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Wake Up axed, cuts to TEN News.

Wake Up, TEN Early, Morning & Late News are no more from Friday, as TEN cuts costs.

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2014-04-02_2337TEN has confirmed the end for Wake Up and the TEN Early, Morning and Late News from Friday, May 23, as part of wider network redundancies.

The decision, made this morning at a Board meeting, is understood to affect approximately 150 staff.

TEN issued the following statement:

Network Ten would like to thank the people involved with Wake Up and the TEN Early, Morning and Late News for their dedication, enthusiasm and hard work.

TEN Eyewitness News at 5pm will continue to be produced locally in each market. It will continue to have local news, sport and weather, local presenters, local reporters and local production staff, and will continue to bring the best of local, national and international news to viewers.

A voluntary redundancy program has commenced in Network Ten’s News and Operations department.

No further details are available at this stage.

TEN is understood to be in discussions with Wake Up hosts Natarsha Belling and James Mathison about their future with the network.

CEO Hamish McLennan also emailled staff today:

Today we are announcing a series of proposed changes at Network Ten.

As you all know, the television advertising market has been soft in recent years. At the same time, our ratings, revenue and earnings performance has been disappointing.

It is a tough period for Ten and we need to take some painful, but necessary, measures to restructure the business.

Our existing business model needs to change and we need to achieve greater efficiencies, tighter cost management and greater focus in terms of the parts of the company in which we invest.

A review has been conducted to establish a new structure for Ten and to better allocate our resources, with the aim of improving our performance.

As a result of that review, there are proposed changes to News programs, the structure of News and Operations, and other departments.

Unfortunately, it is proposed that Wake Up and the Early, Morning and Late News will cease production on Friday, May 23, 2014. Studio 10 is performing well and will continue as a vital part of our daytime schedule, which ranks number one.

Despite the commitment and enthusiasm of its staff, Wake Up has not resonated with enough viewers to make it a viable program.

It is very disappointing that these programs have not been more successful, but I would like to thank everyone involved with them for their focus, dedication and hard work.

We need to use our News resources – staff and content – more effectively, while continuing to provide high-quality local News services.

TEN Eyewitness News at 5pm, which is consistently number one in its timeslot, will continue to be produced locally in each market. It will continue to have local presenters, reporters, production staff and so on. It will continue to bring local news to viewers.

A process of consultation will begin tomorrow around a proposed voluntary redundancy program in News, Operations and Engineering. Consultation will take place in each station with the News Directors, Operations Managers and Human Resources staff to manage this process.

We are in a constant, fierce battle for the attention of viewers and we need to ensure we are investing in the areas that will deliver the greatest potential in terms of audiences and revenue.

The next few weeks will be a difficult and sad period, as colleagues leave the business.

Let me assure you the changes are not being undertaken lightly. No one is happy about them, but unfortunately they are necessary.

To the people affected by today’s announcement, please accept my thanks for your important contribution to Ten.

67 Responses

  2. And yet – Ten buy this reality rubbish on marrying prince Harry …. Hamish Maclennan you should hang your head in shame and resign, this all happened on your watch …….

  3. Ten needs to keep Natasha but jettison James. I still think that Natasha & Matt Doran should team up if Ten decides to revive GMA. They are a star team. If they can involve Brad McEwan as sports reporter then that would be a bonus. When they all hosted the weekend news they had great chemistry.
    Peter Meakin are you listening?
    Sorry for all the staff who will lose their jobs.
    How long will it be before the Networks outsource their newsrooms like they do the traffic report helicopters?. Same pics with a different talking head.

  4. Shame about the Late News I always watched it, had stories on there that the others would cover the next day.

    My thoughts go out to the tech staff who have no job !
    That saying I wondered if James was the best host, I really do not know how TEN are going to change peoples mind sets, about watching one channel regardless of what they show.
    I and the other TV Tonight people have the ability to switch channels…..it is not that hard really!

  5. That’s a lot of hours to fill without news. TEN’s primetime schedule is already very light and underperforming, and now they have an extra hour to fill with entertainment.

    What’s the bet repeats of Law & Order SVU or similar fills the 10:30pm slot.

  6. I knew that cuts were to be made, but I didn’t expect to see 4 programs get the axe (Wake Up, and the Early, Morning and Late News).

    In a way, I understand why the Early News and Wake Up got the axe, because their ratings were dreadful (as much as I don’t like seeing people get the axe). I’m not sure how the Morning News at 11am rate, so I cant comment on it, but I am a fan of it.

    Am a little surprised however to see the Late News getting axed (again!). Hugh Riminton is great on it, and it often rates well against the competition (bar Mondays).

  7. Very sad news. I feel for the staff affected by these cuts. I wish TEN had at least tried to make some changes to the format before cutting it altogether.

  8. It was never going to work with James, he was a very poor choice, not very likeable, no personality and never has any chemistry with anyone he is paired with.

    It is sad though as it did have potential, I wonder if they ever asked the best talent on TV Sandra Sully to ‘Wake Up’ early???

  9. Everything 10 does with news seems to be going in circles lately.

    They have axed the morning news and the late news already after the failure of breakfast and now they are doing exactly the same thing now that Wake Up has failed.

    How are they supposed to axe 150 more jobs after last year?

  11. The initial reports of 50 jobs were bad enough, 150 is deeply saddening for everyone involved. I guess what’s done is done, but I really don’t think they did Wake Up any favours by not following through on their confirmed planned changes to the format of the show. Going to struggle to watch anything on Ten now I think.

  12. Wake Up – sad, but understandable. Three news bulletins – crazy. Why stop doing one of the (few?) things you do well. Where this network is heading is anyone’s guess. Suspect those in charge are guessing too.

  13. And that’s why I don’t want to watch Early News TV especially on Channel TEN during the mornings. Every mornings I get up from bed and have my breakfast quickly. And Channel 10 keeps on having dire ratings for Early News, Wake Up and Morning News. This is similar to Breakfast and The Circle from 2012 when they both ceased production. In my opinion, Mike Munro, Hugh Riminton and a few newsreaders should lose their jobs.
    Channel TEN is getting much worse this year. I had a stronger feeling that SBS Network will beat Channel 10 this year.

  15. I’ve always felt more aligned with Ten than any other channel and love how often they take risks and make bold programming moves. It’s really sad they just haven’t been able to catch a break for so long. I did actually try Wake Up several times but just didn’t connect with it. My thoughts are with everyone affected by the announcement today and hope the strategies coming into place rebuild Ten to the level of past glory days.

  16. What an absolute disaster, ten have made so many sacrifices for this show, they aren’t spending any money on primetime where it is desperately needed but kept pumping cash into Wake Up, and now that is a complete write-off. Worst part is everyone saw this coming from day 1 except for the decision-makers at ten.

    I wonder if Adam Boland will make a statement? I know there are sensitivities given his mental health, but in the leadup to the show he was very vocal about poaching staff from stable employment from 7&9, and about all the money that ten was injecting into his visionary project like the biggest piece of glass in Australia.
    now that all those people are facing unemployment and cash-strapped ten now has a multi-million dollar write off. Taking some, or most of the responsibility is the right thing to do for the people that will be impacted.

  17. TEN in discussion with Natasha and James?..is that like…we have nothing for you…but giving you an out which we hope wont cost TEN in dollars?!?
    I suspect they knew it was just a matter of time…*sigh*

  18. So sad and disappointed! Both Wake Up and Breakfast provided a point of difference to the existing breakfast shows the commercial networks. Guess it’s back to ABC for Kids for us or ABC Breakfast 🙁

  20. This is truly sad news for all those who have been made redundant. TEN tried to do something different with Wake Up but unfortunately it just didn’t pay off. Unfortunately in a time when news is available 24/7 via social media, news websites, and dedicated news channels (ABC News 24, Sky News, CNN, etc.) I don’t think a commercial network needs 4 bulletins a day – especially with the amount of competing bulletins on Seven and Nine. In saying that, I don’t know if ditching the Late Night one is the best idea given it is the only commercial one. But it will be interesting to see what programming will fill 6 hours of dead air from Friday.

  22. A very honest email to the staff from Hamish. Tough on the folk affected, but I guess it could not continue indefinitely.

  23. That’s sad news for Ten News morning and late editions. I’m surprised about the late news been axed given that it’s only FTA competition is ABC’s Lateline, and News24.

  24. With the amount of changes that has happened to the morning and late news on TEN in the last couple of years, it’s really no wonder why people don’t watch it regularly.

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