Today is down in all markets, it just wasn’t as far ahead in Melbourne as Sydney so with a drop across the board it’s now behind in Melbourne. The problem isn’t restricted to Melbourne, so a Melbourne-specific solution will have a relatively minor effect, though I don’t think it helped spending a week in NSW and QLD taking about drought; that was a real channel-changer. Ditto to where a presenter was born having no bearing on the situation.
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Yeah, I get that although having spent most (if not all) her media career on the East Coast, Georgie Gardner has pretty much become accepted as a Sydneysider over the past couple of decades.
As for Natalia, do they ever mention her links to WA on Today? At least Sunrise makes it well known that Nat is from the West.
I agree.
Of course I can’t say for absolute certain about what happens behind the scenes at TCN, but somehow I get the impression that GG doesn’t see her role on Today all it’s cracked up to be and that she’d probably jump at the opportunity to return to her old position as Friday/Saturday presenter of Nine News Sydney if made available at some point in the future.
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I said exactly the same thing years ago when she hosted Sunrise. A good newsreader but once the format loosened a little, eg longer interviews or chats, she didn’t manage it well or appear comfortable.
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Not suggesting a local Melbourne version, but am suggesting the national version be based in Melbourne
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Interestingly Rob McKnight suggested exactly that on his recent podcast.
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Mmmm. Haven’t listened to it yet, better get on it 
Sylvia is back from holidays tomorrow.
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They won’t do that because their week in Melbourne, from GTV, was when their signifcant fall began (even in Melbourne). They promoted the week heavily, had local presenters and bigger name guests than they usually do and they still lost.
Why are they losing in Melbourne? No Lisa.
Hopefully when they move to Barangaroo Today will get a fish-bowl studio.
There is a lot of material on Youtube that shows her wit, sass and chemistry with ALL of the team. I just think she is only co-host now for the $$$.
Today started to lose in Melbourne when the show became more Queensland-focused ( with the addition of Sylvia). Really it is no surprise that Today’s number 1 market on Friday was Brisbane.
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Nine is actually moving to North Sydney, not across the harbour.
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Yes. Neil Breen had plans to move the show over to Barangaroo in 2013. Got my wires crossed.
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But where did they lose the audience from, was it Victoria or Sydney?..wouldn’t surprise me if it was Sydney (but I admit to not knowing and can’t remember which week it was to look back at)
And it comes to a point where you have to try something, or nothing will improve
Massive drop in Sydney but still lost in Melbourne that week:
True. I am surprised that we are almost in September and they have not changed a thing.
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Huh? But he’s strongly identified with Melbourne now, and that’s what matters.
They definitely need to boost their appeal in the southern/AFL states and they can do that with having a sports presenter that actually knows something about AFL, talk about AFL more, and use channel nine personalities tied to AFL more - eg Pav in Perth, and just about everyone in GTV.
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Thanks…that’s where I should have looked
Change doesn’t come quick always…look at Ten News @ 5 in Melbourne…sometimes you gotta go down before coming back up.
The drop in Melbourne reflects the drop nationally. Today’s ratings problems need to be addressed on a national basis whether it is presenters, content, studio and/or graphics. Tailoring a solution to some perceived Melbourne-based problem isn’t a solution to the problems everywhere else and could potentially alienate other markets.
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Exactly. Sydney & Brisbane are Nine’s strongest rating metro markets the last I checked, so whatever they do to boost the viewing figures for Today down South needs to be done in a way that won’t completely ailenate those up North.
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Uh, no. Melbourne is a Nine town, apart from the AFL. The Block, news, ACA, most shows - they rate better in Melbourne than Sydney
How is it a Nine town when half of the shows you listed rate high… the news is the only dominance, which does not mean Melbourne is a Nine town.
According to this, last year Nine’s main channel got a considerably higher percentage of the audience between 6pm and midnight in Sydney & Brisbane than they did in Melbourne where they were barely ahead of Seven.
Now admittedly I’m not sure how they’re doing this year (although I’d guess the gap is considerably closer due to things like GC2018, the decline in Ninja Warrior, etc.) but I stand by my point. Nine definitely should do what they can to improve the Melbourne ratings of Today, but not at the expense of Sydney & Brisbane.
Aside from differences in things like the football, just about every program on every network gets higher numbers in Melbourne than Sydney from what I’ve seen.
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I think they just need to a quick swap of Georgie & Deb’s roles on Nine. As great as everyone thought it would be, it just hasn’t worked with Georgie in the chair. She clearly can’t stand anyone on that team and doesn’t want to be there.
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