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If it’s curtains for Negus show, what then for current affairs?

Media today look at the ramifications of the Negus axing and ask what it means for the rest of us...

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The Sydney Morning Herald today takes a good look at the ramifications of 6:30 with George Negus being axed, and whether it signals the death of serious current affairs on commercial television.

Michael Idato writes, “What will endure is this question: can commercial television sustain “quality” current affairs? Even as Ten euthanased the show, many lamented the bigger loss, as if 6.30pm with George Negus was testing the water not just for Ten but the industry at large.”

We don’t yet know how significant this week’s axing was. Only in the future, when networks brave the waters of serious journalism in a primetime slot -or they avoid it- will history put this into perspective.

60 Minutes, Sunday Night and A Current Affair are also considered by Idato for better or worse.

But it is the defunct current affairs shows that intrigue me the most: Page One (TEN), Seven’s Witness and The Times (a show I recently noted had been axed way before its time) and of course Nine’s outstanding Sunday.

“Its honour roll was a who’s who of Australia’s best journalists and producers — Jim Waley, Jana Wendt, Laurie Oakes, Helen Dalley, Ray Martin, Ellen Fanning, Michael Usher, Ross Coulthart, Graham Davis and Stephen Rice among many, many others — working on-air and behind-the-scenes.”

On the very day that Mr. Laurie Oakes will give the Andrew Olle Media Lecture (and surely he will note the Negus demise), this is a good read.

You can check it out here.

32 Responses

  1. I often watched the last 15 minutes of 6:30 on TEN, unfortunately for the show I watched The Drum on ABC24 from 6 until 6:45 which I find to be better presented and a bit more informative, 6:30 always seemed to be awkward.

    I don’t know if the target audience was similar to who watched The Drum, however that may have been part of the problem, though I did watch Dateline with Negus every week.

    The way I saw 6:30 was that Negus was uncomfortable about doing the show, almost like he was not doing exactly what he thought he would be and that is why the parts I saw l thought looked … well … clumsy.

    If there was no The Drum, then I may watched 6:30, then again nights that The Drum focused on Sport (like Friday’s) or on things that were covering old ground, I often switched to World News Australia on SBS or whatever ABC1 had on at 6pm (Grand Designs, Time Team etc).

    Overall, 6:30 was probably up against it really as World News and The Drum were likely what it’s target audience actually watched more.

  2. Put Alan Jones Or Derryn Hinch At 6:30
    Although Alan Jones Has Breakfast On 2GB The Next Morning And
    Derryn Hinch Currently On Home Detention And Does Drive On 3AW.

    5:00 Ten News
    6:30 Alan Jones Tonight
    7:00 Normal Programming
    ————-OR——————-
    5:00 Ten News
    6:30 Hinch
    7:00 Normal Programming

  3. What a shame to see another nail in the coffin of good quality journalism. You only have to channel surf between 7 and 9 to see that they are coering exactly the same stories, and often at exactly the same time.

    Vale 6.30 pm report

  4. I love all the people coming on here and bashing TT and ACA and the Australian public for favouring sensationalism over substance.

    Am I meant to believe that Australia as a whole chose TT/ACA over 630 at a rate of 90% to 10%. But TVTonight blog readersW chose 630 over ACA/TT at a rate of 100% to 0%f

    630 was not thought out well. First of all no one associates Ten or the Ten News brand with qhality news and current affairs. It’s like Kia coming out with a $80k luxurey car and expecting people to buy it when for eternity Kia has pitched itself as cheap and cheerful.

    Also 630 went way too intellelectual. There needed to be a balance. No shoddy mechanic stories but the focus in the middle east night after night was too much. They should have been focused on telling Australia’s stories.

    Also George couldn’t have Been more if a ring choice. Not a good host

    630

  6. 630 needed to be late night, but I really think the new management at Ten is interested in peppy, cheap, and high rating over any content. The best option for current affairs would be for it to be franchised out so that the network accountants would not be concerned about lost profits.

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