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Nine plans new 4:30 show “This Afternoon”

An email leaked to media today says Nine will launch a new one hour 4:30pm News programme and indicates production changes to its Sydney News.

markferguson1An email leaked to media today indicates Nine News is planning a new afternoon news programme to be called This Afternoon.

The one-hour programme is set to air from 4:30pm weekdays hosted by, “amongst others,” Mark Ferguson with reporters including Peter Harvey.

It is part of a new push by the network to lift its afternoon and evening share and claw back some of its news brand.

“We’re about to embark on an exciting period of development in the Sydney newsroom: more people, more resources, more output,” the email leaked to TV Tonight notes.

“Next month, we’ll re-launch the 6pm News, with a brand new set in Studio One. This will be a bigger, better home for Pete, Fergo, Kenny and Jaynie. And it’ll have more impact on the viewers at home, helping to re-establish our 6pm as the must-see news bulletin of the day,” wrote Network Director of News Mark Calvert.

“Then, in June, we’ll launch a brand new network programme. This Afternoon will be an hour-long mix of news and current affairs, airing weekdays at 4.30pm. Hosted by, amongst others, Fergo, it’ll hit the big stories hard. It will also look for fresh angles on topical issues, dig deeper into how those issues affect Australian families, and have some fun with stuff. To produce the programme, we’re putting together a new team, led by Craig Sullivan. This Afternoon will have dedicated reporters, led by Peter Harvey. And it will be a showcase for the creativity of some great cameraman, picture editors and graphic designers.

“It’s not often we get to launch a brand new show. So this is a great vote of confidence in you all. It also means we get to play our part in refreshing the afternoon schedule on Nine. Along with a new gameshow, which goes to air each weekday at 5.30pm from April 20th, we can hope for a much healthier lead-in to 6pm.”

Nine indicates it is investing in its building with a new newsroom by the end of the year, and be joined Today and ACA staff.

“We’ve already begun to bring in more of our own stories. We need to build on this. Increasingly, in this multi-media, news-soaked world, a premium will be placed on original content. So, as well as serving up the big news stories of the day, we have to work harder to tell our viewers something they haven’t already heard, to show them something they haven’t already seen.”

The email asks staff to contribute and debate ideas, promising “nobody will be criticised, ever,  for having an idea.”

This week Nine News in Sydney let go its News Director Ian Cook, replaced by Darren Wick.

30 Responses

  1. Geez it would be nice to jump on here one day and read only a bunch of positive comments about something proactive a Network has done…… for months, a lot of you have whined that Nine are doing nothing/ruined the brand/losing the plot, blah blah blah…….. and when they finally do something that hopes to please most people, they cop it…… seems they’re damned either way.

    I, for one, am looking forward to all the new shows/changes……. good on them for trying something new. And having a go…..

  2. I know I have already written too much, but, rather than spending all of these resources at 4.30pm, why not do it 6? Why not completely overhaul the 6pm news and ACA to a 90 minute program of news and current affairs from 6 – 7.30pm? Stop doing the same as 7 and think outside the square here. ACA will do much better at 7 when its not against the popular (and worse) Today Tonight.

  3. I’m really don’t see the point in doing one hour at 4.30 apart from trying to take some share from 10 news at 5. I’ve never understood why we have 4.30 news in any case given that you get it again at 6, and, on most days, the 4.30 news is essentially the same as the 11am news unless something major happens during the day and the 6pm news is locally produced. Never seen the 4.30 news mentioned in the ratings – so I assume the ratings are low.

    As for what to do with Eddy in Bris and QLD markets, put him at 7pm. 2.5 Men is bringing 9 down at 7pm. Don’t know why they are not focussing on that problem first for all markets. There is more at stake, and more viewers around at 7pm then there is 4.30 – 6pm.

  4. two and a half men was first yesterday, it still seems to get reasonable numbers around the 1 million mark each day and above everything else in relation to 7pm, its cheap as sh*t to make…

  5. Benno,
    unfortunately childrens programs must be shown before 8.30 and after 4pm so that rules out your proposed late afternoon schedules. This will be a real dilemma for QTQ9 and something’s gotta give!

  6. maybe brisbane is the place that they can experiment with eddie at 7:00?

    i don’t see the point in renovating the whole late afternoon and spend lots of money if you’re just going to lose the made momentum up at 7:00 and therefore the lead in to primetime.

    2.5 men is 3rd or 4th in the timeslot almost every day now and will probably only get worse.

  7. Oh that’s right, the eddie situation. There is no way they get rid of Extra – they were smart enough to leave it as is when the Wheel of Fortune was tried. Assuming the magazine show is not live, they could do:

    4pm – eddie
    4.30 – magazine show
    5.30 – extra

    or

    4pm – magazine show
    5.00 – eddie
    5.30 – extra

  8. This is Sunrise in the afternoon. An independent researcher used by both Nine and Seven has been urging Seven to do this for about two years. Not surprisingly, Nine – which hasn’t had an original idea in yonks – took the bait. It will be on air six months before they realise it does nothing for their 6pm figures. You only need to look at their product tonight to work out why it doesn’t rate. Nine’s problem is it lacks people who know how to make television. Firing Ian Cook isn’t the answer. Anyone remember what Wick did to the Today Show? Ask Steve Liebmann about him. lol. Nine is becoming a bigger laughing stock by the day — and here many of us were hoping they’d turned a corner. Gyngell has turned into a massive disappointment.

  9. I noticed Nine are advertising for audience members for Millionaire in Melbourne tonight, so I guess we can presume the rumoured 20 episode run will be increased.

    It’ll be interesting to see how this new show pans out.

  10. Benno- There is a hour between 4:30 and 5:30. There is 1 & 1/2 hours of content to put in that slot, 1/2hr Eddie, 1hr “This Afternoon”. Henceforth the need to make a choice, either no Eddie, no “This Afternoon” (with a localised 4:30 bulletin) or no Extra.

    I wouldn’t have 9 dare take option 3. It would be a controversial decision as they have invested in new sets, adjusting for Heather Foord, and 7 can’t fill the gap (they are too gutless to realize that Deal is a failure in Brissie), as that slot is also home on the Gold Coast, to their only local (i.e Queensland produced, Gold Coast specific) news bulletin.

    I would much prefer option two, no networked program, and QTQ steps up local news production by 2 & 1/2 hours a week.

  11. Sounds almost as bad as “The Catch Up” and again i seems Nine is just focussed on Sydney people and Sydney to them is all that matters.
    Ferguson,Seal,Sutcliffe are not names that go down well in Melbourne, heaven help how bad that look for WA,SA or Qld viewers.
    Start thinking nationally Nine and thinking less about your ‘failed mates’ in the media.

  12. I’m glad they’re giving it ago – it was only this morning that a made a big rant about how Nine has lost the plot.

    However – I hope we see imrpovement in content, it says they will have a better news room and more original content – which hopefully will include a better story order and more in depth national and world reports.

  13. I have to say this sounds good. Although would be good if they refered to it as ‘ This arvo’ instead, This Afternoon sounds too formal for an early time slot like that. Then again i suppose if they went with the more common slang use of the term, it could be confused with old kids shows such as The Big Arvo on 7 back a few years ago.

    I wish Nine would also hurry up and get their 2nd sd channel on air.
    As for 7, well are they even doing an SD2 now?

  14. @gerry, since it’s on 9 it’ll be garunteed to change its name atleast 3 times. i mean. rescue squad>rescue>rescue special ops, here come the newlyweds>for richer for poorer>australias perfect couple, kidstar>i know my kids a star>my kids a star, everyday heroes>u saved my life, the list goes on.

    @kuttsywod, interesting point where does this leave extra. maybe they will nat show the 5:30 show in bris ever.

  15. Wow! This is fantastic! They are really fed up with their performance (as they should be) and they are finally doing something about it. So many new sets as well which is great. Today Show this year has been experimenting with so many new sets, and they got a new one just a few weeks ago. Their set is way better than the Sunrise one, however Sunrise has a better location overall. I perssonally hate Sunrise’s location – all the idiots standing in the window waving like tools.

    Hopefully this means that Melbourne Nine News receives a relaunch as well. They certainly need one, as their set is repulsive.

  16. well this sounds like they are serously having a go at saving their news service. their previous attempts have been: dumping anchors that people like, removing the word “national” from the title, changing the colour scheme, and even tried losing the desk.

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