Two nights in a row, 7 News Brisbane beats 9 in both half hours. 
âŚand in Sydney last night, Seven barely got numbers over 200k during the first half before slipping under 200k at 6.30pm. In contrast, Nine News Sydney had numbers North of 300k during both halves. Sure, weâre taking about a Friday night but unacceptable numbers for mid-May IMO.
Clearly something needs to be done about Sevenâs Sydney 6pm sooner rather than later. My first suggestion: Ditch the very Western suburbs-centric content and program the bulletin to the entire Sydney metro area, just like the other networks do. Also make the content a bit less sensationalist generally.
Second suggestion, give Mark Ferguson another six months. If the ratings improve by the end of November, keep him on. If they remain steady or decrease during that time, a new main newsreader for Seven News Sydney in 2017 should seriously be considered. Thoughts?
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Wouldnât Fridayâs ratings be a reflection of the newsreader on that day?
Would that be because Rod and Kay are presenting?
Last night, Melissa Doyle was presenting Seven News Sydney while Georgie Gardner was presenting Nine News Sydney. From my general observations, the presenting styles of both Mel and GG are fairly similar. As we all know, both presenters have had reasonably long careers at their current networks.
Broadly though, I think that the success of Nine on Friday and Saturday nights might have something to do with the fact that Georgie Gardner has been Nine Sydneyâs Friday/Saturday newsreader on for a number of years (since 2009-10âŚI think) now while Melissa Doyle has only been Seven Sydneyâs Friday/Saturday newsreader for about nine or ten months.
Also, the popularity of newsreaders certainly isnât something thatâs always reflected in the ratings. To give you an example, there was a survey a couple of years ago asking viewers what they thought about a number of commercial network newsreaders in various markets. In that survey, Sandra Sully was quite popular amongst those surveyed despite Ten Sydneyâs 5pm bulletin usually rating fairly average while Peter Overton who presents Nine Sydneyâs 6pm bulletin which frequently tops the ratings didnât fare that well amongst the Sydney (or was it NSW/ACT?) viewers surveyed.
As far as I can tell, both Sharyn & Bill were presenting Seven News Queensland the last two nightsâŚ
[quote=âNewsKing, post:1229, topic:103, full:trueâ]
Would that be because Rod and Kay are presenting?
[/quote] Unfortunately, as far as I am aware (I never watch even 1 second of Seven News Brisbane during the week) both Bill and Sharyn were anchoring both Thursday and Friday nights.[quote=âSydneyCityTV, post:1227, topic:103â]
Clearly something needs to be done about Sevenâs Sydney 6pm sooner rather than later. My first suggestion: Ditch the very Western suburbs-centric content and ⌠make the content a bit less sensationalist generally.
Second suggestion, give Mark Ferguson another six months. âŚa new main newsreader for Seven News Sydney in 2017 should seriously be consideredâŚ
[/quote] Completely agree. Obviously, I am oblivious to the full content of any Sydney bulletin but I have noticed even from promos and OBs that Seven News focuses on western Sydney. Is that an important area of NSW, will it bring them stronger numbers? If so, maybe that could/is a point of difference.
And about the anchor- Mark Ferguson- I completely agree. When Macpherson returned to Seven, he said he would look at improving the Sydney bulletin (which IMO he has done to a certain extent) but believed removing Mark would provide too many inconsistencies. Although he has replaced everyone but the problem, is all but ridiculous. @SydneyCityTV I am not going to be as lenient. We on MS have said for 2 years, give Mark 6 months- give him until November, January, June to improve. But guess what he hasnât. If they want to keep Mark, I suspect only to prove a point, then the least they can do is get Melissa Doyle to become his co-anchor, effective immediately, in the hope he may loosen or even straighten up (at least do something). As I have said prior, I would say Chris Reason AND Melissa Doyle as a double header is Seven News Sydneyâs best option using current staff. And if I were them I would make that happen in the next 18 months- max. [quote=âSydneyCityTV, post:1230, topic:103â]
From my general observations, the presenting styles of both Mel and GG are fairly similar.
[/quote] Absolutely. They have very similar presenting styles (making them ideal for breakfast)- characteristics I would compare with Ian Ross. They both go for a more compassionate and compelling style compared to being sharp and to the point. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, in fact I prefer it.
[quote=âSydneyCityTV, post:1230, topic:103â]
Broadly though, I think that the success of Nine ⌠might have something to do with the fact that Georgie Gardner has been Nine Sydneyâs Friday/Saturday newsreader ⌠since 2009⌠while Melissa Doyle has only been Seven Sydneyâs Friday/Saturday newsreader for about nine or ten months.
[/quote] I think that is a main factor but there are others. When you think about, even in the last nine or ten months, Georgie has filled-in the âmainâ chair much more often than Mel has for Fergo ( IIRC, Reaso fills in for Mark more than Mel). Another factor I think is that Mel not long left Sunrise when she got the role. Although I disagree, many people would have a negative perception of her. Or, like if I was in Sydney, people simply prefer Georgie herself over Mel, IMO the presenters are one of the top influences on what viewers watch.
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Reason rates worse than Ferguson. He is not the answer.
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âŚand besides, history shows that double header bulletins have never rated well for Seven News in Sydney. Unless Seven give Sydney a really good duo of news presenters to read the 6pm news (something that didnât happen with previous experiments with dual newsreaders), I can see the format not working again.
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Ten deliver an excellent new package and Seven churn up more of the same crap 
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I wish there was a way to distinguish between liking a post and liking the contents of that post!
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If anyone working at Seven News Sydney is reading, donât get any ideas from these caps! 
That should be Seven Newsâs new colour schemeâŚred and silver/light grey. They need to move away from the blue to help distinguish themselves from every other news service in the country!!
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Do they seriously flash that over the entire screen?
Ridiculous. Dopey news for dopey people.
Seven News Sydney will be broadcasting live from the âGo West Awardsâ in Bankstown tonight, most likely just because Mark Ferguson and Mel McLaughlin are attending. Not sure if the article was online, but there was something about it in todayâs edition of The Daily Telegraph.
Geez they are hellbent on âThe Westâ arenât they⌠
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Well, Seven News Sydney is perhaps the only metropolitan news bulletin in all of Australia that is skewed towards a particular part of a city as opposed to a whole city.
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I apologise for saying that Mark & Mel were at Bankstown for the âChampions of the Westâ Awards earlier when they were actually there for the âGo Westâ Awards. Although itâs pretty much all the same except with a different name anyway, isnât it?
Anyway for those who missed it, hereâs some caps of the OB because I figured that someone on here has got to take one for the team:
Basically it was just Mark presenting in front of an obvious green screened backdrop, with crosses to Mark Riley and Mel McLaughlin for Sport pretty much being all that was seen of the location. Nothing much else to report, reallyâŚ
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At least there was no wide shot showing the green screen this year!
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[quote=âSydneyCityTV, post:1243, topic:103â]
hereâs some caps of the OB because I figured that someone on here has got to take one for the teamâŚBasically it was just Mark presenting in front of an obvious green screened backdropâŚ
[/quote] Has he done something like this before, around an election (did a Talitha Cummins moment there in my head 
) ? [quote=âeddel, post:1244, topic:103â]
At least there was no wide shot showing the green screen this year!
[/quote] Remember this. How stupid can someone be? Seriously⌠(well it is Seven News Sydney!).
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