Whilst I too do not believe where a presenter comes from can determine the shows ratings. I do believe a big factor for ratings of a breakfast TV show is the amount of local content that is relevant to them. The introduction of Perth News for instance on both Sunrise and Today seems to have balance the local news correctly.
If we were to compare this prior to Perth news being introduced, it would be rare for news from WA to be on national TV. So if Today wanted to work on ratings which i’m sure they do, they need an even balance from every state including regional areas.
Toowoomba has been closed for ages, longer than Maroochydore studios closing and the bulletins being moved to Woolongong. Regardless Lincoln would be an interesting choice, don’t think he would be in the relm of being considered for a national hosting gig. Whilst I don’t mind his presenting skills, I think he’s got a few more years left at Win before possibly moving to one of the commercial metro networks.
Just going through some old clips and realized the show could be rating bad cause they just don’t have fun anymore. They used to have lots of banter and challenges but now its just read news, segment, segment, segment, read news, sport, any sort of banter is shut down.
edit: and I feel it has a lot to do with sites like Dailymail or youth media who get offended over everything now and overreact and it becomes a big thing in a negative way instead of a positive/joke one like it used to… meaning the show is probably scared to be risky now.
I agree. There needs to be a much bigger focus on Australian news, not just Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne news.
Plenty of major stories worthy of Today happen in regional areas and yet these are seldom covered, even though they’ve got reporters in a lot of these regions now, that they could cross live to.
We often have major news here in Townsville that never rates a mention. We’re a large enough city to be placed on the national weather map, but not to ever include major news from!
I tune in and all I see is Sydney, Sydney, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane.
Most of the regional reporters would struggle to make it through a live cross, nine has to protect the brand. If they let any other regional reporter mumble, and stutter the way though a live cross they will loose credibility. The other day a North Queensland local reporter did a live cross into the 7am today snow news and it was the most awkward pointless, repetitive cross ever and struggled to string sentences together. Thats why nine doesn’t often use local reporters.
If regional reporters mumbling and struggling through a live cross is such a big issue for Nine, then why not get them doing a few test/practice live crosses (which obviously wouldn’t go to air) before throwing them in the deep end on metropolitan/national news programs? Many of these regional reporters are likely hoping to eventually move onto bigger and better things, so you’ve got to allow them to build some experience in their current positions through live crosses if they’re to ever have a chance of making it in any metropolitan TV market.
Aside from that, I agree with @NQCQTV2 by saying that significant regional stories (and as a result, their reporters) worthy of national coverage deserve airtime on Today for the same reason interesting news from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Canberra does. Do we really need to see even more cases of Nine Sydney reporters travelling to Regional NSW (sorry, but snow in the Central West or a vicious dog attack in Newcastle is not big enough news to send a TCN reporter over for) to cover relatively minor news stories that would probably be covered just as good if not better by Nine regional/NBN reporters? I think not!
I’ve no doubt they would have been trained, but there’s a lot of difference when you know it’s not going to ever air compared to knowing it’s live across the country.
The nine local reporters are local reporters. They should be happy that they get the off-chance to do a live cross. Most local reporters (prime, win etc) could never dream of that. We shouldn’t forget that some of these reporters are a few years out of uni, some are still in uni and live crosses would be very difficult. Try doing a live report across the country down a barrel with no autocue. It’s hard. Also local reporters are very very green in most cases, having an experienced story teller with a proper on-air voice from a metro market or TCN is required on most cases.
TCN reporters get sent to any story that the news director deems big enough. That how nine works, it even applies to Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Sunday Tele story (paywall) Karl Stefanovic, pictured with co-host Georgie Gardner, will “likely” be replaced next year, top-level sources have revealed to The Sunday Telegraph.
according to others close to the situation, may also see Today executive producer Mark Calvert bumped from his job in favour of an “engine room makeover”.
Nine chief Hugh Marks tipped to move Stefanovic on this week — a move which one insider says has been on the agenda for several weeks.
Today Extra host David Campbell said to be at the top of a list that also includes Today fill-in host Ben Fordham and Adelaide outsider Brenton Ragless.
