They got the time right!
1 Like
This is great product that Ten have.
It needs to revert back to 5 nights a week though.
8 Likes
Such a good idea. Such a shame that it is deer in headlights TV telling us results that happened hours ago.
Should be more Mark Howard doing interviews from the US, less of Josh Gibson struggling to read an autocue when asking rugby players pointless questions. Understand what they’re trying to do, and good on them for trying something “different”, but I don’t see this being successful in the long run.
1 Like
6 Likes
Doesn’t the News tell us the news that happened earlier also?
And don’t the Sunday morning Sports Shows (Offsiders; Sports Sunday and the AFL/NRL Sunday Footy Shows) tell us the scored from the previous night too? Isn’t Sports Tonight the same?
I agree that at least the show is trying to do something different. And kudos for Ten for giving the show a chance after 8 years off air.
5 Likes
And I don’t watch any of those… Yes, very similar but they’re also morning fodder not prime time audience shredders.
Imagine a sports show that could tell the final scores hours before the game starts! 
1 Like
If ST continues to be successful (does anybody have ratings?), I’m sure Ten would consider expanding to weeknights, maybe not every weeknight, but at least some.
Without quoting exact figures, the first two episodes of Sports Tonight were outside the Top 20 with ratings I wouldn’t exactly call successful (despite Week 2 being an improvement on Week 1) knowing that the program currently has the benefit of MasterChef as a lead-in program.
TEN need to try new things…
Oh yuck this new thing sucks.
Sigh.
3 Likes
Still needs time to build in I think. They’ll stick with it. Although I don’t watch it, It’s good to see it back.
Let’s not forget a certain OTT platform launching soon. The US version has CBS Sports HQ 24/7. Sports Tonight fits perfectly within that world.
2 Likes
I think the overall the general reception here has been positive.
Yeah…I don’t really want to see Sports Tonight fail myself and good on Ten for having a go, but I do think the network would have to be rather disappointed at how the program has been performing in the ratings so far.
A better, more consistent timeslot probably wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
4 Likes
The brand is also being seriously underutilized at the moment imo, it needs to be more provident on the Network than just on one weekly 9:15 timeslot. Expand the “ST News” updates into a nightly thing across the Network, covering World Sports than just the National stuff as a point of difference.
It’s early days, but I’m enjoying the new Sports Tonight revival and hope it continues to win audiences, both old and new, but they need to promote it more, we only hear of it on the occasional Ad on weekdays, not even a mention during the Sports on the News. (“Sports Tonight is back, exclusive story/report you can only see on ST this Sunday”,etc) 
3 Likes
Has Sports Tonight’s ratings stayed about the same or dropped/ risen since it launched or too early to say?
It takes time to re-build ratings, so far so good, it’s their version of “destination” programming and as such will find a loyal audience and then the casual audience will follow, staying the course is all CBS Ten have to do right now.
As for making weeknights, no, it’s not ready yet, the better way forward is 3 nights a week, so let’s say Tuesday and Thursday night as 1/2 hour block and Sunday night premium 1 hour.
Tuesday night from 10:30pm and 1/2 hour block, all you would need is Matthew White doing news on AFl, NRL, and Union + Supercars (as that is TEN main sport broadcasts) = do a short form story and the play of the day, the same for Thursday night where you can have reviews of any sport played that night, do a Friday night new story about the games being played, Union & Supercars story + a short form story + play of the day and then have Sunday as the destination premium flagship with 3 hosts.
It’s a pretty simply formula to follow and will; draw advertisers to them which is based on building a solid core loyal audience.
1 Like
Maybe a Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday approach. Gives it three nights where it doesn’t compete against Fox Sports News’ Bill & Boz.
1 Like
Baby steps… they’ve got to rebuild a brand that they abandoned first!
I have no doubt this will eventually appear more than weekly.
2 Likes