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Today launching Sunday edition

Leila McKinnon and Cameron Williams will host a Sunday edition of Today, set to take on Weekend Sunrise.

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Channel Nine’s Today show will take on Weekend Sunrise when it launches a new Sunday edition in February.

To be hosted by Leila McKinnon and Cameron Williams, the show is reported to resemble the weekday edition by Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson with slight changes.

“The fact it’s on a Sunday, it will have a slightly different vibe, but will be similar to the Today show in if there’s something happening we’ll be across it,” McKinnnon told the Sunday Telegraph.

“But you don’t have to grab people in the 15 minutes between when they’re in the shower and work.

“Hopefully people will watch it over a casual Sunday breakfast.”

The show will effectively take the place of Sunday which was axed by Nine mid 2008. At the time Ray Martin criticised the decision saying it sent out a message that Nine “doesn’t do news anymore.”

Veteran reporter Laurie Oakes will continue to present political interviews, along with former Australian cricketer Michael Slater to present sport and news read by up-and-comer Amber Higlett.

McKinnon, wife to CEO David Gyngell, has also been touted as a possible host of a new “magazine style” show for Nine’s 5:30pm weekday slot.

Nine yesterday launched a new on-air promotion for its 6pm news bulletin, using the slogan “Change Back”, an acknowledgement many of its national viewers had switched to Seven’s bulletin. Melbourne remains Nine’s most competitive market in weeknight News.

Source: Sunday Telegraph

58 Responses

  1. Oh… And one other thing to question… Why do people think when on an occasion when someone says something pro Nine they are a Nine employee?! – Absolutely pathetic in my opinion to think so…!

  2. Michael, I haven’t managed to tape Nine News’ new promo… But I can tell you what the voiceover states: “For Breaking News change back to Nine News. For Exclusives change back to Nine News. For the best coverage change back to Nine News. Sydney’s news is changing and now is the time to change back to Nine News.” During the voiceover they have appropriate clips to complement it. Simple, but effective in my opinion…

  3. Nick that is nothing but your own opinion “Seven does it better…”! Oh and maybe those minimal few thousand people with people meters as I have previously mentioned… BM – dog… I was just about to say the same! – How can people possible say Seven does things better when Seven News and Nine News in particular are pretty much carbon copies of one another?!

    The other thing though that I might add, is how can Seven News have more journalistic integrity as opposed to Nine News, when Seven have on numerous occasions over the past few years been found guilty of misconduct and / or defamation?! Without even considering Today Tonight’s infamous Corby defamation case win against the Seven Network, how about when Seven News Melbourne and Seven’s Sunrise defamed a 16 year old boy by illegally naming him whom was divorcing his parents! Or how about when Seven was found for misconduct when the leaked AFL Players’ medical records?!

    Oh and another thing to note… Even though I wish not to dwell on the networks copying off one another, another noteworthy thing that no one has mentioned, is Seven copied off Nine with the launching of Seven’s Early 5.30 News after Nine’s Today show begining at 5.30! How about when Nine launched the Sunday program at 8.00, and Seven decided to begin Weekend Sunrise half an hour earlier at 7.30?!

    BM – dog, you’re not the only one who finds Seven News to be “close to unwatchable” and I know that for a fact… No one I know supports and therefore watches Seven News for the same reason you and I don’t… It appears ’tis only a few bloggers and those with people meters think that way! Oh and that slogan “Sydney, thanks for making the switch” – Nothing but complete arrogance…! Seven’s graphics in Sydney are crap, as is their set and their host as you mentioned BM – dog in comparison to Nine News Sydney!

  4. On the topic of Nine News vs Seven News – I’m incredibly surprised that Seven News outrates Nine. The journalistic quality of the two is roughly comparable (both tend to be slapdash and populist, although Laurie Oakes remains a highlight on Nine), and I don’t see in what other category Seven’s news is better than Nine’s. Seven’s graphics/picture quality/general presentation is atrocious (their titles at the bottom of the screen – astons, I think they’re called – are particularly low quality and make me wince every time I see them) and at least in Sydney their newsreader is the dullest, least charismatic man on earth. Seven News is close to unwatchable, in my opinion, but it appears that the general public disagrees with me.

  5. David would you be able to show us outsiders this new Nine News Promotion. Have not seen it yet and I do not think Nine Brisbane are going to show this promotion as they already have a heap of local news promos on air. .
    Change back. Probably not the best slogan.

    Also CAM and Leila will do a great job. All the best to them and Nine with the show.

  6. Some of you guys are getting hysterical over a programme that hasn’t even aired yet.

    Good on Nine for trying. As are Seven. There’s room enough for both networks.

  8. @TV Worker; It is called a DVR i believe. Even though i have said i dont watch because of Karl etc i still tape it because sometimes Nine has some things seven doesnt and i am interested in them. This is how i know these things. I dont watch today ‘LIVE’ but i record it so i can get the info seven doesnt have.

    There was a thing on Credit Cards on TODAY a few weeks or so ago. One minute they were condeming the use of credit cards and how bad they were then a couple of days later they have the launch of the david jones card. This is bad journalism IMO

  9. I must say as a seven supporter this is nothing out of the ordinary. But the fact they replaced SUNDAY a show with a rich history with this crap is low. I have to agree with Guy on this one. This is just another attempt to try and topple what is Seven’s run with brekkie shows as #1. Seven are #1 now and all people go on about is Nine will be #1 again etc etc etc but look how many years channel 9 won when it was on top. Bar the year 2000, Nine had a long running history as the number 1 network but now it has been toppled the last couple of years and Seven has finally got what the network deserves, the #1 ranking.

    I too used to also watch Nine News during the early years this decade, 2001, 2002 but i just cant stand it anymore. As for talk about Sunday Night, it will no way be a copy of 60 Minutes. Molly Meldrum is apart of the reporters as is Sam Armytage according to todays Daily Telegraph, it also will have 2 hosts so how is this a copy of 60 Minutes as people say. Sure it is a copy of a current affairs show on sundays but until i have seen an episode we wont know what it will be like.

  10. i so agree with you people. 7 news is so much better in content than 9, atleast in melbourne.

    on the off occasions i watch it it is the same thing. they have the most bogany reports they always make the BBQ in the car park the feature of the report. and the sets are so fake and ugly.

    sunday today: bring it on. just more timeslots for 7 to dominate. sam armytage 4ever.

  11. Knoxoverstreet, you said that the lead-ins are the problem, so why haven’t they fixed it up yet? They have been showing antiques roadshow for god knows how long, and it unsurprisingly isn’t working, although it is cheap.

  12. oh dear, it seems we have the knoxoverstreet clone issue again.

    i know that the copying tally is up at 9, but i would say 7 and 9 are just as bad as each other.

    personally i think that 9 should have done the more heroic thing by sticking with sunday even through bad ratings.

    i can understand if a network wants to “copy for the better”ie. return great journalism to tv like with sunday night. its just annoying when the lowest common denominator shows are copied like sunrise and find my family (missing pieces).

  13. Who cares if seven copy nine with some of the formats knoxoverstreet, its obvious that they do it better, If you can do something and do it better than why the hell not do it??

    This is clearly shown in the ratings of all the ‘copycat’ programs!! Sunrise copy of today, sure, but its better. Today tonight off of aca, rates more. 7 news, no questions asked, the morning show rates better, weekend sunrise killed 20 yr old Sunday and No doubt will anialate’today on sunday’ and we all know, from proof of these other seven branded copies off of nine, that ‘Sunday Night’ will dominate over 60 minutes!

    They are all great formats (aside aca/tt) and ‘kudos’ for nine for getting there first. But Seven does it better.

  14. guy wrote…”I dont watch today because of karl and nines news, richard wilkins etc and they tend to copy everything seven on sunrise seem to have done in the past, be it two days, a couple of weeks or a few months. I wont be making the so called change back to nine what so ever”….but it sounds to me you are already watching 9…other wise how else do you know they are doing the same thing…a day or two or even the next month……hmmm

  15. it looks to me that alot of maybe…ummm i dont know…7 and 9 employees are frequenting this site to drive there pro and anti propaganda for each network…either that or people are just really fanatical about this….

  16. Aren’t people happy with the way though which Nine has gone about launching Today on Sunday?! They atleast tried with a one hour news service after axing Sunday, before recognising the need to launch such a program as Today on Sunday!

    Really, all we can do I suppose, is blame those very few thousand people who have people meters for the state our country’s FTA is! Until at least 1 Milliion people have people meters and even then I will never consider ratings in this country to be a true representation. Sure it is good enough for advertisers but it isn’t good enough for me even though no one would care. Like I mean, how the heck would anyone know Packed To The Rafters rated over 2 Milliion on occassions if not even 500 000 people have people meters!

  17. I wrote “it doesnt matter who hosts seven news or sunrise etc”. By this i mean it doesnt matter who does the job on seven as long as someone is there to do it. I have tried nine news a few times but i just hate it for some reason. Their reporting isnt as good as seven and it just doesnt appeal to me anymore. I used to watch it in the early 00’s but now i wont even go near it. And i am not lazy either. I always switch the channel over to seven news at 6 because of my loathing of nine news. I just cant stand it, even when its cricket season. 9 news is never on in my household fullstop. Ten news and even abc are better imo. Still only an opinion of mine and i stand by it.

    I dont on the other hand watch the crap called tt or aca. Its a rarity for me unless it is a major story. Mostly because of the same reasons i said before copycats both of them. One week a story would be on one show and end up on the other the next day or week. It happens both ways and i am over it.

    As for the sunday night show sure its a copycat type version but i think it will be great to have some competition. Technically if seven were to succeed with this then it would be a big kick in the guts to nine.

  18. Another thing to note with Seven’s dominance of News and Current Affairs. is that Seven’s dominance all began with their contracting of Ian Ross – Born and bred on Nine!

    Also, Seven wouldn’t be where they are in their supposed #1 status without their lead in; Deal or No Deal! – Thus the reason why Nine News Sydney in particular wins every Sunday night during the NRL season – A good lead in! This is because people are alot like Guy to an extent, when he wrote “It doesnt matter who hosts…” People (generally speaking) clearly don’t care who they watch and therefore who hosts a program, or what network it’s on, they are just too lazy to switch channels!

  19. Jeroma Leila doesn’t have the exact same job as Samantha – Yeah she may now have the Today on Sunday gig as does Samantha with Weekend Surise and she may also have the understudy position of Tracy with A Current Affair as does Samantha with Matt White, but… Leila will still do the occasional filing of stories for A Current Affair, which I’m not aware of Samantha doing. Also Samantha is occassional reader of Seven News Sydney. I guess until Leila starts reading Nine News Sydney on the odd occasion your theory is wrong…!

  20. Nine can’t win at all! – People have been crying for something original – Sunday was original, only to get axed because Australians or rather the minimal number of Australians who have people meteres clearly showed the networks that all they wanted was dumbed down programs like Weekened Sunrise! Surely Nine can’t be criticised for taking the dumbed down approach if those with people meters have shown that’s what they want! – If they had have shown the networks programs like Sunday were in demand Nine would have kept with Sunday and Weekend Sunrise wouldn’t have succeeded in the first place when it launched in ’05!

    And as far as copying goes… Nine was the first to have such a program many years ago, so as far as I’m concerned this cannot be considered a copy of Weekend Sunrise! Weekend Sunrise was a copy of Today on Saturday in the first place! Then we’ve got Sunday Night coming a copy of 60 Minutes. Sunrise of Today. Today Tonight of A Current Affair. The Morning Show of Mornings with Kerri – Anne… Should I even bother to continue?! – Seven only began dominating in News and Current Affairs thanks to doing nothing other than copy off Nine!

  21. well i guess 9 can never complain about 7 copying 60 mins ever again.

    that makes 3 of 9’s quality shows replaced with rubbish. temptation with 2.5 men, mcleods with terrible new aussie drama, and now sunday with “sunday today”

    lee123: “sunday today will lose to sunday sunrise in the same proportion that it does on weekdays”
    they will probably lose by even more than that of weekdays. i’m sure there are a lot of people out there like me that only watch these shows on sunday and are established on sunrise. IMO Sam/andrew are quite pleasant to watch and i think that leila is a horrible person.

    absolutely no reason to switch to 9.

  22. I dont watch today because of karl and nines news, richard wilkins etc and they tend to copy everything seven on sunrise seem to have done in the past, be it two days, a couple of weeks or a few months. I wont be making the so called change back to nine what so ever. This will probably get thumped like all shows against sevens weekend sunrise because it just works. The hosts just seem to click. I dont think it will make much of an indent. It doesnt matter who hosts sevens news or sunrise etc i will always watch seven because it is the more credible of the two networks over the past few years and their news is so much better.

  23. Oh brother! At least I will be getting a life (or more sleep!) instead of watching this cheap-to-make tripe. I guess it fulfills their obligations for Australian content. Dumbing down their viewers further in the process. i wish broadcasting licences had an expiry period…

    Bring back Sunday – at least occassionally Nine spent some money on real current affairs/journalism stories.

    We are sick of sports overload, advertorials and crappy filler human no-interest stories – do you hear us Australian networks? A short term win (maybe with curious viewers) will be your long term death sentence.(in the eyes of people who have a brain and can think)

  25. well said lee about this being a microcosm of the network. i completely agree.

    9 used to be my fav, but boy have things changed. Its funny how leila now has samantha’s exact job only on 9 (replacement TT host, sunday morning show).
    @gerrad, if you’re going to play that game i’m sure 9 is winning by far in the copying game.

    i don’t watch morning shows during the week, but i will continiue to watch sunrise on sunday because i like sam armytage and AOK is quite toned down, and i hate leila.

    i just don’t understand why 9 can’t even try to be original, they might even start winning stuff that way.

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