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 that George has moved to 6.30PM….I do like his show…but keep forgetting it is on….better timeslot for me….
And really pleased to see Sandra Sully back at the late night news….that is when I like to catch up on the days events…
Not at all interested in the 5PM news….as long as Bill Woods is there….he may be a good sports person….but does not move me reading the news….
I would like to see Ron Wilson back where he belongs.
Will the local news bulletins on Saturdays and Sundays will still be on at 6pm as normal?
No change to current weekend news.
they didn’t do the Obvious thing, move Neighbours back onto Ch10!!
Bill’s easy to move back: He just has to lop off the “and 6:30 anchor” from the job description. But recent events have proved that Ten Brisbane needs a fill-in male newsreader: even more so if Bill’s sick, and Georgie has to run a entire 90 minute bulletin, solo.
if it was up to me 630pm with George Negus would be on every night in my house. But sadly that clashes with the most priceless of all shows on television… of course I speak of In The Night Garden on ABC2…. Oh no its the Ninky Nonk…….Isnt that a pip!
Best News Ever! First i’m soo happy sandra is back on late news! second, i’m hell happy george is going to be on @ 6.30! and third i’m excited that perth gets 2 news presenters!!! first time ever! neralda jacobs and craig smart are both great!
Thaks Ten:):):)
Very good, this means I’ll be able to watch my 6pm local news broadcast instead of missing it, then George, then ABC news at 7pm.
Finally sense prevails. Network Ten took their time but they have made a great decision now all the people of australia have to do is support this show by watching it, instead of the grabage that is dished up by 7 and 9. One thing is for sure is that we will get a answer of what current affair type show people like to watch.
Will be interesting how it compares to trash TV (TT/ACA). I guess at that time, the punters may prefer trash to George.
Interesting.
Ten need to give him a year, not 3 months
@Bogues: This is nothing. In Indonesia, the 2 FTA news channels have bulletins both starting at 5.30pm Western time and ends 7pm Western time. They will invite ‘experts’ to their studio or to any of their bureaus and have shonky debates. If the news is really, really big it’s common to extend the bulletin until late news (which usually starts after midnight).
Hope Negus won’t start talking about supermarket stories (price war OK).
Good news. Can actually get home to watch this now.
Now that TEN doesn’t have to nurture Negus at 6pm, surely it would be benefitial if they ran The Simpsons in the slot on ELEVEN?
ACA and TT have decayed into sad, tit for tat simplistic tabloid trash programmes that rarely report the news… they actually create most of it themselves!
Both deserve to fail hard.
George will have the only real current affairs show reporting on the days events in the slot and finally P40+ will have a credible alternative at 6.30 to turn to after 7 & 9’s 6pm “15 sec news grab” bulletins and get some actual depth.
GN never had a chance at 6pm… but at 6.30 he has room to build a decent audience..
Ten still would have been better off giving the audience an alternative to newsy stuff at 6.30. What a shame they couldn’t turn Neighbours around.
Now more reasons to see it first on Nine News @ 6 🙂
Am I the only one that thinks this is a bad move? We are going to have a ninety minute news program (does anyone else in the world do this?), and then two current affairs show back to back.
I assume the aim of Ten is to get as many bums on seats. A lot of people don’t want to watch 90 minutes of news, and then sixty minutes of current affairs.
In this house, we’re watching 6pm, Ten News, and 7PM Project. Now that their won’t be a separate news bulletin at 6pm, I’m more likely to watch Negus and ABC’s 7PM news.
My recommendation would be to clearly make the 6pm News a separate brand from News at 5. Even if it is just a condensed version of News at 5, I’d know that I’m going to get a complete bulletin.
at the end of the day, it’s still the same, just a bit of shuffling. Still 2.5 hours of news, still poorly produced and weak. I’ll stck with 7 & 9. Their line about “we have listened to viewers” is such PR spin and just a lie! They have done this because they have made a massive mistake and have lost money, viewers and advertisers. Just be honest 10 – you stuffed up royally
The days of the ABC offerings being for Kids at that hour are dead.These days you have a british comedy at 6pm known as my family
pft. i’ll still be watching sbs world news australia at that time
Andrew – Daylight Saving ends April 2 – so definitely the right time to make a move.
Negus has already had a show at 6:30, on ABC. It didn’t dent TT/ACA so I wouldn’t get your hopes up guys.
To all Australians – here is your opportunity to show which side of the fence you sit on – educated or uneducated.
Wow! Good on Ten for listening to its audience and doubly-good on them for admitting that they were responding to viewer comments/complaints. Six o’clock was too early for me but I can manage 6:30.
Also excellent news about Sandra Sully returning to the Late News. Have been missing her here in Perth. It prob shouldn’t matter as much as the content but I liked the way she presented the news and I thought she worked well with Brad McEwan.
Looks like this good news has brought some new commenters out of the woodwork. The more the merrier I say, but David’s going to have to give up his paying jobs in order to find the time to approve comments!
Good move for George, can’t wait to see him mixing it up with the other to so called current affairs prog’s.
I am happy that Sandra is going back to where we like her.
Not sure about 90 minutes of news but they could add more to their arts stories for a start !
Does this mean an hour and a half news? Or will they switch news readers at 6pm?