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Axed: 6:30 with George Negus

Network TEN has axed 6:30 with George Negus, to be replaced with an extended version of The 7PM Project.

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Network TEN has axed 6:30 with George Negus, to take effect from the end of next week.

It will be replaced with an extended version of The 7PM Project, to be re-titled as The Project.

Negus will remain with TEN in news and current affairs and return to a regular panel role on The Project.

The axing follows disappointing ratings for the show in the competitive 6:30pm timeslot, after it was moved from its original home of 6pm mid year. Last night it rated 340,000 viewers.

David Mott, Chief Programming Officer, said, “The move to expand The Project from a half hour format to the hour reflects our belief that this type of contemporary, informative, fast-paced, funny, yet relevant news offering is what best connects with our audience.”

“We’re incredibly proud of George and our 6.30 team, both in front of the cameras and behind the scenes. 6.30 has been a high quality, credible, and thought provoking news program for the network. The decision to discontinue 6.30 was a commercial one and in no way reflects on the quality of George, the program or the team. We are grateful to George for establishing and steering this bold experiment over the last 10 months.”

George Negus says, “Working on 6.30 has been incredibly fulfilling. From reporters to production crew, we have worked together to bring viewers a high quality, soil-breaking program and some of the year’s biggest stories and interviews. We are immensely proud of all we have achieved. The truth is that unfortunately a program like 6.30 was ahead of its time, but who knows about the future?

“Though sadly 6.30 has come to an end, I’m looking forward to getting back with my mates at The Project. They’ve also broken new ground with their irreverent approach to what’s going on around us, it’s my kind of tongue-in-cheek program.”

At TEN’s 2012 Programming Launch the network had promised George Negus and the 6:30 team would return, but did not specifically name the show itself, fuelling rumours that Negus might take a different role on the show.

Negus left Dateline at SBS at the end of last year to take up the role as part of TEN’s news revamp.

The Project switches from Monday October 31st.

Charlie Pickering said, “TEN has given us more time and we’re not going to say no. Carrie, Hughesy and myself have always got something to say and whether or not the world needs to hear it we’re just glad to have the extra half hour to say it.”

105 Responses

  2. A genuine shame and a sad indictment on mainstream Australia in some ways in that they are more interested in the world’s worst neighbours, or dodgy builders than anything substantial (remember that episode of Frontline all those years ago that dealt with this?) It’s a shame people want to be angry, rather than be made to think.

    Ten got this wrong from the off. They made a mistake by putting it on at 6pm, then when they switched it to 6:30, ratings did pick up a bit and it was a genuine alternative to the tabloid dross. I was confident that it would attract some viewers more used to the ABC and their style. Then, to “compete”, there has been a slight editorial and content shift on the show in recent months. It has gone a bit populist in some ways and the ratings have fallen. While they haven’t done the typical CA stories listed above, they did shift to do more human interest stuff in the hope of attracting a wider audience – this failed.

    A shame because it was worth keeping and nurturing, it just needed a really credible scoop to put it out there.

  4. Sadly viewers prefer tabloid trash at 6.30. Gee, no surprise why political discourse and political commentary from the media is in the gutter now. They’re only giving what the audience wants. Sensationalised misrepresented tripe.

    And the Bolt Report to this day is this on. Thanks Rinehart and Murdoch!

  8. I think it could be good for the project – like a lot of people said, it can feel rushed, people do get cut off because they have such short time spans for each story. I just hope that it isn’t affected by starting at 6:30pm – some people may be watching other stuff at that time. And it could impact on Neighbours – do they want to do that? My recommendation would be to shift Neighbours earlier then so they aren’t cannibalising the audience… I don’t think anyoone would mind too much if there weren’t repeats of the brady bunch or whatever it is they have there…

  9. An absolute shame… 6.30 was The show to watch in this timeslot… pity the average Australian prefers to stare at tabloid gutter stuff instead of something a little more thought provoking.

    I love The 7PM Project because it’s fast paced and different. I hope stretching it out to an hour will not kill off what makes it unique. TEN… don’t stuff this up too!

  11. i think that the 7pm project will offer viewers more of an alternative to TT and ACA at 6.30pm than what George Negus did, and will probably do better. i think the irony in all this news expansion is that Ten will probably be left with similar figures that they were getting at 6pm with The Simpsons/Neighbours.

  13. I’m all for an extended Project – very often people are cut off so will be nice to have more indepth interviews!!

    And, on fridays for the Metro Whip around – our Sam won’t be so rushed for WA!!!! Yippee!

  15. its a sad day. I think it was both a victim of Ten over indulging in news and also being too intelligent unfortunately. ;-(

    Ten need to reduce their news bulletin to an hour 5.30 – 6.30 n then The Project from 6.30 – 7.30.

  17. Oh wow interesting. Its a shame that they couldn’t make it work. Though a lot if not all of the international stories ie story on Ellen was bought from another network.

    Maybe an hour of The Project will work better and they can show stories in full or not have to cut people off.

  18. Maybe a timeslot after 10 pm woud have been better.It’s a pity because there was quality journalism, not like “This Day Tonight” and a “Current Affair”, which should be retiteld..”Dodgy Businesses” and “More Dodgy Businesses”.

  19. I’m just glad the Drum is on around the same time to give me something informative at 6 at night.

    Seriously poor decisions coming out of TEN right now… As a fan of the network and some of the stuff they’ve done in the last couple of years I’m despairing at what its being reduced to.

  20. Hmm… bummer that 10 couldn’t make it work. I still remember the days of Hinch on 10, and thought this could be something similar.

    Oh well… good news for 7pm project though. I do recall at the start it seemed to be too short, and they couldn’t give decent coverage to things but they seemed to work on that but an hour show should definitely help to fix that, especially when they have guests in the studio. Sometimes it seems like someone from overseas has travelled to be on the panel for only 2 minutes at the most. So hoping this will fix it and possibly they could also now look to allowing live performances in the studio now as The Panel used to do?

    Only bummer about the longer 7pm project is it now conflicts with Neighbours! All along it had run after it, and had promos during Neighbours from the 7pm crew to hang around to watch it after (and it continued with the shift to 11 that Neighbours did, with the 7pm crew saying to switch over to 10 later on).

  22. What a shame. It was so much better than the current affairs shows. Why don’t they get axed? But an hour long Project? It won’t last, half an hour is more than enough.

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