the same timeslot last year.
Which State news? Look at a map of Australia: there’s six states and two territories. Are we to assume you mean New South Wales because, well, Sydney-centric commentators are self-absorbed.
Hi Scott,
Thanks for the geography lesson.
The number I refer to is the average rating across the five city metro – Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane. Or, if you prefer “preliminary overnight metro figures”. But I think I said that already.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I’m amazed he got that many viewers. I heard him as a guest speaker last year at a junket I was attenting and he was BORING:( Hopefully he’ll be under 500000 viewers soon and sent to the trash can.
Agree with you Benno. He is way past his use by date.But was he rating better than the 6pm news was?
Oh come now. He wears a leather necklace in his promo shots! How, therefore, could he possibly be boring or past his use-by date? I love how Ch.10 has thrown him on 7pm Project and tried to turn him into some kind of Clooney-esque older stud who can pull younger viewers by being supposedly “cool”.
tim, ten didn’t run any 6PM news. They haven’t for a long time
Come on, give the guy a break. There aren’t many 68-year oids around who can still cut it like George. Or cut through, judging from the response to him from many younger viewers and last night’s figures. OK, George must be the only guy of his libertine generation to pronounce orgy as in “corgi”. But this probably means he didn’t get to participate in one and I don’t think too many ordinary Mums and Dads will be too unhappy about that . No, this was a very respectable outing under the circumstances, over a hundred thousand more than Ten’s public prediction. The challenge is to maintain and build on that when there seem to be some fundamental structural problems with the show. It’s the producers who really have to lift their game and fast.
The first of these is pace and simply cramming too much in, something universally remarked on today with headlines like “News on Steroids” and the like. As The Australian remarked acerbically, George kept promising in all the lead-up promos to ask the question “why?” yet didn’t ask it once in 30 minutes of television last night, let alone procure any answers. Better segments running longer has to be part of the solution, such as giving our latest Victoria Cross winner more time for us to get to know him. Less is more and direct story telling is the key to success in this time-slot. But George also needs to give his questions a lot more thought. “You must have been shit scared?”, “is it kill or be killed?”. Mate, you call this a mission to explain?
What they need is a crack writer to work with George throughout the day on links and mini editorials that are rapier sharp, clever and make full use of his undoubted “down the barrel” skills. If George is to be the oracle, he needs to say something witty or profound. I happen to think the whole idea of an eminence grise surrounded by his youthful “team of Six” is suss and will only work if that team breaks stories that are above the general norm. Max Futcher’s piece on one family affected by the floods was no different to any other story we’re seen on the same subject in recent times. And even Hamish MacDonald’s Arabic- speaking “kiddie terrorists” was the kind of fare that George routinely presided over at Dateline. MacDonald’s “global brief” needs to have a much bigger local resonance for a commercial audience. He needs to find stories the ABC and SBS correspondents aren’t inclined to do.
None of this is sniping for the sake of it. Everyone in the business desperately wants this to work, not least because other employment opportunities are steadily evaporating. But also because George Negus IS a significant figure in Australian journalism, has a good heart despite his healthy ego and Ten has hired some decent and highly professional individuals. Managements always say they’re prepared to give new programs time to establish themselves but we all know that’s tosh. And Ten has a much bigger burden than most, a granite-nosed investor in James Packer who didn’t want any of this in the first place and will plant his ample frame on the whole shebang if it doesn’t get traction right from the start. Wish these guys luck. They need it.
I was wondering for the most part of the year whenever I happened to watch 7pm project, why is George Negus there? Now it makes sense and by combining a little social media strategy, I think Channel 10 could sew up the news timeslots pretty well for the 18-39 demos
I like George Negus and I feel he’s got more cred as a journalist than most news presenters.
I’m very disappointed with Negus’ new program. His ‘Dateline’ was one of the best we’ve ever had.
I never liked him when he started in ’60 Minutes’ years ago, too cocky and brash. But he mellowed with Dateline. Now, he’s gone back to a third rate program. He’ll be interviewing celebs next.
From feather duster to cockerel and back to feather duster. Some life-cycle for a journo! I wonder what he did to piss someone off at SBS. Not young enough anymore?
Ron
For god sake George , why didn’t you just keep on asking Gillard , “why, why oh bloody why ?’. Thought his interview with this waddling duck of a PM was very soft indeed.Ramp it up Georgie or it will be goodbye and we will all know why!