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TEN reinstates 5pm weekend News

Weekend News is about to return to 5pm as TEN tries to claw back lost ground.

The backflipping begins at TEN as the network announces it will reinstate TEN News at Five to weekends.

On the day the network annointed a new CEO it announced its weekend News bulletin will return to 5pm.

TEN vacated the slot in late January when it introduced state-based bulletins to 6pm. In doing so it effectively gave up the slot it had nurtured to the Nine Network, which successfully introduced a First at Five bulletin some weeks ago.

But the 6pm bulletin has failed to dent Seven News and Nine News at 6pm, often pulling some of the biggest audiences of the week.

From Saturday TEN reinstates a national bulletin at 5pm followed by Jamie’s Thirty Minute Meals at 5:30pm and the half hour state-produced TEN Evening News at 6pm.

“We have long held a prominent news position at 5pm in the weekend schedule and we are not willing to give up that ground any longer,” chief programming officer David Mott said.

“Clearly there is a viewer thirst for choice when it comes to weekend news and we are well placed to provide them what they want with our 5pm and 6pm news coverage.”

There are also rumours TEN could shift 6PM with George Negus to 6:30pm.

Yesterday TEN appointed James Warburton as its new CEO, to begin in July.

33 Responses

  1. Go back to the formula that worked well for many years and that is a 5 to 6pm News followed by Simpsons or whatever else they used to show at 6pm Nightly to make them stand out from Nine and Ten.

  2. Jamie before Sports Tonight? Sports Tonight regulary got over 400k last year occassionally tipping 600k. Who is running that joint? And what is with Tens love obsession with Jamie?

  3. Also, Negus needs a new hairstyle that doesn’t scream Seventies flashback.
    But, seriously the news I’m really interested in. Where will H20 screen????? I don’t want to miss it.

  4. This is interesting to a point. It also raises questions over 11 and the programing on that channel. Putting Goerge Negus at 6pm was terrible and rightly they got smashed. 6pm with Goerge Negus is great but has a terrible time slot. They should just run a straight news bulletin against 7 and 9 if they are so determined to stick with their news evolution. However they need to offer some descent competition if they want to beat 7 and 9 which have well established 6pm bulletins.

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