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Up next: Absolutely nothing

Both Today Tonight and A Current Affair often accuse each other of being inaccurate, grandstanding or misleading -but there is one practice both habitually use to viewers every night without explanation.

Leading into the final ad break, both TT and ACA tease a final story with phrases like: “Still to Come”, “Next” and “Coming Up.”

But every time we come back from the break it’s simply to plug what’s on the show tomorrow night. And this from journos that baulk at misleading advertising?

Come on News Editors, stop dragging your feet on this one. Can’t we have Anna Coren and Tracy Grimshaw sign off to a break without these white lies?

The stories they promise don’t eventuate for another 24 hours.

9 Responses

  1. Derryn must be reading tvtonight because he mentioned the exact same thing on his show today 🙂

    But I agree it is a stupid tactic and really amazes me that people still watch either of these shows in such high numbers

  2. I certainly miss the traditional journalism of this genre and lament that they are full of short, tabloid / consumer / celebrity driven pieces, rather than longer in-depth stories. But that isn’t anything new and while audiences respond with figures of 1.2m+ networks won’t be changing them anytime soon.

    I could comment on presentation styles too, the lack of political interviews, or various aspects of the show. It’s not an either /or situation.

    As several have commented this teaser practice is very frustrating and misleading, I felt it worth raising.

  3. I have no idea why they do this, but Bern is right. This is a minor thing to talk about , but I am surprised that this is the first time that it gets a mention.

    Remember when ACA and TT focused on the major news stories of the day in great detail? Well, they decided that one day they would both focus on becoming nothing more than just magazine programs. The two programs might as well merge together and rename it ACA Tonight or something.

    I prefer to watch The 7:30 Report any day. Forget Seven and Nine.

  4. It’s just as ridiculous with their commercials. They hook you in with snippets of stories and when it comes to watching them you realise time and time again it was just another beat-up!

    I’ve also noticed ACA have been screening commercial free for most of the show. Is this a technique to retain channel surfers from TT?

  5. We shouldn’t really even be watching this trash. TT and ACA are 2 of the most embarrasing shows on Aus TV at the moment. With all their bickering between each other and “reports” consisting of nothing useful or relevant.

  6. I usually watch ACA rather than TT and they have been doing this for ages. I, too, now trun over or off – it is grossly misleading and really just makes them look unprofessional and more tabloid than news.

  7. Here Here! If I am watching these shows – and it is very rare these days thanks to the journalist content, I look at the clock, if they have a story hook and there is only 5 minutes to go, I change channels – knowing full well, as you said, they are only coming back to run < 30 secs of teasers and say goodnight. Treat me with some intelligence please !!!

  8. I always liked the line “If you have a similar story or would like to contact us about a story give us a call or visit our website….”
    If there not cross promoting there relying on the general public to have a whinge to keep the stories flowing. So I suppose you have Mr and Mrs Citizen to blame just as much as the networks 😛

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