Adam Boland on leave
Producer Rob McKnight will oversee both Studio 10 and Wake Up after TEN confirmed Adam Boland is on leave.
- Published by David Knox
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Producer Rob McKnight will oversee both Studio 10 and Wake Up after TEN confirmed Adam Boland is on leave for health reasons.
“Adam Boland is unwell and therefore taking a break,” TEN’s publicity head Catherine Donovan told News Corp.
“Wake Up and Studio 10 are up and running, and Adam has faith in his team.”
Boland has spent months building two shows from scratch for the struggling network, but they launched to disappointing numbers despite an extensive awareness campaign.
“Always going to be a tough ride. Now we just have to bed in. We always said it would take time. Promising start,” he recently tweeted.
TEN CEO Hamish McLennan recently acknowledged, “It just takes time. It would be unrealistic to think in a matter of weeks and months a TV network could turn around.”
TEN has also confirmed the departure of Sydney news director Paul Patrick “to pursue other opportunities.”
The network is looking for a replacement.
Former Head of News and Current Affairs Peter Meakin begins at TEN in February.
14 Responses
Putting aside that the $1 million giveaway is a total joke, as viewers know there’s going to be zero chance of anyone winning it, if Ten aren’t prepared to stick with this format for at least 18 months, they’re wasting their time, as it’ll need that long to find its feet.
I agree with Andrew. I’m not sure what the ‘expected’ ratings were but I think with time both shows will find a following. I’m quite enjoying Wake Up, I’ll be sticking with it
@jezza Was promoted on the radio many times here in Perth as they really wanted to plug – “Were the only ones doing Local News”
Im pretty sure I saw it on a few buses as well so its not like they were doing nothing
I think it’s been unfair to label the initial ratings results for Wake Up as disappointing.
Given that Ten was coming off a base of almost zero in that timeslot, plus with competition from Sunrise, Today, ABC News Breakfast and Sky News, plus the overall public disinterest with the Ten brand I think to have sat around 40-50k average so far is OK.
Remembering too that Sunrise a decade ago, with a lot less competition and with Seven being the #2 network overall, was only around 50k when it was first revamped into the current day version. So all things considered I think Wake Up’s ratings are the best that can be expected for now. To have expected anything closer to Sunrise/Today levels would be unrealistic.
And for the people chanting bring back Cheez TV there is a whole lot of children’s programming in the breakfast slot on Eleven, ABC2, ABC3, etc.
And wishing Adam a speedy recovery.
I keep seeing people saying “bring back Cheeze TV”. I’d love to de-bunk this suggestion now to avoid ever having to frustratingly read it again.
The Breakfast news slot attracts approx $100m in advertising revenue each year. Childrens programming is severely restricted in what you’re able to both advertise and charge for what does appear within this programming. The audience profile is narrow and they generally don’t make the family viewing decisions later the same day in peak programming.
It doesn’t make financial sense to go down this route again and we’ve all seen what cheap programming can do to a channels reputation over the past year.
Ten needs an early morning launch pad for its nightly programming, hence the push into this territory.
@Pertinax…of course awareness is a problem, a huge problem. TV adverts only on the ch10 network….err …small viewing numbers. Print media….huge drop off in sales and readership. That leaves public Billboards…driving around Melbourne I do not recall a single one…..digital/online awareness campaign….nothing rings a bell at all. In fact my only knowledge of these shows is via this website
Bring back Cheez TV!
Awareness isn’t the problem. There was plenty of advertising on TV and in print. But if you don’t watch ads then you may not have seen any, but what can Ten do about that?
Sunrise and Today are shows that have been honed for a decade and are popular. The ABC has the niche serious news junkies sewn up.
As we have seen with Ten’s Breakfast and evening News attempts it won’t be easy to force there way into the game.
If I don’t include this website, TV columns in the paper and a few ads on Ten (which, like the rest of the country, I rarely watch), I can’t say I would have known the show was launching. In fact, I forgot it was this week.
Hope he is ok. He has spoken out before about his mental health issue if thats what it is.
Hope he can get back behind the scenes soon,
Wishing Adam a speedy recovery.
If Ten or the producers were expecting higher ratings then their expectations were unrealistic. The shows were always going to launch to low numbers. Wake Up requires some tweaking but Studio 10 is certainly on the right track and will gain a loyal following fast.
I wish him all the best with his recovery.
If he is reading this, I hope he realises that most of the criticism has been in good faith, as we all realise what he can do for morning television.
Wake Up will get there. It will just take time.
Oh no, not a good sign, obviously hope he is ok 🙁 gotta hurt when you put so much work into something and for it not to resonate has gotta sting
“but they launched to disappointing numbers despite an extensive awareness campaign.”
I don’t agree with this partial commentary. The awareness campaign to the broader viewing base was minimal, virtually non existant, it was good within tv media circles, but not to the viewing public that are not really watching ch10. As a result the numbers are about as good as can be expected, where they are in 3-6 months time will provide a better judgement.
Is ABs leave short term/long term/temporary? Speedy recovery regardless…..