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Negus move to 6:30pm?

TEN could considering moving 6PM with George Negus to take on A Current Affair and Today Tonight.

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TEN could considering moving 6PM with George Negus to 6:30pm, to take on A Current Affair and Today Tonight head to head, notes the Weekend Australian.

While the show’s numbers at 6PM are lagging the competition there is some thought that the show’s more serious tone would provide a viable alternative to the offerings from Nine and Seven.

Such a move would also address the low numbers for TEN Evening News -but where the state-based presenters will finish up is unclear. TEN management denies claims Sandra Sully is unhappy in her early evening role.

A recent reader poll on TV Tonight indicated 73% would prefer the show at 6:30pm.

TEN should also consider reinstating its weekend News to 5pm pronto. It is dying at 6pm.

Questions also remain about ONE.

Source: The Australian

62 Responses

  3. 10 should have a national bulletin from sydney at 5 (national and world news, finance and weather), state based evening news at 6 (local news,sport and weather), negus at 630 and renamed (sumthing like “the nation tonight” or “nationwide with george negus”). Flows better and avoids the repetition of stories.

  4. 6:30 with George Negus! Nooo!!! No way, Network Ten! The reason Negus is at 6PM to bring back serious current affairs to commerical TV! (I hope Carmel Travers is not working with Ten now, because remember last time something like that happened, Derryn Hinch was on Nine doing Ray Martin’s Midday Show and Allan Jones got the very short end of the stick doing a talkback show).

    Abort, Ten, abort! George Negus must remain at 6PM. He is the last best hope for world stories and serious current affairs weekdays outside ABC1 and the 7:30 Report, Four Corners and Foreign Correspondent. George Negus, stay at 6PM! We need you more than ever!

    To finish this off, I have a message for Carmel Travers:

    If I find you you were behind this decision to turn George Negus into another tabloid current ‘affairs’ show, under the umbrella of Canwest and the new CEO of the Ten Network, your career is finished, Carmel Travers! Finished! You will never work for the TEN Network again!!!

  5. Anyone with half a brain could see this wouldn’t work. Ten’s demorgraphics will always be 25 and under age group.

    One thing that annoys me about 6pm is that George likes too give his own opinion after every story. His job is merely to present the stories by reading the autocue. You wont find them on ABC sprouting theiur own views afrter presentating stories on 7:30 Report and Lateline. Too me that lacks professionalism, likewise with his causal clothes and beads that he wears! I want to watch the stories not hear the world according to George Negus after every (expletive) story!

    1. Not really. Each show has the freedom to set its own agenda. Negus was hired to give opinion and while it’s not the path of all the shows in this genre, it has been done before (Clive Robertson being one of the most famous).

  6. The George Negus show is a poorly produced piece of rubbish and should be axed. George might have been vaguely interesting in the 70s but is so past his use by date he’s positively curdled. Poor bloke is ‘confused’ after every interview and the stories are boring, pointless and artless. Please put something else on. I’d move the Biggest Loser to the slot and give viewers a real alternative.

  9. It’s easy to say move Negus to 6.30pm, but what do you put on Ten at 6pm?

    I know it’s not working at the moment, but by Ten having the news at 5pm, you then have more of a natural flow on to a current affairs show at 6pm.

    If you move Negus to 6.30pm, you are banking on people switching over from the 6pm news services on Seven and Nine. And as good as Negus is, getting people to switch over from TT and ACA won’t be easy.

    I would rather more resources be put in to the state-based 6.30 news on Ten. At the moment, in Melbourne at least, it just seems like a light version of their 5pm service. Have more local stories, do some local features which go more than a couple of minutes.

    I know the ratings are not good, but this was always going to be a medium-long term project. Giving a show till February is not that.

  11. @ Franz Chong, we are now in a world with digitial television that has 15 channels, with plenty of alternative options to watch at 6:00pm/6:30pm, including Channel 10’s own Eleven that will air Sabrina The Teenage Witch & Neighbours during that hour from this week.

    In my opinion it would be silly for TEN not to try and get atleast a portion of the news audience during that hour, as Seven/Nine news normally both get in the Top 20 shows of the week, why not try to steal some of that audience?

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