Sunday Night
Channel 7 have made a bold move this year in creating the new Current Affairs program 'Sunday Night'. In an area that used to be dominated by Channel Nine with '60 Minutes', 'Sunday' and 'A Current Affair' - there is a lost audience ripe for the taking.
Channel 7 have tried to tackle Nine in this area before, back in 1995 they poached Jana Wendt from Nine and created 'Witness' - a new flagship current affairs program. It had some great ingredients, a well known and respected anchor, a respected investigative journalist in Paul Barry and a team of experienced producers and reporters. There were of course some bad ingredients in the recipe, Jana had a huge set that made her look like she was commanding the USS Enterprise and it was on a Thursday night when everyone was out late night shopping. It didn't last long.
So what ingredients have gone into the mix for 'Sunday Night'? Is it set for success or destined for failure? Is it a bold new way of engaging audiences in 2009 or just a rehash of the tried, tired and tested?
Ingredient 1: Great Producers.
All though there are media reports that the co-Executive Producers Adam Boland and Mark Llewellyn have been clashing, it's early days yet and tension can be a great force for creativity and competitiveness. Llewelyn has worked on '60 Minutes' and Boland is responsible for the huge success of the 'Sunrise' program.
Ingredient 2: Respected Presenters
While it's well known that Adam Boland wanted to bring Natalie Barr from Sunrise, the co-host job went to respected newsreader Chris Bath, she's paired up with Mike Munro, whose retirement seems to have lasted less than 12 months, Monique Wright moves over from Sunrise and Walkley award winning journalist Ross Couthcart brings some gravitas to the mix.
Some serious thought has clearly gone into the team but I can't help but notice that they resemble the cast of 'Murphy Brown' quite closely. Hard Hitter, Respected Older Anchor Guy, Investigative Guy and Perky Girl. Murphy, Jim, Frank and Corky - take your places. Joking aside, they look fresh and committed and make the team at '60 Minutes' look very old and dated.
Ingredient 3: A Name
'Sunday Night' is actually quite clever, it steals the heritage of Nine's 'Sunday', while also clearly allowing viewers to know when it's on. The only problem will be if they want to move it to another day.
Ingredient 4: Audience Connection
'Sunrise' works because it's thew visual equivelent of breakfast radio. One of the main reasons 'Sunrise' works so well is it connects with viewers, they are in the studio, emailing, sending sms texts, contributing to phone in polls, and getting their worries added to the Ros Wall. 'Sunrise' would have to be one of the most interactive shows on television in Australia.
'Sunday Night' has an audience in the studio and members of the team out on the ground. It has opportunities for people to call in, email and watch online. While viewers of '60 Minutes will be putting their stamp on their letter to Peter Harvey's mail bag, 'Sunday Night' viewers will already be telling their friends about the live response they got.
After the main broadcast finishes at 7:30pm, the show continues on for another hour on Digtial 7 with "The All In Call a studio based discussion and phone in forum. Mirroring the style of SBS's respected 'Insight' or the ABC's recent success with 'Q&A'.
The real achievement here is at the end of the show I was presented with a choice, stay on Seven and watch 'Border Security' - I always love catching those drug runners - or continue with the Lapthorne story on Digital 7. It was a real choice, and 'head over to one of those other broadcasters' was not an option, Seven had me captured. This may be the first time we're seeing Digital TV and subsiduary channel being used to effect in Australia.
Ingredient 5: Substance
The challenge for 'Sunday Night' is to hit the right tone for the right audience, Sunday night is not Monday morning, it's a more serious time slot for more serious content. Yes it's family viewing at 6:30pm - but the content families are looking for is not more stories about who has the cheaper washing powder or which suburb has the most dodgy real estate agents. Viewers at this time want something deeper, and the real test will be if the stories on 'Sunday Night' are the talk of the water cooler on Monday morning.
The first episode presented a challenge, clearly the team had identifed a big story where they could make a big impact. Walkley award winning journalist Ross Coulthart's investigation into the death of backpacker Britt Lapthorne. His report was sensationally gripping, suggestions that a gang of croation men have been targetting women in Dubrovnik both before and after the disapearance of Lapthorne. They had identikit pictures and witnesses. Suggestions that then suspicious men may be posing as Croation Police, accusations that the Croation police were somewhat inept in their investigation. On top of that Lapthorne's parents were live in the studio giving their first hand account.
This is what would be called EVENT TV. In a time where people, record, download and TIVO television, it has been often predicted that EVENT TV will be the ratings winner. Things you have to watch live as they happen. EVENT TV is the Olympics, Live Sport, Big Announcements. With 'Sunday Night' Channel Seven have created the perfect platform for EVENT TV. Can they fill it with enough events week after week will be the test.
The first episode has had an impact, on Monday Croation police were dismissing the revelations as 'speculations' but on Tuesday they were admitting that the sketches did match police officers in Dubrovnik. News of the Lapthorne case, and in turn new about Channel 7's new show, has been in all Australian newspapers.
Ingredient 6: Timing
It's clear that a lot of throught went into the timing of when the first episode was launched. It's after school has returned, so families are back off holiday, it's in the rating season, and most cleverly it's while the cricket is on. So while Channel 7 can debut their new show, the rival on Channel 9 '60 Minutes' in forced to sit on the bench while Nine honours in committment to cricket.
The show is on at 6:30pm. It get's the lead in from the Channel 7 news, and more importantly hopes to steal away the viewers from '60 Minutes' at 7:30pm. The theory is that after an hour of watching Current affairs on seven, the audience will stay with them rather than watch more current affair on another channel. It''s a move designed to stop channel hopping.
Given the choice of 'Border Security' or 'The All In Call', and then great Australian drama with 'City Homicide' Seven have programmed a nice chain of shows that should hold viewers through out the evening.
Ingredient 7: The Unexpected
And this is what must have presented a huge challenge for the 'Sunday Night' team. While they've lined all their ducks up, perfect timing, great team, interesting content, the one thing that kills EVENT TV occurred. A real event.
Victoria was on fire, the worst natural disaster in Australia ever. The team must have faced a huge decision, should they drop the Lapthorne story and do the fire instead? They've advertised the Lapthorne story a lot though, and people will be tuning in for it, and her parents are in the studio and if they hold the story over for a week it might be underminded by another network.
Yet, they can't ignore the fire, they've promised to be a current affairs program and nothing is more current than something that is happening right now. If this is a current affairs show for the world of Twitter, You Tube and WiFi, it can't be teeling us about today, tonight, it has to be telling us about right now, right now.
So the the obvious path was taken, they did both.
Munro and Wright were out in the field covering the fire, while Bath and Coulthart stayed in the studio. And this created some unusual viewing. To fit it all in they lost the opportunity to tell us what kind of show they were going to be, and who their team was, stories about Coldplay, Jelena Dokic and Lance Armsrong were also dumped.
While Wright's story from the field and live crosses were smooth, all that time on 'Sunrise' showing, Munro seemed uneasy in the field away from the teleprompter. This also left Chris Bath alone in the studio, which also felt a little odd. Although in fairness to Munro and Wright, Mumbrella saw their performances in a different light.
The rating for Sunday Night were good, but hard to judge - Australian were glued to their screens watching the coverage of the Victorian Fires, so the audience was already there. The official OZ-TAM figures have not been widely reported yet as delayed programming and late changing schedules messes them up. It'll be interesting to see how Sunday Night fairs in weeks to come, but at first glance they seem to have the right ingredients in the mix.
Channel 7 have tried to tackle Nine in this area before, back in 1995 they poached Jana Wendt from Nine and created 'Witness' - a new flagship current affairs program. It had some great ingredients, a well known and respected anchor, a respected investigative journalist in Paul Barry and a team of experienced producers and reporters. There were of course some bad ingredients in the recipe, Jana had a huge set that made her look like she was commanding the USS Enterprise and it was on a Thursday night when everyone was out late night shopping. It didn't last long.
So what ingredients have gone into the mix for 'Sunday Night'? Is it set for success or destined for failure? Is it a bold new way of engaging audiences in 2009 or just a rehash of the tried, tired and tested?
Ingredient 1: Great Producers.
All though there are media reports that the co-Executive Producers Adam Boland and Mark Llewellyn have been clashing, it's early days yet and tension can be a great force for creativity and competitiveness. Llewelyn has worked on '60 Minutes' and Boland is responsible for the huge success of the 'Sunrise' program.
Ingredient 2: Respected Presenters
While it's well known that Adam Boland wanted to bring Natalie Barr from Sunrise, the co-host job went to respected newsreader Chris Bath, she's paired up with Mike Munro, whose retirement seems to have lasted less than 12 months, Monique Wright moves over from Sunrise and Walkley award winning journalist Ross Couthcart brings some gravitas to the mix.
Some serious thought has clearly gone into the team but I can't help but notice that they resemble the cast of 'Murphy Brown' quite closely. Hard Hitter, Respected Older Anchor Guy, Investigative Guy and Perky Girl. Murphy, Jim, Frank and Corky - take your places. Joking aside, they look fresh and committed and make the team at '60 Minutes' look very old and dated.
Ingredient 3: A Name
'Sunday Night' is actually quite clever, it steals the heritage of Nine's 'Sunday', while also clearly allowing viewers to know when it's on. The only problem will be if they want to move it to another day.
Ingredient 4: Audience Connection
'Sunrise' works because it's thew visual equivelent of breakfast radio. One of the main reasons 'Sunrise' works so well is it connects with viewers, they are in the studio, emailing, sending sms texts, contributing to phone in polls, and getting their worries added to the Ros Wall. 'Sunrise' would have to be one of the most interactive shows on television in Australia.
'Sunday Night' has an audience in the studio and members of the team out on the ground. It has opportunities for people to call in, email and watch online. While viewers of '60 Minutes will be putting their stamp on their letter to Peter Harvey's mail bag, 'Sunday Night' viewers will already be telling their friends about the live response they got.
After the main broadcast finishes at 7:30pm, the show continues on for another hour on Digtial 7 with "The All In Call a studio based discussion and phone in forum. Mirroring the style of SBS's respected 'Insight' or the ABC's recent success with 'Q&A'.
The real achievement here is at the end of the show I was presented with a choice, stay on Seven and watch 'Border Security' - I always love catching those drug runners - or continue with the Lapthorne story on Digital 7. It was a real choice, and 'head over to one of those other broadcasters' was not an option, Seven had me captured. This may be the first time we're seeing Digital TV and subsiduary channel being used to effect in Australia.
Ingredient 5: Substance
The challenge for 'Sunday Night' is to hit the right tone for the right audience, Sunday night is not Monday morning, it's a more serious time slot for more serious content. Yes it's family viewing at 6:30pm - but the content families are looking for is not more stories about who has the cheaper washing powder or which suburb has the most dodgy real estate agents. Viewers at this time want something deeper, and the real test will be if the stories on 'Sunday Night' are the talk of the water cooler on Monday morning.
The first episode presented a challenge, clearly the team had identifed a big story where they could make a big impact. Walkley award winning journalist Ross Coulthart's investigation into the death of backpacker Britt Lapthorne. His report was sensationally gripping, suggestions that a gang of croation men have been targetting women in Dubrovnik both before and after the disapearance of Lapthorne. They had identikit pictures and witnesses. Suggestions that then suspicious men may be posing as Croation Police, accusations that the Croation police were somewhat inept in their investigation. On top of that Lapthorne's parents were live in the studio giving their first hand account.
This is what would be called EVENT TV. In a time where people, record, download and TIVO television, it has been often predicted that EVENT TV will be the ratings winner. Things you have to watch live as they happen. EVENT TV is the Olympics, Live Sport, Big Announcements. With 'Sunday Night' Channel Seven have created the perfect platform for EVENT TV. Can they fill it with enough events week after week will be the test.
The first episode has had an impact, on Monday Croation police were dismissing the revelations as 'speculations' but on Tuesday they were admitting that the sketches did match police officers in Dubrovnik. News of the Lapthorne case, and in turn new about Channel 7's new show, has been in all Australian newspapers.
Ingredient 6: Timing
It's clear that a lot of throught went into the timing of when the first episode was launched. It's after school has returned, so families are back off holiday, it's in the rating season, and most cleverly it's while the cricket is on. So while Channel 7 can debut their new show, the rival on Channel 9 '60 Minutes' in forced to sit on the bench while Nine honours in committment to cricket.
The show is on at 6:30pm. It get's the lead in from the Channel 7 news, and more importantly hopes to steal away the viewers from '60 Minutes' at 7:30pm. The theory is that after an hour of watching Current affairs on seven, the audience will stay with them rather than watch more current affair on another channel. It''s a move designed to stop channel hopping.
Given the choice of 'Border Security' or 'The All In Call', and then great Australian drama with 'City Homicide' Seven have programmed a nice chain of shows that should hold viewers through out the evening.
Ingredient 7: The Unexpected
And this is what must have presented a huge challenge for the 'Sunday Night' team. While they've lined all their ducks up, perfect timing, great team, interesting content, the one thing that kills EVENT TV occurred. A real event.
Victoria was on fire, the worst natural disaster in Australia ever. The team must have faced a huge decision, should they drop the Lapthorne story and do the fire instead? They've advertised the Lapthorne story a lot though, and people will be tuning in for it, and her parents are in the studio and if they hold the story over for a week it might be underminded by another network.
Yet, they can't ignore the fire, they've promised to be a current affairs program and nothing is more current than something that is happening right now. If this is a current affairs show for the world of Twitter, You Tube and WiFi, it can't be teeling us about today, tonight, it has to be telling us about right now, right now.
So the the obvious path was taken, they did both.
Munro and Wright were out in the field covering the fire, while Bath and Coulthart stayed in the studio. And this created some unusual viewing. To fit it all in they lost the opportunity to tell us what kind of show they were going to be, and who their team was, stories about Coldplay, Jelena Dokic and Lance Armsrong were also dumped.
While Wright's story from the field and live crosses were smooth, all that time on 'Sunrise' showing, Munro seemed uneasy in the field away from the teleprompter. This also left Chris Bath alone in the studio, which also felt a little odd. Although in fairness to Munro and Wright, Mumbrella saw their performances in a different light.
The rating for Sunday Night were good, but hard to judge - Australian were glued to their screens watching the coverage of the Victorian Fires, so the audience was already there. The official OZ-TAM figures have not been widely reported yet as delayed programming and late changing schedules messes them up. It'll be interesting to see how Sunday Night fairs in weeks to come, but at first glance they seem to have the right ingredients in the mix.
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