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TEN Evening News under 300,000

Just 46,000 people in Sydney watched Sandra Sully read TEN Evening News last night, less than SBS World News.

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Lachlan Murdoch must be cringing at the figures today for TEN Evening News.

Last night it had dropped to 282,000 at 6:30pm, down from 311,000 last Tuesday (when the NZ earthquake broke). Its lead in from 6pm with George Negus was 377,000. Once again it was beaten by Neighbours on ELEVEN at 312,000.

In Sydney where Sandra Sully reads the bulletin there were just 46,000 people watching. SBS World News pulled 61,000 in the same city in the same timeslot.

Mal Walden in Melbourne still pulls the biggest crowd of any of TEN’s audience, at 119,000 -more than twice Sydney’s audience. But it still trails the competition. Neighbours was higher than the News in Sydney at 81,000 and tied in Melbourne on 119,000.

Around the rest of the country the 6:30pm bulletin was: Brisbane 61,000, Perth 32,000 and Adelaide 24,000. Adelaide was where somebody recently asked, “How can something so small be so impressive?”.

TEN News At Five still wins its hour nationally on 753,000 viewers.

The network is currently reviewing a network strategy, including the 6-7pm news hour which hasn’t gone down well with some shareholders.

Meanwhile Neighbours still isn’t getting the network any drama points while it airs on ELEVEN and time is ticking. Should it return to the main channel, perhaps at 6pm on TEN and leave a replay at 6:30pm on ELEVEN for those who prefer it in its traditional home?

Week 10

82 Responses

  1. Perhaps We need Negus on a Sunday night at 6:30. It could be called:
    ‘Weekly analysis’ or ‘Negus Weekly’.
    If it has yo remain at a weekday slot, it could be called:
    aka 60 minutes; 30 minutes. He did start 60 mins and could end in 30 mins?

    Just get rid of the evening news from all bases! it’s killing me as to how they can suggest ‘I Heart evening news’! ‘I heartbreak evening news’! 🙁

  3. TEN TEN TEN…What is going on over there? Neighbours is doing incredibly well on Eleven, themselves admitting that they were expecting it to rate (at average) 133,000 its been getting close to triple that, for a digital channel that’s saying something.. Like hundreads of people have said over years, Neighbours could bring in the numbers TEN really desperately need…. If only they allowed them to go head to head in content stakes with H&A by upping Neighbours rating to PG and giving it some decent promotion, some bigger juicier storylines – new family or 2, shake it up a little it could really pull through, it’s proven the loyal fanbase is there, the production costs are met by the 65 countries that buy it worldwide..that hand in hand with the drama point TEN needs… I can’t see why they never did it first off, save all this embarrassment for them and they many shows they stuffed around!!

  4. @ Vinnie Neighbours would get flattened by Home & Away if it were moved to 7pm just like it was almost 20 years ago. Also there is no way the 7pm project will give ACA and TT a good fight… that was tried during the floods when they all went head to head and 7pm Project was flattened.

    I would prefer to see something like this:

    5pm – Happy Days
    5.30pm – Ten News
    6.30pm – Negus
    7pm – A Brand New Gameshow

  5. If week-end News is now going to be 5pm and 6pm, why can’t similar be tried on the week-days…I have had a bit of a change of thought to my previous post.

    5-6 News
    6-6.30 News … for people who may get home any time between 5 to 6.30
    630-7 Negus, with a definite name change, drop the time even the surname
    7-7.30 Project … I watch HAA, but many people seem to like Project, I’d keep it.
    later in night
    News/
    /Sports … with News- perhaps Sandra Sully doing it again for all States.
    Negus – Encore
    Keep Neighbours and Simpson on 11, I think 11 compliments 10 well.

    …..TEN shouldn’t be afraid to change from it’s original idea re 2.5, don’t knee-jerk drop things at first, try a little switching around of things for starters, any cuts, being the final option used not the first.

  6. Whoops, correction from my earlier comment, apparently the 5pm weekend news is returning from this week, about time, why it left in the first place is beyond me. So the 5pm news will be a national bulletin while the 6pm will be a local edition.

  7. The 6:30 bulliten’s main flaw is that it was advertised as having more state specific content than the 5pm news. This has turned out to be far from the case as at least 95% of it is stuff we already heard less than an hour ago. Lift your game Ten! keep George Negus and the 7pm project and do something about everything else.

  8. I know what would work at 6pm for Ten. Charlie Sheen talking humbly about how he doesn’t really think that he is Jesus Christ – he is way more fantastic than that. He is actually like Rambo, Bruce Lee, John Holmes, Keith Richards, Elvis, and Buddha all rolled into one.

  9. Last time I’ll say it, I promise:

    6:00pm TEN News (Mal, Sandra, etc)
    6:30pm The Project
    7:00pm Neighbours

    Traditionally, this block is stripped programming of like product and the only way TEN has any chance of keeping an audience for the rest of the evening.

    David, 6:30pm may have become the “traditional” timeslot of Neighbours for so much of the audience now, however 7:00pm was its original timeslot from 1986 until, I think, 1992, when Seven moved Home and Away into the slot and TEN “chickened out”; I always wonder what would have happened if they’d stayed the distance. Neighbours only real chance of survival now, I feel, is a return to this slot.

    And out of all the News-based programs, The Project really is the only show that could possibly give ACA and TT a good fight.

    Ditch Negus, or incorporate a segment into the 5:00pm news.

  10. Old habits die hard. I am hardly ever home at six but when I am I try to watch Negus at 6pm. Unfortunately I forget it’s on and start watching the dribble on Seven and Nine.

  11. Why not just repeat the 5pm News Hour at 6pm, and update stories that need updating at the top of the second hour, very much like pay tv. Would not require any extra crew, producers, on-air talent editors etc. Thats is what they should have done from the start.

    As good as Negus is, he does not belong on TEN, he should do quality news coverage somewhere that is crying out for quality coverage with presenters that have gravitas which the low paid work experience kiddie presenters on ABC24 currently do not have.

  15. I haven’t read through all the comments to see if this has already been mentioned but I thought I’d throw this suggestion in. Over in England, I remember with some of their soapies they would show an episode on the main channel at 1 time and then immediately after would show the next episode on their digital channel only. Could be something Ten could try. 1 episode of Neighbours at 6pm (followed by negus at 6:30 on the main channel), then the next episode on Eleven at 6:30. Just another suggestion thrown in the mix!

  16. How about changing Evening News to something like the axed-QTQ9 Extra programme?

    Don’t dump 6PM (change the time slot is fine though) because finally I got something more meaty to watch than 7/9 with their news, ACA or TT.

  17. Yes Channel 10 listen to David, i like his schedule the best. Keep Ten News at Five (oh and return it to weekends quickly), bring back The Simpsons to 6pm, not sure why it’s now exclusive to Eleven, put Negus at 6:30pm, better than the rubbish dished out on the other networks and keep The 7PM Project as is. Perfect!

  18. Get rid of the 2.5 hour news. I think TEN should try something completely different. They have 5-6pm news doing well, and the 7PM Project is pulling decent numbers. There was no way in the world TEN was going to pinch 7/9’s news audience in the first place.

    I think they should try a new half hour Australian drama show, or even an entertainment show. Something different because everything from 6-7 is news on all channels..

  19. 5.00 – Ten News at Five (State)
    5.30 – Ten National News (National)
    6.00 – Ten Evening News (State)
    6.30 – 6:30 with George Negus
    7.00 – The 7PM Project

  21. You might be onto something tellie. Why not try an all sport bulletin at 6pm? Personally, I wouldn’t watch it but I know stacks of people who would. May give some smaller sports and local teams a bit of much needed coverage whilst also allowing for some shameless cross promotion for ONE to ts target audience…

  22. And in other news: TEN have back-flipped on their weekend news move by putting it back to 5pm. Can they get those viewers who went to Nine back?

    Also, most of their regional affiliates (Southern Cross Ten, TDT & DDT) are going to dump the 6:30pm Evening News in each market for something called ‘Weeknights.’

    On top of their broad & management shuffles, it’s not looking good in TEN land.

  23. no wonder why the news is doing terrible after the 5 oclock one. all ten has now is news news and more news. it might help if 7pm went back to being more comedy based to break it up a bit
    its a shame too, ten used to have some of the best shows.

  24. My suggestion is make TENs late news bulletin state based. Here in WA, the late night show with Kath Robinson/Sandra Sully is 2-3 hours out of date and thus is fairly irrelevant.
    The issue is what then to dow with the newsreaders. The ‘cream’ newsreaders seem to have been put into the 630 slot. Maybe they go back to 5 and the new newsreaders read the late version.
    New Schedule:
    5pm-News at Five
    6pm- Simpsons/Neighbours/Bite sized Oprah
    630- Negus (rename with something creative, please (e.g. ‘Fresh Analysis’!!)
    7pm- 7pm project
    1030(dep on schedule)-Late News (state based)
    1100 (” ” ” )- Sports Tonight (national)

  25. Ten will make changes to these news line up l believe in time if they listen to the public .Ten just annouced the Weekend News first at at five will return as a national bulletin with Natarsha Belling,and we will continue to get state bulletins at 6.00pm.

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