But nowadays.. they replaced the ‘Mark Alert’ with the ‘Musher Must Present This Even Though the Main 6PM Anchor Is Here’… Yet again, People says that Ferguson isn’t good, but the thing is… It all kicked off when Chris Bath took over from Ian Ross. Peter Overton also didn’t win his first year in the 6PM Chair
I think you need to take you Fergo-tinted glasses off for just a moment. As people have said time and time again on this forum, he has not won a ratings year. We aren’t talking about someone who just took over the role, he has had the position for a very long time and has not produced results. Internal polling of viewers might say that he is their favourite, but to win you need to be pulling viewers from the competition and he just isn’t doing that.
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I think even if they reduce Ange too it is bizzarre. They’re both either good enough for the five flagship biggest nights of the week or not. There is no in between.
Doubt Fergo will take it well. Reminder he left 9 after being demoted to the weekends.
It isn’t like Usher has had a huge uptick in ratings on the weekend either despite toiling away at it for a few years now. Suspect 7 realise that and are too scared to make him Sunday - Thursday at the risk of burning another presenter when it inevitably doesn’t pan out.
After 10 years, it is clear Fergo has not been able to make the inroads 7 would have wanted. Ratings were stable for many years, albeit in second position, but have now plummeted. The changes at 7 now need to go deeper than the presenters.
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They are coming third behind the ABC on some occasions already.
I don’t think we give TCN-9 its overall due credit sometimes, in that they’ve had NRL rights for decades and are the legacy station in the market. Many viewers would associate them as ‘Sydney’. And the impact such can pull.
I suggest ATN-7 and others have always had the uphill battle. Purely nightly news and presenter aside. They managed to turn things around and do very well in the 2000s and for a portion of the 2010s, but that was about it, apart from a year or two here and there across other history.
In the same way one could argue HSV-7 have had advantages in Melbourne, even while ATN struggled after 2010 in news Melbourne hadn’t had it to the same degree nor each year (HSV managed to be in front in 2011, 2022 and 2023).
Well Michael Usher was working 5 days a week when he was doing The Latest. So presumably unless his pay dropped, he has been under-utilised. Therefore Mark dropping 1 night and 20% off his pay, is a clear cost saving measure.
They probably wouldn’t get the same benefit by dropping Ange down to 4 days.
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There is no logic to the salary of these presenters. Most of them work about four hours a day and get hundreds of thousands of dollars for it. They do not get paid for their hours at work, but for the rating numbers they draw in.
Any line about finding efficiencies is just a cover for what is really happening, being the bosses want someone else on air to try boost ratings.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see in coming weeks to see what the new line up will be for Sydney’s News.
I’m still in two minds of having a duo presentation for the news in the future. For some reason, it worked with Michael Usher and Angela Cox. But oddly, not so much with Mark Ferguson and Cox - as she has become more animated with the “banter” while he would just smile and continue with the autocue (which i prefer).
Is Angie Asimus and Usher duo still going to continue in the new year?
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Practically, while Nine may have won the ratings for the last 10 years.. Ferguson & Overton have two different presenting styles. Overton goes for a more warm welcoming feel while Ferguson goes with the autocue. I know most of the people on this Forum prefer Overtons style. Others (like me) prefer the reader sticking to the script. The addition of Angela Cox has made no difference either. Theoretically.. Seven could go back to a solo reader on Weekdays & Weekends. The chaos with the weather presenter roster got confusing when Angie Asimus joined Michael Usher on Weekends.
I’ll be honest, Once Angie Asimus got paired with Michael Usher on Weekends, I stopped watching 7NEWS on Fri-Sat, and went with Nine. I’ll admit it, even though I seem like a Ferguson fanatic.. I do give Nine a chance. The weird thing with the Angela & Mark pairing is, Ange is just too over the top, way to animated compaired to being with Michael. Exact reason I’ve enjoyed Ferguson being solo for the last month.
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Ironically, While Ferguson HAS been there for 10 years and hasn’t won any ratings. Nine has been struggling in Perth for decades under multiple different presenters, and have only seen a difference recently. Same thing is happening in Brisbane, Seven has been struggling in Queensland ever since Rod Young & Kay McGrath were shifted to weekends in 2013. Peter Mitchell mind you has barely been winning in Melbourne, Mainly coming 2nd.
It’s not just Sydney.. the entire network is coming 2nd (bar Tasmania, Adelaide & Perth). This is mainly caused because of the lead in. While I do like the chase.. it hasn’t been winning ever since Tipping Point arrived. An added bonus; Sydney struggles due to poor lead ins with the AFL on some nights, Due to NSW & QLD mainly being a NRL State. And due to the fact that Nine has Tipping Point & the NRL Rights. They always end up on top.
There, I’ve taken off my ‘Fergo-Tinted’ glasses
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And yet despite the AFL, Nine have won 2025 in Melbourne and despite a few brief blips have won most years in Melbourne over the last two decades.
The sports rights help but they aren’t the smoking gun for news ratings that some make them out to be.
Nine only ever get a league lead in one night a week for half the year. Rest of the games are on Fox or occur later in the night.
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I reckon if an AFL match that Seven is showing becomes a blowout, or finishes very early or very late, it would make the viewers switch to Nine.
It is also worth noting that while the Sunday afternoon matches were pushed back by an hour (therefore allowing HSV-7 to air them live, as opposed to a one-hour delay as was the case between 2007-11) in 2012, Seven News did not win a single week in the Melbourne market until 2016.
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I think 7 won during Covid 2021? Definitely 2022 & 2023 (dominated 2023) but after the 9news switch from Hitch to the 2 readers they started winning and won 2024 & dominated 2025
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Seven News won 37/40 ratings weeks in Melbourne that year, but losing the final week was a sign of things to come.
Previously, its best result was 34/40 weeks in 2009 (that year, the six weeks Nine News won in Melbourne were the only weeks they won anywhere in the country; further, in 2008, Nine News also did not win any weeks outside Melbourne).
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I think it all started with the announcement that Hitch was leaving week days and it started to get more people watching 9 etc
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Now imagine if Seven made a similar announcement and (let’s say they) promoted Mike/Karina to weeknights, with Mitch moving to weekends, would it get more people to switch to Seven, or would they not care as much?
We’ve seen Nine News in Melbourne adapt well to change, when Hitch took over from Brian Naylor at the end of 1998 - if anything, their ratings only continued to go from strength to strength until Seven started challenging them more seriously in the mid-noughties.
I think it was a combination of Tipping Point starting as well because I can’t think of any reason why the change in ratings resulted in 9 to go from winning 3 weeks to getting a comprehensive win (lost only about 5 weeks) in less than 12 months and now after 24 months, they completely turned it around and haven’t lost a week
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Lead in in my view has little to do with it I’m not convinced. People have remote controls and will flick over to Seven if that is their preference. They made some very silly decisions at Seven which has more likely contributed to the ratings rather than Tipping Point. But yes Tipping Point contributed but it’s contribution in my opinion is less than you would think.
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God, please no!! Even though Mitch has become very shouty with horrible rising inflections (which he never used to have), Karina’s vocal fry, inability to change her style between different stories and lack of warmth is even worse.
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Monday December 22, 2025: Angie Asimus reading Sydney’s 6pm news. Chris Reason presenting the 4pm news.
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