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Gillard: From Q & A to 7PM Project

Last night Julia Gillard helped Q & A get its best audience since its debut. Tonight she has a live in studio appearance on The 7PM Project.

She lifted Q & A last night and now she will probably do the same for The 7PM Project.

Julia Gillard is confirmed for a live in studio appearance on tonight’s 7PM Project on TEN.

This will be her first appearance on the show since becoming PM -she had previously done several chats to the show as Deputy PM. Dave Hughes has expressed his frustration at her no-show a number of times. Expect lots of friendly “Hughesy” lines from the PM.

Last night’s Q & A with Prime Minister Gillard was watched by 841,000 viewers, the best figure the show has achieved since it’s debut in 2008.

It managed to beat out a Criminal Minds repeat (804,000), CSI: Miami (741,000) and Cops (448,000).

On Twitter both “Julia Gillard” and “#qanda” were Top Trends globally. The show has embraced Twitter more successfully than any other Australian programme.

Screening live nationally on ABC News 24, even viewers in WA were able to participate in the show before waiting for it to (re)screen on ABC1.

Gillard appeared to work the room well, tossing in jokes about “rangas” and saying she didn’t mean for her diction to be misunderstood as “Mr. Rabbit” -there were even a few policy questions in there somewhere.

Next Monday Q & A will feature Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in a similar audience forum, but a venue and city is yet to be confirmed. Looks like the Greens are missing out here….

24 Responses

  1. The Green’s are represented by Julia, since they’re always in bed together. And wow, everyone loves Julia.. are these the same people who loved Kev… and Latham… and Keating. All the great things Labor have done.. if they were so great… why the need to knife the last PM you voted it.?

  2. I like steve price on 7pm but tonight i just wished he would shut up for long enough to either let the pm answer his questions or else let the actual stars of the show have their say.
    All in all though it was a great show and I enjoyed seeing the real Julia… if that’s what she is!!!

  3. Having Steve Price on tonight was a total waste and an embarrassment, he was so rude to Julia. It would have been better to have had George or Hugh on.

    Dave: I agree with you regarding Tuesdays on 7pm Project, Steve really wrecks the night and tonight just proved it!

  4. gillard’s got my primary vote now after her appearance on 7pm. i guess the “real” julia does exist after all. such a stunning woman. and hot 😉

  5. I agree that the Twitter comments are annoying when they’re on-screen.

    It’s pointless having a short comment pop up on-screen when it cannot be refuted, or when the refutes cannot be seen in real time, unlike reading Twitter on the internet, or posting messages in message boards, forums or comments threads. I think the Twitter comments are included during Q&A or other programs, such as the leaders debate to influence viewer opinion, rather than to provide factual commentary.

  6. Steve Price is such a charmless, gormless glowering presence on 7pm tonight,
    So disrespectful to the Prime Minister. I dislike Tuesdays on the project becuase he is a regular, but then Kitty puts a smile on my dial!

  7. DougalLongfoot – COPS is on TEN at least 2-3 times per week, times keep changing though , sometimes it is on after Letterman at midnight, other times it is on before the news at 10 something…

  8. I too hope the Greens get more exposure because some of their policies are just plain flakey and the public seems to be just riding along without reading the fine print !

  9. ok, thanks for that David – I didn’t know that.

    Still, I would hope the Greens get more exposure on TV than they have – surely that would be more ‘fair and balanced’ than what is on currently…..

  10. @KFed, I’m not a general fan of Twitter as I don’t have enough hours in the day for anyone else’s inanities let alone my own, but I think it works well on Q&A. Lends a sense of immediacy and interaction that current affairs usually doesn’t achieve. And my 80yo dad thinks it’s hilarious.

  11. Poor old Greens.

    I’m not sure why Bob Brown hasn’t been on the 7PM Project – considering the Greens have a fairly broad voting base.

    It can’t be an age issue – George Negus is older than Brown – or maybe he simply hasn’t been asked?

    The Greens always seem to miss out on in terms of large TV exposure – which seems especially galling when you figure that Family First – which only has 1 person in the Senate – gets more publicity than The Greens who’ve been around far longer and don’t slide into talking unholy gobbledogook.

  12. I love the combination of Twitter and Q and A, but I’m not a fan of them being onscreen. They add little but annoyance for most viewers, and for tweeters they are already old.

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