All Stories FeedToday launching Sunday edition
Channel Nine’s Today show will take on Weekend Sunrise when it launches a new Sunday edition in February.
To be hosted by Leila McKinnon and Cameron Williams, the show is reported to resemble the weekday edition by Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson with slight changes.
“The fact it’s on a Sunday, it will have a slightly different vibe, but will be similar to the Today show in if there’s something happening we’ll be across it,” McKinnnon told the Sunday Telegraph.
“But you don’t have to grab people in the 15 minutes between when they’re in the shower and work.
“Hopefully people will watch it over a casual Sunday breakfast.”
The show will effectively take the place of Sunday which was axed by Nine mid 2008. At the time Ray Martin criticised the decision saying it sent out a message that Nine “doesn’t do news anymore.”
Veteran reporter Laurie Oakes will continue to present political interviews, along with former Australian cricketer Michael Slater to present sport and news read by up-and-comer Amber Higlett.
McKinnon, wife to CEO David Gyngell, has also been touted as a possible host of a new “magazine style” show for Nine’s 5:30pm weekday slot.
Nine yesterday launched a new on-air promotion for its 6pm news bulletin, using the slogan “Change Back”, an acknowledgement many of its national viewers had switched to Seven’s bulletin. Melbourne remains Nine’s most competitive market in weeknight News.
Source: Sunday Telegraph
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Good stuff Channel Nine I am interested in viewing the program on Sunday morning. Thank you.
Watching these guys “filling in” this week is as much fun as eating seriously burnt toast with no butter. A completely mis-matched pair. Not gonna work.
I always enjoy reading the comments of others in these forums even if I don’t always agree – It’s makes good “food for thought”. One thing I ‘ve noticed is that often the number of positive/supporting forum comments don’t seem to match the popularity (as indicated by the tv ratings system) of the show/hosts discussed.
It makes me think that the viewers that don’t expect much are the ones with the ratings meters (and hence we get more of the same lightweight shows such as the breakfast chit-chat-advertorial shows and 20-to-1). The viewers that expect more (perhaps the “thinkers”) make the change (to another channel or medium, such as the internet, where they can express their disatisfaction to people interested to hear their views).
Until the ratings system is improved we will never have a truly accurate picture (I wish someone did an expose on how the ratings system works – especially it’s shortcomings given how much depends on it – advertising, new shows, celebrities careers, etc). It’s possible that it’s as accurate (useless?) as the Top40 song charts became once vinyl singles were no longer sold…
Knoxoverstreet: You’re right, the lead-in is everything when it comes to the 6pm news bulletin. Seven found the right overseas format, found the right guy to host it, and now they’re hitting home runs every night with Deal or No Deal. Nine, on the other hand, has been feeding us cheap and nasty episodes of Antiques Roadshow every weeknight for a couple of years and expecting people to watch. Oh, forgive me, there was that brief interlude where Nine hired two Seven personalities and tried to launch an ex-Seven format on a butt-fugly set (Wheel of Fortune). That worked a treat, didn’t it? Viewers aren’t stupid. You can palm us off with cheap-as-chips reruns of overseas sitcoms, but if you don’t give us an exciting, original, well-produced lead-in to your 6pm news, we’re not going to switch over from the other networks’ superior offerings just to watch the same news stories on your channel.
Spunkymonkeycaesar: As unrepresentative as they are, the peoplemeters don’t give any particular network an advantage. The system isn’t rigged, it doesn’t favour Seven in any way and it’s the exact same system that delivers the ratings figures that Nine happily trumps in press releases when it has a successful program. Deal with it.
Anyway, after all that, good on Channel Nine for trying to retake some of the initiative. Have a serious, serious look at your casting, though. Leila MacKinnon is the joke of the youtube generation after her performance with ‘Naughty Corey’ on ACA last year, and she simply doesn’t resonate with younger viewers. And I’ve only seen Cameron Williams on the Today show a couple of times, but I understand his Q scores are the lowest of anyone on breakfast television. Do you really think these two are gonna work in a relaxed Sunday format? Don’t be surprised if this doesn’t work out.
Thanks for that Spunkymonkeycaesar. May I ask how long it goes for.
Think we’ve exhausted the “copying” claims on Nine v Seven v Nine.
Any other angles on this story, guys?
Spunykymonkeycaesar, i remember you from a few months ago. i remember your pro-9 comments never ending. you always gave everyone a lot of material to rebut. where have you been?
there is a lot i could say to that thesis of a comment but i’ll cut down
SMC:”Seven copied off Nine with the launching of Seven’s Early 5.30 News after Nine’s Today show begining at 5.30″, “Nine launched the Sunday program at 8.00, and Seven decided to begin Weekend Sunrise half an hour earlier at 7.30″
that’s not copying, it’s competing. if sunrise started at 5:30 or if 7 had a current affairs progamme on sunday morning then you would have a point. this is simply a case of 9 setting a bar and 7 rising to it, wouldn’t call it copying.
Spunkymonkeycaesar, there is a difference between someone saying something positive about the networks, and propoaganda. I can distignish between these two. Some people on this blog will never question bad decisions by networks.
For example, i personally prefer nine news in Brisbane. On the few occasions i have seen seven’s news, i found it a tad pretentious. But that’s just my personal preference, and i don’t watch the news that much anyway. With their programming, i find nine to be the absolute worst in the industry.
Oh… And one other thing to question… Why do people think when on an occasion when someone says something pro Nine they are a Nine employee?! – Absolutely pathetic in my opinion to think so…!
Michael, I haven’t managed to tape Nine News’ new promo… But I can tell you what the voiceover states: “For Breaking News change back to Nine News. For Exclusives change back to Nine News. For the best coverage change back to Nine News. Sydney’s news is changing and now is the time to change back to Nine News.” During the voiceover they have appropriate clips to complement it. Simple, but effective in my opinion…
Nick that is nothing but your own opinion “Seven does it better…”! Oh and maybe those minimal few thousand people with people meters as I have previously mentioned… BM – dog… I was just about to say the same! – How can people possible say Seven does things better when Seven News and Nine News in particular are pretty much carbon copies of one another?!
The other thing though that I might add, is how can Seven News have more journalistic integrity as opposed to Nine News, when Seven have on numerous occasions over the past few years been found guilty of misconduct and / or defamation?! Without even considering Today Tonight’s infamous Corby defamation case win against the Seven Network, how about when Seven News Melbourne and Seven’s Sunrise defamed a 16 year old boy by illegally naming him whom was divorcing his parents! Or how about when Seven was found for misconduct when the leaked AFL Players’ medical records?!
Oh and another thing to note… Even though I wish not to dwell on the networks copying off one another, another noteworthy thing that no one has mentioned, is Seven copied off Nine with the launching of Seven’s Early 5.30 News after Nine’s Today show begining at 5.30! How about when Nine launched the Sunday program at 8.00, and Seven decided to begin Weekend Sunrise half an hour earlier at 7.30?!
BM – dog, you’re not the only one who finds Seven News to be “close to unwatchable” and I know that for a fact… No one I know supports and therefore watches Seven News for the same reason you and I don’t… It appears ’tis only a few bloggers and those with people meters think that way! Oh and that slogan “Sydney, thanks for making the switch” – Nothing but complete arrogance…! Seven’s graphics in Sydney are crap, as is their set and their host as you mentioned BM – dog in comparison to Nine News Sydney!
On the topic of Nine News vs Seven News – I’m incredibly surprised that Seven News outrates Nine. The journalistic quality of the two is roughly comparable (both tend to be slapdash and populist, although Laurie Oakes remains a highlight on Nine), and I don’t see in what other category Seven’s news is better than Nine’s. Seven’s graphics/picture quality/general presentation is atrocious (their titles at the bottom of the screen – astons, I think they’re called – are particularly low quality and make me wince every time I see them) and at least in Sydney their newsreader is the dullest, least charismatic man on earth. Seven News is close to unwatchable, in my opinion, but it appears that the general public disagrees with me.
David would you be able to show us outsiders this new Nine News Promotion. Have not seen it yet and I do not think Nine Brisbane are going to show this promotion as they already have a heap of local news promos on air. .
Change back. Probably not the best slogan.
Also CAM and Leila will do a great job. All the best to them and Nine with the show.
Some of you guys are getting hysterical over a programme that hasn’t even aired yet.
Good on Nine for trying. As are Seven. There’s room enough for both networks.
Hey, Knoxoverstreet….or is that David Gyngell?!? It would explain all the blowing smoke up his / your ass. Welcome to tvtonight LOL.
@TV Worker; It is called a DVR i believe. Even though i have said i dont watch because of Karl etc i still tape it because sometimes Nine has some things seven doesnt and i am interested in them. This is how i know these things. I dont watch today ‘LIVE’ but i record it so i can get the info seven doesnt have.
There was a thing on Credit Cards on TODAY a few weeks or so ago. One minute they were condeming the use of credit cards and how bad they were then a couple of days later they have the launch of the david jones card. This is bad journalism IMO
I must say as a seven supporter this is nothing out of the ordinary. But the fact they replaced SUNDAY a show with a rich history with this crap is low. I have to agree with Guy on this one. This is just another attempt to try and topple what is Seven’s run with brekkie shows as #1. Seven are #1 now and all people go on about is Nine will be #1 again etc etc etc but look how many years channel 9 won when it was on top. Bar the year 2000, Nine had a long running history as the number 1 network but now it has been toppled the last couple of years and Seven has finally got what the network deserves, the #1 ranking.
I too used to also watch Nine News during the early years this decade, 2001, 2002 but i just cant stand it anymore. As for talk about Sunday Night, it will no way be a copy of 60 Minutes. Molly Meldrum is apart of the reporters as is Sam Armytage according to todays Daily Telegraph, it also will have 2 hosts so how is this a copy of 60 Minutes as people say. Sure it is a copy of a current affairs show on sundays but until i have seen an episode we wont know what it will be like.
i so agree with you people. 7 news is so much better in content than 9, atleast in melbourne.
on the off occasions i watch it it is the same thing. they have the most bogany reports they always make the BBQ in the car park the feature of the report. and the sets are so fake and ugly.
sunday today: bring it on. just more timeslots for 7 to dominate. sam armytage 4ever.
Knoxoverstreet, you said that the lead-ins are the problem, so why haven’t they fixed it up yet? They have been showing antiques roadshow for god knows how long, and it unsurprisingly isn’t working, although it is cheap.
oh dear, it seems we have the knoxoverstreet clone issue again.
i know that the copying tally is up at 9, but i would say 7 and 9 are just as bad as each other.
personally i think that 9 should have done the more heroic thing by sticking with sunday even through bad ratings.
i can understand if a network wants to “copy for the better”ie. return great journalism to tv like with sunday night. its just annoying when the lowest common denominator shows are copied like sunrise and find my family (missing pieces).
Who cares if seven copy nine with some of the formats knoxoverstreet, its obvious that they do it better, If you can do something and do it better than why the hell not do it??
This is clearly shown in the ratings of all the ‘copycat’ programs!! Sunrise copy of today, sure, but its better. Today tonight off of aca, rates more. 7 news, no questions asked, the morning show rates better, weekend sunrise killed 20 yr old Sunday and No doubt will anialate’today on sunday’ and we all know, from proof of these other seven branded copies off of nine, that ‘Sunday Night’ will dominate over 60 minutes!
They are all great formats (aside aca/tt) and ‘kudos’ for nine for getting there first. But Seven does it better.
guy wrote…”I dont watch today because of karl and nines news, richard wilkins etc and they tend to copy everything seven on sunrise seem to have done in the past, be it two days, a couple of weeks or a few months. I wont be making the so called change back to nine what so ever”….but it sounds to me you are already watching 9…other wise how else do you know they are doing the same thing…a day or two or even the next month……hmmm
it looks to me that alot of maybe…ummm i dont know…7 and 9 employees are frequenting this site to drive there pro and anti propaganda for each network…either that or people are just really fanatical about this….
Aren’t people happy with the way though which Nine has gone about launching Today on Sunday?! They atleast tried with a one hour news service after axing Sunday, before recognising the need to launch such a program as Today on Sunday!
Really, all we can do I suppose, is blame those very few thousand people who have people meters for the state our country’s FTA is! Until at least 1 Milliion people have people meters and even then I will never consider ratings in this country to be a true representation. Sure it is good enough for advertisers but it isn’t good enough for me even though no one would care. Like I mean, how the heck would anyone know Packed To The Rafters rated over 2 Milliion on occassions if not even 500 000 people have people meters!
I wrote “it doesnt matter who hosts seven news or sunrise etc”. By this i mean it doesnt matter who does the job on seven as long as someone is there to do it. I have tried nine news a few times but i just hate it for some reason. Their reporting isnt as good as seven and it just doesnt appeal to me anymore. I used to watch it in the early 00’s but now i wont even go near it. And i am not lazy either. I always switch the channel over to seven news at 6 because of my loathing of nine news. I just cant stand it, even when its cricket season. 9 news is never on in my household fullstop. Ten news and even abc are better imo. Still only an opinion of mine and i stand by it.
I dont on the other hand watch the crap called tt or aca. Its a rarity for me unless it is a major story. Mostly because of the same reasons i said before copycats both of them. One week a story would be on one show and end up on the other the next day or week. It happens both ways and i am over it.
As for the sunday night show sure its a copycat type version but i think it will be great to have some competition. Technically if seven were to succeed with this then it would be a big kick in the guts to nine.
Another thing to note with Seven’s dominance of News and Current Affairs. is that Seven’s dominance all began with their contracting of Ian Ross – Born and bred on Nine!
Also, Seven wouldn’t be where they are in their supposed #1 status without their lead in; Deal or No Deal! – Thus the reason why Nine News Sydney in particular wins every Sunday night during the NRL season – A good lead in! This is because people are alot like Guy to an extent, when he wrote “It doesnt matter who hosts…” People (generally speaking) clearly don’t care who they watch and therefore who hosts a program, or what network it’s on, they are just too lazy to switch channels!
Jeroma Leila doesn’t have the exact same job as Samantha – Yeah she may now have the Today on Sunday gig as does Samantha with Weekend Surise and she may also have the understudy position of Tracy with A Current Affair as does Samantha with Matt White, but… Leila will still do the occasional filing of stories for A Current Affair, which I’m not aware of Samantha doing. Also Samantha is occassional reader of Seven News Sydney. I guess until Leila starts reading Nine News Sydney on the odd occasion your theory is wrong…!
Nine can’t win at all! – People have been crying for something original – Sunday was original, only to get axed because Australians or rather the minimal number of Australians who have people meteres clearly showed the networks that all they wanted was dumbed down programs like Weekened Sunrise! Surely Nine can’t be criticised for taking the dumbed down approach if those with people meters have shown that’s what they want! – If they had have shown the networks programs like Sunday were in demand Nine would have kept with Sunday and Weekend Sunrise wouldn’t have succeeded in the first place when it launched in ‘05!
And as far as copying goes… Nine was the first to have such a program many years ago, so as far as I’m concerned this cannot be considered a copy of Weekend Sunrise! Weekend Sunrise was a copy of Today on Saturday in the first place! Then we’ve got Sunday Night coming a copy of 60 Minutes. Sunrise of Today. Today Tonight of A Current Affair. The Morning Show of Mornings with Kerri – Anne… Should I even bother to continue?! – Seven only began dominating in News and Current Affairs thanks to doing nothing other than copy off Nine!
well i guess 9 can never complain about 7 copying 60 mins ever again.
that makes 3 of 9’s quality shows replaced with rubbish. temptation with 2.5 men, mcleods with terrible new aussie drama, and now sunday with “sunday today”
lee123: “sunday today will lose to sunday sunrise in the same proportion that it does on weekdays”
they will probably lose by even more than that of weekdays. i’m sure there are a lot of people out there like me that only watch these shows on sunday and are established on sunrise. IMO Sam/andrew are quite pleasant to watch and i think that leila is a horrible person.
absolutely no reason to switch to 9.
I dont watch today because of karl and nines news, richard wilkins etc and they tend to copy everything seven on sunrise seem to have done in the past, be it two days, a couple of weeks or a few months. I wont be making the so called change back to nine what so ever. This will probably get thumped like all shows against sevens weekend sunrise because it just works. The hosts just seem to click. I dont think it will make much of an indent. It doesnt matter who hosts sevens news or sunrise etc i will always watch seven because it is the more credible of the two networks over the past few years and their news is so much better.
Oh brother! At least I will be getting a life (or more sleep!) instead of watching this cheap-to-make tripe. I guess it fulfills their obligations for Australian content. Dumbing down their viewers further in the process. i wish broadcasting licences had an expiry period…
Bring back Sunday – at least occassionally Nine spent some money on real current affairs/journalism stories.
We are sick of sports overload, advertorials and crappy filler human no-interest stories – do you hear us Australian networks? A short term win (maybe with curious viewers) will be your long term death sentence.(in the eyes of people who have a brain and can think)
another feeble attempt of nine trying to copy sevens success
well said lee about this being a microcosm of the network. i completely agree.
9 used to be my fav, but boy have things changed. Its funny how leila now has samantha’s exact job only on 9 (replacement TT host, sunday morning show).
@gerrad, if you’re going to play that game i’m sure 9 is winning by far in the copying game.
i don’t watch morning shows during the week, but i will continiue to watch sunrise on sunday because i like sam armytage and AOK is quite toned down, and i hate leila.
i just don’t understand why 9 can’t even try to be original, they might even start winning stuff that way.
sorry but you’ll never match that stunning country girl Sammantha Armytage. “dreams” what a gal!!!! LOL
Geez, How much work does Michael Slater want to do. Will he still be doing the Big Sports Breakfast This year (Radio)??
Alex – Sunrise has just finished year number five as Australia’s number one breakfast show. In fact, they haven’t lost a single day nationally over that period. Today Show climbed 6.2% this year off a remarkably low base. Sunrise dropped 4.8% off a remarkably high base. Given that, I strongly suspect Sunrise is about to enter its sixth consecutive year of leadership – no matter what happens in Melbourne or on Sunday mornings.
Dont like either of them – but I wouldn’t watch it anyway. Gotta be good being the boss’ wife though lol.
the today show pass sunrise easily this year. but the only thing they have to change is. get rid of steven jacobs and the show will be better. jacobs is way past his used by date on tv that is for sure. sunrise needs to look at a different direction imo. the fanfare is wearing off
Same s**t, different smell.
it was shows like sunday that made 9 the #1 network and deservedly so. all their programs were so well thought out and high quality. . . . but that was then.
now they have effectively replaced sunday with fluff today. a microcosm of the whole network.
and as if it’s not bad enough this idea isn’t even original, atleast keep the kids happy and show their shows.
in a rating sense i assume that sunday today will lose to sunday sunrise in the same proportion that it does on weekdays. why don’t they do something that they can win?
So nine’s key message is that people are leaving them, and want them back – hence the “change back” and “choose nine in 09″. Why not have a “why us” or “we’ll sue” while they’re at it. Good luck with that.
well i guess this makes a “swap” in the copying department. 7 with sunday night and 9 with sunday today.
in our family were not too fussed about which one we watch. but we have noticed that anything that is on sunrise ends up in some form on today in a few days. one being that sunrise had a free pink concert, 2 weeks later today had a free andre rieu concert steve jacobs even said “this will be the most expensive background music to the weather ever” exactly what was said at the pink concert.
@alex 50k isn’t much in primetime but when only 300k eyes are on the screen 50k (its usually more) is a big diff.
they will have a lot of ground to make up. sunrise has been in the top 20 shows the last few weeks.
so the 9 copied list is now: dancing on ice, everyday heroes, random acts of kindness, missing pieces, animal emergency, rescue squad, deadly surf, and weekend today.
What time will this be scheduled? Weekend Sunrise airs between 7.30 and 10, but if Nine has Today airing up until 10 then it’ll mean changes to their Sunday sports programming (WWoS, Sunday Footy Show, Sunday Roast).
Golly gosh “gerrard”, you really must work in publicity dept for Nine as hinted by many in previous thread about Nine’s programing for this year.
Your post there was ..
“# Gerrard on December 31st, 2008 12:56 pm
Wow! So many people have commented on this article. Channel Nine have also released promos of their 2009 line up on the internet. Just search ‘Choose 9 in 09.’ They’re pretty good!
Choose Nine in 09!!”
Little wonder, I and others think you appear to be like knoxoverstreet (Nine plant)
Ah Nick – you do realize Sunrise isn’t thumping Today? They’re within 50K viewers of each other and Today wins everyday in Melbourne.
@Craig, do you actually think Andrew O’Keefe is polished enough to be a main anchor for weekend Sunrise?
It seems like an interesting bunch of presenters I’ll definitely be tuning in to see what they offer.
Yey! Finally Channel Nine are doing something to compete against Weekend Sunrise. I’ll definitely watch the Weekend Today Show instead of Weekend Sunrise, simply because I hate Andrew O Keefe.
You might say that Channel Nine are copying Channel 7, but really, channel 7 are copying NINE with ‘Sunday Night.’
Not a huge fan of Leila, but I like the rest. Who knows, this may also lead into a Satday Today Show, followed by Kids’ WB!
You should search the internet for “Choose Nine In 09″. There are some great promos on the internet.
agree with Craig.
Leila seems like she got leg up as being wife of the boss and just does not resonate with viewers.And as for Cameron well, even Nine’s own in house survey (that keeps leaking out) says he rates lowere than low with credibility factor and viewers.
Nice idea of programme but choice of hosts lack foresight.
One name keeps sticking out for Nine and she deservesbigger role – Stephanie Brantz. Steph was talent and held her own on SBS, yet Nine treat her like token female.
Those hosts are a turn off in themselves.
@ Chris…Today was the first to broadcast on weekends actually. Today on Saturday was hosted by Tracy. But now its Today on Sunday.
so now the today show can get thumped by sunrise on a sunday as well. oh well, whatever suits.
I guess Sunday was too high brow for whoever was leftover that wasn’t watching Insiders/Inside Business/Offsiders. But Today on Sunday? Geez, they should really provide a point of difference to Weekend Sunrise.
Maybe a show like the old ABC show Recovery on a Sunday morning would get the ratings. It would drag the younger people from Weekend Sunrise and the older people from Video Hits.
Why do current and former sport players have to read the sport “news”? Cant we get intelligent people who understand the word pronounciation and have half a brain? I guess it is all about aiming for the lowest common denominator.
is nine capable of making an original program
woohoo, it’s a long time coming. Nine in 09.
Finally!! Us Today fans have been waiting a while for this.
Should be good, I like both Cam and Leila.
I’m also relieved their putting the political interview in there.
Good idea but crap choice of hosts, I know shes the CEO’s wife but it has been demonstrated time and time again the viewers dont like Leila McKinnon, ACA’s ratings tumble whenever she hosts, as for Cameron Williams, i dont think hes polished enough to be a main anchor
The Sunday morning timeslot is the least of Nine’s worries. How about focusing on ways to take on Seven where it matters?