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Soft start for new TEN hour

6PM with George Negus pulled less viewers than TEN's 5pm News, but the feedback has been mostly positive.

TEN has always said they would be in for the long haul, and they may need to be with a modest launch for its news revamp.

6PM with George Negus pulled 605,000 viewers last night with the biggest audience in Melbourne (220,000). Sydney was  173,000. The national audience dropped from the 827,000 average of TEN News at Five.

The new show was beaten convincingly by Seven News (1.26m) and Nine News (1.06m).

TEN Evening News
was lower still at 536,000, beaten by Today Tonight (1.09m) and A Current Affair (1.01m). The Melbourne edition with Mal Walden was again the biggest audience with 201,000, followed by Sandra Sully in Sydney on 141,000.

Network shares for the new line-up, now including alternatives on ELEVEN, was only 18.9%, well behind Seven’s 32.9% and Nine’s 28.5%.

But while the Australian Open is in play it is probably unfair to be making too many conclusions about how the new hour has affected rival offerings on Seven and Nine.

Feedback for 6PM has been mostly positive, with many readers welcoming a change from tabloid and consumer stories by 6:30 shows. Many noted the brevity of some stories and indicated a feeling the first show felt too rushed.

TEN execs have publicly stated they view the shift as a long-term plan and that such change requires habit. They are probably also looking forward to a day of big breaking news.

Week 5

31 Responses

  1. I loved it – remnds me of the way “A Current Affair” used to be
    (meaning in the 70s). I am finding that he makes even the
    Middle East interesting viewing. I do like the local 6.30 news
    as well. I would have imagined the show to suffer would be
    the insufferable 7pm Project. I have found it hard to watch
    for a while but, this week, after some hard hitting news, I
    found it impossible to watch those smug upstarts. Please
    take them off!!!

  2. @Qubec
    Maybe the general public prefers fluff pieces, over one sided opinionated news stories? I was wondering when “intellectual snobbery” would be brought up for an excuse as to why this show is a failure

  3. Its ok. But George is such a lefty he can’t seem to be bipartisan as far as the Government and opposition are concerned. He’s not far removed from a communist.

  4. Those Simpsons Repeats some of which dating back to the nineties were getting old and tired but is more news the answer?Why couldn’t they go to the drawing board and make a home grown show for teens to give Degrassi Next Generation a run for the money(Yes we are all aware they have Neighbours on 11 for that purpose)but try tell your kids or early teens instead of a teen drama or the Simpsons 6pm IS now time for the News obviously Ten didn’t think of the 10 to 15 year olds out there before this.

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