Nine axes THIS afternoon
Nine axes its new afternoon news and current affairs show admitting "...it was clear the program was struggling to attract a sizeable audience."
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
The Nine Network has pulled the pin on its news and current affairs show THIS afternoon after little more than two weeks on air.
The show, hosted by Andrew Daddo, Katrina Blowers and news presenter Mark Ferguson failed to win over viewers. Yesterday it languished on just 219,000 viewers.
Nine Network Director of News, Mark Calvert said: “While this is regrettable, our attitude is that it is better to have given it a shot. In the short time it was on air the team worked hard, but it was clear the program was struggling to attract a sizeable audience. It is vital that we recognise this and act swiftly.”
From today, Nine will return to a half-hour news bulletin at 4.30pm, presented by Mark Ferguson, followed by Antiques Roadshow at 5.00pm. Millionaire Hot Seat continues at 5.30pm.
The show was also hit with internal struggles, including Ferguson signing a deal with Seven, yet remaining on air with Nine. The show’s Executive Producer also stepped aside in its second week.
Nine says it will be talking to the THIS afternoon team in the comings days about redeployment across the network’s extensive news and current affairs programming.
Calvert said: “Our absolute focus remains on placing news and current affairs at the very heart of the network and its resurgence.
“Nine News is a great brand, much loved and trusted by Australian viewers. As they’ve seen recently with our coverage of big news events, such as the death of Michael Jackson and the Victorian bush fires, the experience and authority of our journalists and news-gathering teams is second to none.
Defiantly, he adds: “We’re more determined than ever to demonstrate to viewers – and our rivals – that when news happens, they’ll see it first on Nine.”
The arrival of the show also came at the expense of Extra, axed in Brisbane’s 5:30pm slot after almost 18 years.
Unfortunately for Nine, THIS afternoon won’t manage to chalk up 18 days.
This post updates.
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- Tagged with Antiques Roadshow, Hot Seat, Nine News, This Afternoon
55 Responses
How ridiculous! Instead of axing it, why doesn’t Nine still persist with a real news program for an hour? I still believe a 1 hour news show (with real news please) is the way to rebuild the network’s news brand, split Ten News’s audience and provide a solid lead in to Hot Seat. In turn, that will deliver better lead ins to the prime time news and the evening’s programs.
PS – Agree with all prior comments on the hideous sets.
As usual Queensland wins again.
Now we can get what is rightfully ours back.
Extra, and the State Of Origin whitewash to boot.
After homeMADE and THISafternoon maybe Nine should stop programming shows with titles that look soRIDICULOUS.
/tries to imitate Gomer Pyle.
Surprise,surprise,surprise,
I feel sorry for Brisbane viewers as most of you clearly liked Extra (who was the baboon that axed that)
This Afternoon wasdoomed the moment Nine resorted to using Caps to highlight it and paired co hosts who have no chemistry.
BTW, who won the sweep David ??
12 eps another new record for Nine.
Now the tough questions surely have to be asked of Nine.
Who in programming is making this bad decisions time and time ?
Who in management has a clue ?
Who is running the ship ?
Wow they certainly don’t muck around. I only saw it a couple of times but I found the female host painful to listen to…too goody too shoes and she really played up the ‘young mum’ thing all the time which made me want to vomit. Georgie Gardner on the Today has been a real revelation since she started news reading and stand in host for Lisa…Nine have a couple of very capable women right there.
I wonder how the staff who were fired from Brisbane’s Extra to make way for this disaster would be feeling now??
7 and 10 benefitted from THIS Afternoon, with ratings of 7’s 4.30 News, MASH, and the Bold and the Beautiful all increasing on average by 100k or so.
Hopefully the 4.30 news on 9 will be what it was, showing no scars from THIS Afternoon. 9 should look at the Extra situation in Bris, and maybe try extending to rest of country? ET’s not bad for 5pm either. Swap with Antiques – their audience are home at 3pm generally. ET would do so much better at 5, more could see it, epsecially teens into celeb stuff.
“Nine News is a great brand, much loved and trusted by Australian viewers. As they’ve seen recently with our coverage of big news events, such as the death of Michael Jackson and the Victorian bush fires, the experience and authority of our journalists and news-gathering teams is second to none.”
Umm… I’d hate to burst your bubble, Mr Calvert but I don’t like nor watch Nine News. If I had to watch any news from the Big Three stations I’d watch Ten News. However, with news from 7, 9 and 10 these days, I may as well get a subscription from the Daily Mail and cut out the middle man. 😛
bring back extra, it was an icon
How do u do the rolling eyes smiley? Lol. Not surprsied. 1. It’s Channel Nine, and they axe everything. 2. It’s Channel Nine so the show sucked anyway. and 3. Andrew Daddo, hopeless beyond comprehension. So does this mean MArk Ferguson can rush out the door to Seven straight away. I know that’s what he’d want, or will they want to keep him at Nine to humiliate him.
I’m sure the people that did Extra in Brisbane are glad they axed Extra for it.
LOL… with Andrew Daddo what would you expect, he’s a moron!
got point about extra, seems like a really bad move now doesn’t it, it would make sense to bring it back now.
Would someone remember to give Mark Ferguson those orange/yellow sets to return to Channel 7 when he’s next over there?
It’s really sad to see that the axing of Extra has now got no benefit. Hopefully, it will return soon. Channel Nine should be smart enough to know that Extra played a major part in the Nine News ratings for Brisbane.
cant say i’m surprised but at least nine gave it a few weeks rather than giving up straight away like they do a lot of the time, at least andrew daddo got a chance to show his immaturity(his smart a** comments to mark Ferguson) in regard to the first on nine logo, a lot of the time it does appear on exclusive stories but other times it appear on stories that are on the other channels as well, one example is the live press conference of jim stynes, the logo appeared even though the same conference was being shown on 7 at the same time!
Just re-run ACA from the night before, filled with heaps of promos for the coming night’s ep.
How uncanny – I was just blogging before about how expensive this show must be to make and that a show like M*A*S*H can beat it by around 300,000 viewers and there they go and axe it – a wise but dare I say a humiliating move by the producers and obviously embarrassing for the hosts.
If Nine were smart they would bring back The Young and the Restless and pitch it against the Bold and the Beautiful – or maybe opt for something like Entertainment Tonight that is gossipy, prepackaged and will appeal to the mums who are cooking tea for the kids at around this time!
Great. Now WIN WA can bring back Neighbours. WIN WA was going to dump it this week anyway, reverting to TEN programs (although they are “officially” a Nine affiliate and own STW9). LOL.
Daddo’s mumbling delivery certainly didn’t help. Back to graveyard shift on ABC radio Andrew?
Lol. It didn’t take long for the show to get the axe.
What took them so long to swing the axe?
Geeeeze….again with the axe???
Are you sure Channel Nine isn’t headed by David Foster???
Or should that be ‘beaheaded’ and ‘nein’??
Tries to look shocked…
Hey David
Would you happen to know if the Gold Coast will get Millionaire Hot Seat again at 5pm and Gold Coast News at 5:30pm? I don’t see why it can’t be possible to do that.
Nine missed a golden opportunity to fill those slots with “Two and a half Men” Shame on you Nine 😉