Ten's Early Evening Woes

For the ratings it is getting and the cost of Feud, it would be cheaper for ten do a re-hashed news service at 6 and get 300k. The 300k Feud gets with its massive production cost surely isn’t worth it. Its a shame because I’ve always liked the format.

You want two and half hours of news every evening?

I said 90mins

Followed by another hour with The Project.

The Project is entertainment and current affairs. It’s not what ‘we want’ it’s what rates well enough in that timeslot.

If I were programming, and if no contract stopped me from doing so, I’d shift Neighbours to 6pm on Ten. It’d do better than it’s doing on 11, and probably better than the Feud. Worth a shot.

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If you’re going to do that, you may as well move it to 6:30pm because The Project 6.30pm is also rating poorly with no chance for improvement.

If I Could Turn Back Time. :microphone: :joy:

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Just trying to save ten some money. What is more cost effective. If they are happy with 300k at 6 why not make it cheap instead of wasting money on the feud.

Yes, but it’s lead-in is awful and it builds. Feud loses audience from the news.

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Is news really cheaper than Family Feud?

Not really but rehashing a 30min version of what just went to air at 5pm is cheaper. No new reports. Just select the key reports from the day. Same presenters and same studio crew. It isn’t ideal but ten seem to be happy with 300k at 6pm so why not make it cheaper. I know I have explained it poorly but you get my drift.

Wasn’t their attempt to do exactly that a few years ago an absolute flop? People just switched over to Nine and Seven at 6pm and Ten had less viewers than when they provided alternative programming.

Yes, much cheaper.

Adding extra news bulletins to an already operating news infrastructure only adds incremental costs. Every half hour you add get cheaper and cheaper. (Which is exactly why 7 and 9 keep adding and adding)

The cost is not in the studio crew and staff producing 30 minutes of live news at 6. The cost is in running 5 newsrooms and the staff and infrastructure that go along with that. And that already exists.

And at 6 - the crew just stay there from 5. It really is very cost effective. The reporters on scene stay for live crosses.

The costs of producing an entirely separate show (Feud) would be double to triple to quadruple that of adding extra news at 6. Especially the massive licensing fees Ten would be paying the US for FF.

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Yep - it was getting about 500k - 200k more than FF now! Oh if only they could wind back the clocks…

Hmm. I have my doubts. That might have been a rare few times. It probably would have survived if it actually was getting 500,000. Wasn’t that also when Nine News and Seven News were regularly getting anything between 1.3m and 1.6m? :wink:

These are the headlines when it screened at 6.30pm:

Ratings didn’t improve much after Negus moved to 6.30pm and the Early News was extended to 90 minutes. Negus was axed a few months later and the extended news was gone by the end of the year.

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Didn’t Ten also briefly brand their additional 30 minutes of news as “Ten News at Six” for a while in Late 2011/Early 2012? I seem to recall it being complete with it’s own titlecard, Tim Bailey doing a “…and now it’s time for the News At Six” segue after Sydney’s 5pm weather and all the rest.

In any case, I’m pretty sure that “experiment” with 90 minute news ended by the time that Breakfast was launched. Although if Ten were to eventually move away from local news as per the recent rumours, I certainly wouldn’t put it past Seven or Nine to introduce their own local news bulletins during the 5pm hour!

I thought we agreed that The Big Music Quiz bombed

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Would have been 2011. They tried all sorts of things including a separate 15 minute Sports Tonight segment within the news, after they axed that show and a 90 minute weekend bulletin.

It would be like the time Ten moved their weekend bulletin to 6pm and Seeven and Nine pounced in with a 5pm bulletin.

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Ahh yes, now you mention it I do remember when they had “Ten News Toyota Sports Tonight” segments during the news (presumably to honour the sponsorship contract) and a vox pops-heavy segment called “Sydney Soapbox” which was widely criticised on Media Spy at the time!

But at least Ten were trying different things to try and get people watching their news back then. Things have been pretty stagnant for the past 2-3 years, from what I’ve seen anyway.

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