★★★★★ 0/5

Charlie wishes Nine luck with new talkfest

A pragmatic Charlie Pickering wishes Nine good luck with a new talk series. "It’s very hard to build a show from the ground up."

25
Leave a comment

Since the success of The 7pm Project and Q & A, there has been talk that Nine has piloted a new talk-chat project, filmed recently with Karl Stefanovic and Leila McKinnon.

7PM’s Charlie Pickering, who hosted the TEN show through is dark, early days, told TV Tonight getting the right mix isn’t easy.

“I heard the working title was ‘The News Show.’ I’m not sure if that was one of our working titles at one point. I think ours was always ‘The 7 O’clock Show’,” he said.

“But I’ve heard the rumours, and you know what? Good luck to them. It’s very hard to build a show from the ground up.

“As you’ve seen with our show it took us over a year to get it right. It’s not an easy thing to do. I think we’re all just very flattered that another network thinks that what we’ve done is worth copying.”

In hindsight 7PM may have been fortunate to start life under the former TEN regime, before the new TEN owners.

“Credit always goes to David Mott with these things and he’s still there. So I don’t see it so much as a regime change,” Pickering said.

“I think moving Negus around and looking at the numbers they realised maybe there was a better way of doing it. But I don’t think by any stretch there’s a different vibe around the place at all. We benefitted very much from the support of David Mott, Beverley (McGarvey) saying ‘If an idea is good we’ll stick with it’ and they seem to be doing that with Negus as well.

This year 7PM wasn’t up for any Logie awards, but might have to think harder about its campaigning techniques.

Pickering suggests, “Maybe 7PM needs to promote themselves better for nominations next year. I think that was the key. People were able to plug their nominations within their shows and that was the way to do it. Problem is we’re so tight for time, but maybe next year.”

25 Responses

  1. Karl Stefanovic and Leila McKinnon hosting a talk show.I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.They should have thought about doing this a long time ago and solved Nine’s 7pm problems of which they haven’t recovered from since Temptation ended in 2009.Using the Big Bang Theory is not the answer

  6. I watch the 7pm Project for it’s light-hearted take on the news, it’s great mix of personalities and guests. I don’t think Nine should bother doing a similar show. Really wish someone would bring back Beauty and the Beast.

  7. People need to stop bagging the 7PM Project. It does what it does. I’m a well-educated person and former aspiring journalist, and I don’t watch it to get investigative journalism or analysis that I can’t get elsewhere. There are so many news options available at the moment, and there’s not really another show out there like the 7PM Project.

    Congratulate it for being a bit different. It does cater to an audience. A low ratings figure is still a ratings figure. People are still tuning it. If you think it’s a bad show, imagine it in the hands of Channel Seven or Nine. Now that is bad…

  9. “But I don’t think by any stretch there’s a different vibe around the place at all”

    People like Gina often come in and demand a right wing show with a right wing ‘host’ as an antidote to your show do they Charlie?

  10. A chat show? What a good idea Nine. How about Andrew Daddo and Leila McKinnon hosting it with Mark Ferguson reading the news….

    Stick to what you know Nine. Getting belted by Seven.

  11. Have to agree with you there Rob. Since when has The 7pm project become a success when it barely struggles to get 700K and quite often comes 4th in its timeslot. Clearly for whatever reason it is not resonating with most people.

  12. @Neil

    they won’t be doing that until they improve on ACA – big time and at the moment its too much of a ratings winner to change.

  13. First they turned the Today show into a copy of Sunrise, then they turned ACA into a clone of TT,now the are thinking about copying 7PM. The show they should really be copying is The Biggest Loser. Yes ceativity can cost you money Nine but the payback is Respect.

  14. You lost me at “Since the success of The 7pm Project….” Median 700k in a prime time slot is far from a success, regardless of the demos Ch10 like to trumpet.

  15. I try n watch the 7pm Project and love the show.

    I member when The Panel was one, Channel 7 tried to copy that show with the Couch, and it fail miserably.

    And so will this new show on Channel 9!!!!!

  18. See this is what happens in FTA in Australia. Seven and Nine copy one another, trying to out-do each other. Ten trials new shows (Masterchef, The 7PM Project etc) and give them a go, unlike the other two networks. When it becomes popular on Ten, Seven and/or Nine copy Ten (My Kitchen Rules, The News Show etc). Nine would never have been as patient with 7PM if it was on Nine, but now that it is rating pretty well on Ten, Nine decide to make an exact replica? I thought Nine was trialling The Block every weeknight.

  19. Thanks to Nine we’ll have to put up with nominees soliciting votes in their shows next year. How bloody crass. Don’t do it, Charlie! Prostituting yourself for a Logie will be a major turn off for viewers.

  23. Karl Stefanovic and Leila McKinnon hosting a chat/news show??? As far as i’m concerned,with those two hosting, it has failed before it has even started. i find the both of them totally underwhelming, particularly Leila McKinnon. Charlie is right, it is very difficult to launch a show like that from the ground up, and Nine don’t really display a lot of nerve with new programs.

Leave a Reply