I agree with you here. The addition of Angela Cox hasn’t changed anything.. If there was one change they should’ve done is, bump Mel McLaughlin off Weeknight sport. The banter is only awkward because Mel tries too hard at the banter, whilst Ferguson just wants the bulletin to flow smoothly. The only thing that changed with the addition of Angela Cox is the fact that Ferguson has slightly changed his presenting style.. Adding a bit more personality. Definitely an improvement over Day 1, with awkward banter & seconds of dead silence. Either way, 2026 is the year to put Fergo solo & Musher solo as well.. Solves the awful Weather presenter roster
What they also found is when Mark had the extended time off the ratings didn’t improve at all which I think surprised Seven management. But they should go back to having just Mark host. Sure they won’t beat Overton with Ferguson but there is no reason why Usher would rate higher than Fergo and its best to keep the line up consistent.
AFAIK Nine has been the number one network in Sydney for over a decade and Seven has barely won a week in that market outside of the Olympics (2021), Comm Games (2022) or the FIFA Women’s World Cup (2023).
Of course it doesn’t help Seven that Nine has been the domestic rugby league rights holder since 1992 and there’s also the loyalty factor to consider as well, among other factors.
Kinda ironic considering only Western Sydney watches him. Maybe a few Eastern Suburb residents watch Seven. But Nine mainly has got the Eastern Suburbs secured in the ratings. Sorta like Seven in Perth but on a smaller scale.
I see where you’re coming from here. Either way, Nine always end up as no.1 in Sydney. Seven ends up being no.2. Entire reason Nine is winning is because of the NRL Rights, Tipping Point, and bloody Peter Over (Exaggerating) ton
It’s not merely a short-term problem though. Seven News Sydney has lost out to Nine for nearly 15 years now and to be frank, they haven’t really tried much to turn that tide.
For a starter, putting Chris Bath in the weeknight 6pm chair started the whole chaos. Everyone blames Ferguson for loosing to Nine. But it began ever since the late Roscoe retired
People should also remember Peter Overton didn’t win a single week in his first year at the helm (2009), which coincided with Roscoe’s final year at the helm of Seven News, and Nine copped a lot of criticism at the time for their snap decision to just parachute him into the hot seat after a year in which they were a distant second (or maybe even third) behind ATN’s news.
But I also think TCN were also preparing for Roscoe’s inevitable retirement at the end of 2009, with the expectation that their news numbers would start to increase, which it did.
Take for instance the week starting 30/11/2009 (after Roscoe retired) - Seven News in Sydney started that week with a near-100K win but by mid-week, Nine News scored a win by 14K.
