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Brian Henderson defends Overton

"You can't expect him to be proficient the moment you sit there," says former Nine News legend.

If it wasn’t for Nine’s anchor swap seven days ago would we have had anything to talk about this week? Barely…

It’s been a terrible week for Nine News in Sydney. It started the week with 290,000 dropped to 241,000 by Wednesday and managed 255,000 on Thursday. All without Ian Ross even back in the chair at Seven News.

Then there was the story of how two men were now “bitter rivals.”

Today former Nine man Brian Henderson, came to Overton’s defence.

“You can’t expect him to be proficient the moment you sit there. It’s unfair, but I guess unavoidable in TV today,” Henderson told The Daily Telegraph.

“I think it’s difficult to tell at this stage and the criticism of him is unfair.”

He also pointed towards Nine’s continual lead-in woes.

“5.30pm has always been a pain in the bum. You’ve got 150,000 to make up before you even get started,” he added.

Henderson added Overton had more “X Factor” than his predecessor Mark Ferguson.

“Mark’s got a sense of humour but Peters’ comes across more.”

Source: The Daily Telegraph

9 Responses

  1. Channel Nine listen to the people???? Surely you jest, Jerome?! The reason nine is in the mess they are in is because they never listen to their viewers. As a consequence, they have driven them all away. That is why seven are winning the ratings!

  2. i have no sympathy for 9 news because of its lead in. if they think its the reason for all their issues then change it!!!!!!!!! they’ve had more than enough time. they didn’t even try something new for summer NRP.

    as for “You can’t expect him to be proficient the moment you sit there. It’s unfair, but I guess unavoidable in TV today,”
    true, but if there is a drop it should tell you something immediately. he didn’t even get a curiosity surge like when eddie took ACA for a week.

    i personally think that the only “X factor” that overton has is arrogance and smugness.

    i’s sure ch9 will change back in a few weeks and show that they “listen to the people” thats the only option they have left to keep their dignity.

  3. It is a shame that Brian doesn’t come out of retirement and host the news again it would boost the ratings for sure not only that 9 news would be far better than it is now

  4. “You can’t expect him to be proficient the moment you sit there” Oh yes we can! it’s called hiring the best person for the job and Peter Overton is not the best person, in fact I’d go as far as saying he is terrible.

    I think I just don’t like the way Mark Ferguson was dumped, one minute they are saying that he is there to stay and the next minute they have a new guy sitting at the desk and they are rapping him up. Mark Ferguson is really good at his job, he has been doing it for years and it shows. He had the same lead in too by the way, that hasn’t changed, he can’t help it if the programmers can’t do their job and get that right. If he was under performing with a good lead in then I could understand why he got sacked but it appears he was rating better than this useless replacement.

    Channel Nine I was watching Mark Ferguson and I am not and will not watch Peter Overton, he needs to go back to his froth and bubble current affairs.

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