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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.

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. Watching these guys “filling in” this week is as much fun as eating seriously burnt toast with no butter. A completely mis-matched pair. Not gonna work.

  2. I always enjoy reading the comments of others in these forums even if I don’t always agree – It’s makes good “food for thought”. One thing I ‘ve noticed is that often the number of positive/supporting forum comments don’t seem to match the popularity (as indicated by the tv ratings system) of the show/hosts discussed.

    It makes me think that the viewers that don’t expect much are the ones with the ratings meters (and hence we get more of the same lightweight shows such as the breakfast chit-chat-advertorial shows and 20-to-1). The viewers that expect more (perhaps the “thinkers”) make the change (to another channel or medium, such as the internet, where they can express their disatisfaction to people interested to hear their views).

    Until the ratings system is improved we will never have a truly accurate picture (I wish someone did an expose on how the ratings system works – especially it’s shortcomings given how much depends on it – advertising, new shows, celebrities careers, etc). It’s possible that it’s as accurate (useless?) as the Top40 song charts became once vinyl singles were no longer sold…

  3. Knoxoverstreet: You’re right, the lead-in is everything when it comes to the 6pm news bulletin. Seven found the right overseas format, found the right guy to host it, and now they’re hitting home runs every night with Deal or No Deal. Nine, on the other hand, has been feeding us cheap and nasty episodes of Antiques Roadshow every weeknight for a couple of years and expecting people to watch. Oh, forgive me, there was that brief interlude where Nine hired two Seven personalities and tried to launch an ex-Seven format on a butt-fugly set (Wheel of Fortune). That worked a treat, didn’t it? Viewers aren’t stupid. You can palm us off with cheap-as-chips reruns of overseas sitcoms, but if you don’t give us an exciting, original, well-produced lead-in to your 6pm news, we’re not going to switch over from the other networks’ superior offerings just to watch the same news stories on your channel.

    Spunkymonkeycaesar: As unrepresentative as they are, the peoplemeters don’t give any particular network an advantage. The system isn’t rigged, it doesn’t favour Seven in any way and it’s the exact same system that delivers the ratings figures that Nine happily trumps in press releases when it has a successful program. Deal with it.

    Anyway, after all that, good on Channel Nine for trying to retake some of the initiative. Have a serious, serious look at your casting, though. Leila MacKinnon is the joke of the youtube generation after her performance with ‘Naughty Corey’ on ACA last year, and she simply doesn’t resonate with younger viewers. And I’ve only seen Cameron Williams on the Today show a couple of times, but I understand his Q scores are the lowest of anyone on breakfast television. Do you really think these two are gonna work in a relaxed Sunday format? Don’t be surprised if this doesn’t work out.

  4. Spunykymonkeycaesar, i remember you from a few months ago. i remember your pro-9 comments never ending. you always gave everyone a lot of material to rebut. where have you been?

    there is a lot i could say to that thesis of a comment but i’ll cut down
    SMC:”Seven copied off Nine with the launching of Seven’s Early 5.30 News after Nine’s Today show begining at 5.30″, “Nine launched the Sunday program at 8.00, and Seven decided to begin Weekend Sunrise half an hour earlier at 7.30”

    that’s not copying, it’s competing. if sunrise started at 5:30 or if 7 had a current affairs progamme on sunday morning then you would have a point. this is simply a case of 9 setting a bar and 7 rising to it, wouldn’t call it copying.

  5. Spunkymonkeycaesar, there is a difference between someone saying something positive about the networks, and propoaganda. I can distignish between these two. Some people on this blog will never question bad decisions by networks.

    For example, i personally prefer nine news in Brisbane. On the few occasions i have seen seven’s news, i found it a tad pretentious. But that’s just my personal preference, and i don’t watch the news that much anyway. With their programming, i find nine to be the absolute worst in the industry.

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