I suspect it is too much effort to use the couch particularly when they’re stretched so thin with Brisbane as well and, yes, perhaps too informal for the flagship (only) bulletin.
The entire space is under utilised unfortunately… it is a great space for the lack of news production from 10 and they probably had grander plans when they first launched the set, before all the budget cuts… if they were doing early, morning or late news I reckon interviews from the couch would work really well… but bare bones 10 these days, they probably do well just to get to air what they do.
The were 2 segments in the middle of the bulletin from Sydney notable because of a traffic report. It seemed to be a playout error because at least one of the ads in the break was for Sydney as well. the rest was Brisbane. Brisbane got the same opening story as Sydney (as seen above) but after that it differed.
The angles they have been using recently just seem OTT.
They should go back to the angles they first used when the set launched in 2019. It looked amazing back then.
There was a major technical meltdown towards the end of the Sydney bulletin last night that wasn’t rectified in time for Brissy. The servers, the ENPS, the autocue… you name it. Nightmare stuff. One of those bad gremlin nights that every network has had.
I think the fact a title card and a traffic report were the only main give aways is a credit to our control & studio teams who were up against it to ensure it didn’t go to black.
And re ratings… let’s not jump the gun on assumptions. The ratings last night were higher than the corresponding Thursday last year in Brissy. (77k last night vs 65k on January 9 - 67k on January 2)
Just some context.
It certainly was what it was, and I think the fact that no one noticed here until I pointed it out proves that it wasn’t a massive issue - especially since falling over to Sydney’s news would ALWAYS have been the back up plan, better than black to air.
It was a big news night though- US riot, storms and the announcement of the first COVID community transmission case in +100 days. Actually, off the top of my head, I’d say last night would be in the top 5 highest results (if not the highest) since the centralisation.
Ratings are down though since the change.
To date, the weekly average is 68k. It was 75k Mon-Thur in week 2 in 2020.
Bit a big issues in the bigger context but in reality they should just present from Brisbane if they were a real network. They’re rubbish at this stage.
All markets and all networks up except Adelaide and Brisbane which have easily had the worse options given to them, not a shock. They shouldn’t have axed the presenters, they should’ve moved the bulletin to where more eyes would be on it, and grow the news division.
