Fewer people watching Paul Henry than Nightline

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
29
11

paul-henry-show
The ratings are out and despite the hype and cost, Paul Henry is rating lower than Nightline…

Henry keeps up with old show ratings
TV3’s gamble in swapping its traditional late-night news show with Paul Henry has resulted in virtually the same audience numbers – but the network says the show has already altered the television landscape.

Ratings data comparing the first seven weeks of The Paul Henry Show with its predecessor Nightline reveal an almost identical viewership.

In the 5+ category Paul Henry has averaged 118,000 viewers while Nightline had 119,000 – and in the all important 25-54 category coveted by advertisers Paul Henry averaged 57,400 while Nightline had 59,500.

…I’ve watched a few episodes. They are very clever from a propaganda point of view. We like our fascism the way we like our racism, casual, and Henry’s cheeky naughty schoolboy routine perfectly obscures the dripping venom.

The late night setting is perfect for Henry and his interviews are sharp and at times merciless. It’s current affairs sado-masochism.

Henry can be very funny but his avowed right wing platform is an immediate turn off to the almost 50% of the population who identify as left. Who needs the late night heart burn and acid reflux of listening to Paul Henry before going to bed if you are a progressive? The show needs to have a regular panel of lefties to box it out with Henry if they want content that will attract that left wing news watching audience back or else he has to just try and appeal to the right.

If the show can’t broaden its idealogical appeal it will continue to languish beneath Nightlines ratings, but if it does manage to, it could have quite an impact in the election.

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29 COMMENTS

  2. I too have tried to watch this programme and not once have I managed to see one to the end. I am over Paul Henry’s constant “Look at me, look at me”. Couldn’t care less about his right wing politics as I reckon he could single-handedly turn plenty off them, so maybe he has some sort of purpose.
    Although he was cringe worthy on Breakfast it was not a political programme as such, just a bit of fluff to have the first coffee to. Mind you, it’s a long time since I switched a TV on during the day, leave alone the morning, so maybe I am really just over TV

  3. I saw this show once, and it is insidious!

    If something is funny, we will laugh unless prepared. He uses racism, sexism and all the other right wing and indeed, fascist, views to make us laugh. I laughed and hated myself for doing so.

    What this means for those who are less likely to rationalise our views is that by laughing, you think that by implication you agree. Therefore, you must me more right wing than you thought. As such, you start “calling a spade a spade” and swinging right.

    I detest what this show does to our marginal groups. He is an odious little man who needs to be pulled from the public eye and sent to his room like the child he is.

    As for me? I refuse to watch this evil propaganda, as it takes truths (like Losi Taylor believing that sex workers could become airline pilots, without ever having spoken to someone in that area of work), and then corrupts and moulds them to fit a right wing, neo-liberal worldview. Better not to watch than to support such hate.

  4. I have not managed to watch more than 3 minutes at once, no kidding. He’s got nothing of value to add to anything. It’s kind of ‘Glenn Beck lite’. Even my partner, much more forgiving on bullshit than I am, cannot watch him. And what is this bigger than life photo of him in the background of the set all about? He’s already on the screen for crying out loud.

    It’s all fooking bullshit.

    Oh yes, and then there is the Kia competition. It’s impossible to win! You have to be very familiar with a subject and prepared to have a chance (try it), which contestants never are. A competition that is next to impossible to win is not a competition, it’s a con. Suits the ‘show’ I guess. The Henry version of a carny ring toss scam.

    Now, TV3, listen carefully I shall say this only once: We are starting not to miss nightline anymore. We are learning to avoid the TV3 and TV3+ buttons on the remote between 10.30 and 11.30. Once we have decided that that is a good thing we are not coming back.

  5. As I expected it is mostly about PAUL HENRY and HIS thoughts, views, feelings and jokes. He has a support person, who is of course female, young, attractive, but rather conformist, not as “bright” as others in similar jobs, and thus the “useful” nodding, at times giggling “offsider” – and headline reader – he needs to boost his ego yet more.

    The repeated snide remarks about opposition MPs, David Cunliffe and others, they are a real turn off to at least half of potential viewers, I agree. It is a program with a format that may sound and appear “new” and “innovative” for a short while, but will get boring very soon.

    As for information, it is worse than Nightline, as the actual news are condensed and partly trivial, and the interviews on topics are also hand-picked and tending to favour right leaning “followers” of “media personality” and “entertainer” Paul Henry.

    No, it has turned me off from the start, and I cannot recommend this. As we now have Al Jazeera on Freeview, I tend to watch their news (for the better international and live coverage), than sit through the show of a self obsessed show man, interspersed with too many adverts.

  6. I’ve never seen the slightest bit of evidence that the toxic dwarf can be “very funny”. His attempts at humour are those of a sadistic little schoolboy who has paid off the class bully to protect him and runs around abusing everyone.

  8. I’m not having that racist in my house. His show has been banned, which is a shame because before Paul Henry I only ever watched Nightline

  9. I hope they move John Campbell’s show to a similar late night time slot to provide the same platform for left and right leaning shows.

    But that would require TV3 to eliminate media bias towards the left and we all know that ain’t gonna happen.

    • ….. ain’t gonna happen (elimination of right wing bias), at least not until after a change in government and they need another bailout – in which case, watch them get all fair and balanced, and not in a Fox news kind of way

      • Yep I still wonder just how many favours Stephen Joyce’s calculated taxpayer bailout of his old company Mediaworks brought?. And he wasn’t even the Minister for Broadcasting then.

        Talk about conflicts of interest but nobody batted an eye.

  10. Don’t watch much TV but watched a movie last night on TV3 about a run-away train, mildly entertaining, when it ended – promptly turned-off the TV whereas in the past would’ve watched Nightline.

    Years ago since its beginning, used to have Breakfast going in the background as we started our day, when he became host – eventually kept the TV off.

    There’s some deep, almost inexplicable, repulsive and obnoxious quality to that character. That Snickers ad is a further irritant.

    Media in this country is just like that run-away train but headed towards a disaster in dullsville, unlike the movie, looks like there’s no stopping it or happy ending.

  11. People still watch TV? What dark age are these Neanderthals living in? It’s called the internet people

  12. ….. ain’t gonna happen (elimination of right wing bias), at least not until after a change in government and they need another bailout – in which case, watch them get all fair and balanced, and not in a Fox news kind of way. If you’re perceiving an overall left wing bias, you’re deluded

  14. As a party political broadcast on behalf of the National/Act party, is the cost of the Paul Henry show going to be part of the National/Act party election spending cap for the upcoming election?

  15. Only if the costs involved in Finlay MacDonald’s efforts on Sunday Morning on Radio NZ National are included in Labour’s

  16. Paul Henry rates at about the same as Campbell, who has lost his viewers to Seven Sharp…Put Henry at 7.00pm and watch him rate!!

  17. Well I find his show very amusing. Gives me plenty to laugh at before bedding down. The few shows I have seen have been irreverent and witty, his interviews sharp and scathing. His descriptions profane. Who needs a panel? Mind you his bimbo sidekick is absolutely the worst example of a newsreader! Only trouble is, its on too late, us old crones are in bed well before his show comes on. If they moved it to 8.30 I would probably tune in every night.

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