George Negus to move to 6:30pm
TEN has announced that George Negus’s news and public affairs program will move to 6.30pm and it will extend its 5pm news service.
- Published by David Knox
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TEN has announced that George Negus’s news and public affairs program will move to 6.30pm from Monday April 4.
In a statement it says, “This change in TEN’s early evening schedule is in response to audience feedback, which has been strongly supportive of the program as a unique, credible commercial television offering, yet has revealed a preference for it to be scheduled in the more traditional public affairs timeslot.”
TEN’s News at Five will now extend to 6:30pm.
David Mott, Chief Programming Officer TEN said: “We are making this alteration in the early evening news schedule based on feedback from viewers who value competitive, intelligent and incisive news and public affairs programs.
“We are strong supporters of quality news, comment and analysis and believe that Network TEN should remain a leading player in this space.”
Update: The title will be 6.30 with George Negus. Sandra Sully will return to the Late News. 6.30 Evening News presenters have been offered positions within the TEN roster (ie. In Melbourne, Helen and Mal Walden Monday to Thursday for News at Five and George Donekin will present on Friday-Sunday).
A recent reader poll on TV Tonight indicated 73% would prefer the show at 6:30pm.
UPDATE courtesy of The Australian:
Sydney – Sandra Sully goes back to Late News, Kath Robinson will do the Early, Tim Webster will revert to his previous role as primary back-up anchor for News and Sport.
Melbourne – Helen Kapalos stays on Ten News at Five. Mal Walden will do News at Five Mon-Thurs, George Donikian will do Friday-Sundays. Hermoine Kitson (current weekends) to be back-up presenter and senior reporter.
Brisbane – Bill McDonald and Georgina Lewis stay as co-host for 90-minute Ten News at Five Bulletin. Peter O’Dempsey will host sport. Jonathon Williams (currently Evening News sport) will report and host weekend sport.
Adelaide – Rebecca Morse to host Mon-Thurs, Belinda Heggen to host Fri-Sun.
Perth – Narelda Jacobs and Craig Smart to co-host.
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100 Responses
I am pleased, and surprised by this decision. I expected Ten to keep the current news and current affairs line up for at least a few more months, but good on them for changing after responding to viewed demand!
Sandra Sully was fantastic for the Late News, and it will be great to have her back!
Also, having Mal back with Helen for Melbourne’s Ten News at Five will be fantastic – back to the excellent duo it was!
Thank you TEN for listening.
Fingers crossed George will double his ratings numbers now, and that will help to lift 7pm numbers at the same time!
I applaud this move by Ten. With the shift to 18:30, ‘6pm’ could take a big chunk out of ACA/TT. Both of these programs in the past used to be real current affairs shows, focusing on in-depth look of the stories that made the day. Now, they are nothing more than magazine-based programs, focusing on shoddy builders, people who con others, diet/weight loss stories, supermarket food comparisons, etc. I pity the bozos who still watch these.
Now, the show would have to be renamed ‘6:30 with George Negus’.
Surely they could have waited until after easter/daylight saving or once MasterChef came back to see how that impacted the numbers for 6-7pm. I think this change is to soon and I am going to miss Mal at 6.30. It was a good timeslot for news.
Bill Macdonald apparently moces back to TEN news-guess the state based ones like QLD ‘s 6:30 news wasn’t a rating ratings success.
Please move Mal Walden back to 5pm with Helen in Melbourne, why the hell they put mal on his own at 6:30 was never(and it seems) going to work.
Finally.
Hopefully Mal goes back to doing the 5pm news with Helen in Melbourne. Send George whotever back to Adelaide or whever he came from.
LOL! you Just wrote the previous article, and it seems ten is listening to you.
Finally! Taking on the trashy tabloid shows with real public affairs and qulity journalism – Bring it on!
Can anyone from tv tonight answer the question. Why 7 news in Melbourne records its 7 30 and 8 30 newsbreaks straight after the 6pm news is finished?????? Its not live, shame 7 Melb.
About time, very happy with this decision.
great move. but what will they call it now. and what about mal who does the 6.30pm news in melb. he has to go back to 5pm. please!
It’s good to see Ten make the right decision. This is a much better offering to garbage dished out by Seven and Nine. Hope it pays off for them!
Finally ten! Well done.
maybe masterchef at 6.00??
I would love it he took a chuck of the audience away from TT & ACA, but i doubt it.
Good on you TEN for listining to viewers
hope no extended news at 5.00 is offered instead 1 1/2 hours would be stretching any news service.
Smart move!
Hooray. Just 10 minutes ago in the TT/ACA story i once again for them to move George to 6.30, so it didn’t take em long. Well done Ten for actually listening to the viewers. Sure they p**s off viewers too, but Ten seem to be the one network who actually listen to viewers feedback also. Great decision, hope it pays off them. For me it’s now Ten news at 5. Then Seven news at 6pm, then back over to Ten for George.
If they had just extended it to an hour I’d have been happy, but good move nonetheless.
The original plan to ‘switch’ the traditional times in the hope of catching viewers had merit, but obviously didn’t take as planned. Good on Ten for sticking with the news plan in general and switching it round.
A good move. I will be able to get home in time and watch it. Much better option than TT & ACA!!!
Bring back Sandra Sully to the 10.30pm timeslot for the Late Evening News.
I think this could work. I think a lot of people would not be happy with TT and ACA’s stories. Sometimes I wish that 7pm Project would be longer than half an hour, so now I guess I’ll tune into George Negus and 7pm Project.
But what will the show be called now? 6:30 with George Negus? and Ten News at Six will still be Ten News at Five? Not sure about these titles, but I think this move will certainly be more of a shakeup than what we have at the moment.
Mediaweek on Twitter said that Sandra Sully will be going back to the Late News, and the other 6.30pm readers will be on air on different nights.
Yes, this is a great move for the Negus show but very awkward for the other news readers. Looks like some cost cutting in talent is just around the corner.