The Bolt Report faces uncertain future, speculation it may move to Sky News
The Bolt Report: an uncertain future.
The future of Network Ten’s The Bolt Report is in the air despite assurances by host, controversial conservative commentator Andrew Bolt, via blog post this morning that “several options are being considered”.
The Australian reports today that News Corp Australia, which produces the show, may move it to Sky News, claiming that Network Ten failed to renew the show for 2016.
Bolt, in a blog post this morning, denied the program had not been renewed. “This is not true,” he wrote. “The issue is that my show is produced by News Corp, and several options are being considered which I can’t discuss and which I am thinking about. If anything, they involve doing more TV, not less.”
Network Ten denies it declined to return the show in 2016.
A spokesman for Ten told Mumbrella: “At this stage, a decision on a 2016 season of The Bolt Report has not been made, either way”.
News Corp Australia declined to comment on discussions around the Sunday morning political talk show; however, Bolt explains that, in part, he wants to reassess his workload.
“My preference meanwhile is to stop working seven days a week, as I have done for the past five years,” he wrote.
“Enough with that. Just what I will end up doing and in what form is something I am thinking about at long leisure as I saunter around the country filming a documentary for the ABC, something which has turned out to be such fun that I wouldn’t mind more of the same.
“One liberating factor is that I now don’t feel so much that I have a dog in the next election fight. I can do other things without feeling I am deserting. Or am I wrong? One more thing to ponder up here in Arnhem Land. Meanwhile, back to my copy of Enemies of Promise.”
Sky News recently shook up its schedule, adding journalists Patricia Karvelas, Laura Jayes and Matt Cunningham to its roster.
Nic Christensen
Channel Ten apparently finally deciding that as a commercial network they should show programs people actually want to watch and they can generate advertising revenues out of?
Crazy I know.
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Sky News aka ‘Fox News’ 😉
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I tried to watch The Bolt Report a few times, but it never seemed to have any quality about it. There was the odd good guest, but Bolt struggled to ask interesting questions and only wanted to agree with people who had very right wing views.
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@Lindsay that’s really unfair. Andy is only interested in the truth. That’s all.
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Good
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Laura Jayes has not been added to the roster, she has been reporting, reading the news and hosting shows.
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Bolt and his fellow travellers became irrelevant the day Turnbull became PM. They just can’t understand that the public no longer wants to hear their antediluvian opinions.
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The only measure which matters to Ten is the ad revenue implications. If they’ve gone head-to-head with Barry and can’t pull the eyeballs, then it maybe is time to ask if they make better dough re-running DragonBall-Z and getting income from Maccas in the slots.
Bolts political views are broadly an irrelevancy to Ten: If he appears stark bollock naked with a bucket on his head and sings Fascist Anthems waving his tonker, they don’t care: all that matters is the ad revenue.
So: was Bolt returning on his investment? Were the slots selling?
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It would be a pity if channel Ten stop showing the program. At home we all enjoy to see and hear Bolt ‘points of view
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It is disappointing that channel 10 wants to axe Bolt program as at home we all enjoy hearing Bolt’s opinion on relevant issues. We hope Channel 10 continues showing the program.
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The best part of his show was the comedy segment featuring Groucho Marx.
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Why on earth would Bolt want to go to Sky News. It’s just an endless, unwatchable round of political talking heads and so-called panel shows. It has no viewers other than politicians and their staff because it doesn’t cover news, just political speculation hour after hour after hour. Yawn. Like him or not, at least he has an audience on Sunday mornings on Ten.
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Smart move Ten! His views were not thought provoking but based on untruths and/or bigotry. Why Sky News will take him on board is beyond me.
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Paul Murray had better look out.
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Why do right-wingers need to their views to be ‘heard’ all the time. Apparently, balance means one centre to centre-right person with a more right-wing person, usually looking like their bubble is intact.
Balance to me means a centre-right with a decidedly left-wing Marxist, or if we are to go extreme, an anarchist. Yes, all political show to have a resident anarchist to give their views on public transport, 3D Printing, grocery prices, gaming, Jennifer Lawrence, state of the plumbing industry in Brunei and the newest laptop from Apple.
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Working for the ABC! Lordy, lordy!
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@Zac comment 13. I refer you to my comment #2
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@George #8
Mate, that’s Hogwash and you know it, the Murdoch’s are shareholders in Ten…Bolt has never had ratings – certainly never beaten the ABC once, and News are all about tearing down the only quality teev we have left.
They only pulled him in now because he has fulfilled his role in wrecking the NBN and attacking genuine journalism. Yes he’s a moppet for hire, but one that shamelessly sputniks his political suppporters such as Mudrock. [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]
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@pugwash 18 mate.. News only has 15%. Admittedly Gina has the same, but its not like Rupe has it all. And Bolt, tired arse-licker that he is, can only lick one arse at a time and frankly money likes to be sucked up to: If its all going Ruperts way, the others aren’t so happy. The rest of the shares are with VC outfits who aren’t that glued to the Murdoch weltschmertz
PS did you notice the lead today on this very website where Foxtel is centralizing and cutting? Money is bleeding from the OZ operations. Rupert likes to have tame rottys on hand, but when the steak bill feeding them gets too high, he’s not above feeding the rottys to his cheaper housepets. He’s infamous for flying into OZ to sack senior staff on no notice.
Ten is not just a vehicle for News, the way the OZ is. Other imperatives drive it, including a return to the shareholders. If they can’t sell adspace, that matters.
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Andrew Bolt may come to realise that often popularity, such as he has enjoyed for some time, is cyclical. He may not be a stayer. In a couple of years we mightn’t hear much about him at all.
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I try to watch both Insiders and The Bolt Report every Sunday. That way I can get some perspective on political discourse in this country. Each show represents opposite ends of the political spectrum and the viewer can agree or disagree. It’s called democracy, I believe and it seems to work best when both sides of a debate are presented.
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Acorn, you would have to be viewing politics from a long way from the Right to think Insiders represented the other side of politics to the Bolt Report. One if from the mad right, the other from a so called ‘even handed’ public broadcaster. Neither attempt to give the Labor view, or a left of centre view.
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@Acorn
Please comment about politics if you know something about politics. ABC to the far left? What planet are you on, oh Acorn?
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