Wow - Finally. Someone on Mediaspy with a brain of his own and doesn’t feel the need to follow the band wagon and regurgitate the same negative thing about Ferguson day in and out.
I 100% agree with every part of your comment about Ferguson.
He doesnt’t have the same typical and rehearsed ‘news man’ style all the others have. He does come across as a calm and quiet reader.
There is nothing wrong with him as a newsreader. He’s just different in his style.
Society can’t embrace difference. Embrace Fergo people. It’s not as painful as you all cry out.
I completely agree…provided that the quality of the journalism (surely even the biggest Seven News Sydney fans would have to agree it isn’t great at the moment?) was substantially improved, of course.
Didn’t Seven News Melbourne with Peter Mitchell win the ratings each year from 2007 to 2011?
Since when did Fergo present the news on Ten? I must’ve missed his career there!
I know you and TFTV will disagree with me on this but personally I find Mark Ferguson’s newsreading style rather awkward compared to Michael Usher and most of the newsreaders on the other channels here in Sydney/NSW.
Pretty sure he won the ratings from about 2007-2012. At least five or six years. But that was because of the overall package. The set, theme, everything 7 did well from between 2005 until 2010.
The 2012 ratings year was won by Nine News in Melbourne. It was a domino effect. Nine won Sydney at the conclusion of the 2011 ratings year, Melbourne was claimed by Nine at the end of 2012, and Brisbane was very narrowly claimed by Nine at the end of 2013.
I’m sure Mark Ferguson isn’t a bad person by any means, but as the newsreader, the ratings have showed that most people who live in Sydney can’t and won’t embrace ‘Fergo’.
I was a huge Seven News Sydney fan in 2014/15 (and I probably would of been for a while if I got into media/news earlier!) but it started to die down since Bath was demoted! Stupid decision… I do agree it’s almost Sexist… they only female News readers who are still presenting on Weeknights in Sydney is Sandra Sully & Juanita Phillips.
Everyone talks about Chris Bath, but I reckon Melissa Doyle also should’ve been given more promotion/support by Seven. A pity that she only got to read the news on Friday/Saturday nights for about a year (and was sometimes pushed out by the “Mark Alert” button particularly in the later part of 2015) or maybe even less!
Phillips, Ferguson, Overton, Sully: Of the major weeknight newsreaders in Sydney/NSW, that’s a 50/50 split across the networks. Even at Seven/Nine News Sydney, there’s still some fairly prominent female presenters albeit not as the main newsreader on weeknights (or Sunday/Thursday as the networks seem to be leaning towards in Sydney these days).
Where I think it’s really bad (especially for a city that’s in many ways, probably the most progressive of the five biggest markets) is Melbourne where not a single one of their weeknight newsreaders is female! Fair enough, the Peters have been there for over 40 years and Ian Henderson is a longtime newsreader on the ABC but Ten really should’ve gone for a female newsreader for Melbourne after Mal Walden retired!
Just a thought. I wonder why Mark Ferguson is back on Monday and not today? Are Seven News Sydney reverting back to Monday to Friday and Sat/Sun presenting?
Mark has typically returned from his holidays on Mondays in the past, probably because Monday is an actual workday and they don’t want him returning on a weekend when less people watch
It’s probably best to wait and see who presents the news next Friday night (January 19) before saying whether or not Seven News Sydney have reverted back to the “traditional” weeknight & weekend presenter rosters.
