The Project meltdown – when Executives come out to support your 7pm Show, that’s when you know you are in trouble

By
Martyn Bradbury
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6
5

3 people who will soon be looking for new jobs

Oh. Dear.

When MediaWork’s top news boss has to rush out to the media to defend their 7pm show and deny any concerns, you know things are in meltdown…

MediaWorks boss: Project is here to stay and will win the ratings war

Mediaworks’ top news executive has backed Three’s new 7pm show The Project and claims it will eventually overhaul TVNZ One’s rival Seven Sharp, despite the huge ratings gap between the shows.

Chief news officer Hal Crawford has denied suggestions from sources in the Mediaworks newsroom that he was disappointed by the initial ratings showing of the The Project, saying he felt the “exact opposite” about the programme and it enjoyed his long-term support.

The reality is that the Project has been an abortion. It’s barely rating better than the previous abortion which was ‘Story’, and that’s only because TV3 have spent a small fortune on promoting The Project to go alongside the other small fortune they’ve blown on buying this format from the Aussies.

TV3 have attempted to make current affairs for people who listen to the Edge, the problem is that generation doesn’t watch TV. So TV3 have alienated Gen X and Boomers who want actual current affairs at 7pm to gain a generational audience who don’t bother with the platform TV3 are using.

Now this could drag oil haemorrhaging for at least 6 months, IF it wasn’t an election year.

What most TV producers don’t appreciate is that NZ still has one of the highest electoral participation rates in the Western World (sure it’s dropping, but it’s still globally high). NZers care about politics in an election year, and the shallowness of The Project simply can’t and won’t be able to meet that viewer demand.

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So the Project will actually start going backwards because they won’t be able to compete with Seven Sharp for that style of political current affairs in an election year.

Once this reality starts becoming painfully clear to the Execs at TV3, panic will set in.

Here’s what they will need to do.

Cut their losses, dump the hosts of The Project, re-work the format and bring back Paul Henry to front it in the hope that he can inject some ratings to a time slot that is collapsing.

 

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6 COMMENTS

  2. Paul Henry is a sleazy ignorant loser with a massive ego.
    His 10pm night time show, (called ‘ Paul Henry’ of course), flopped badly .
    His Breakfast Show, (called Paul Henry), flopped badly and only made in roads into TV1 because TV1’s format was as a shocker and Rawdon Christie was unwatchable.
    If they brought him back it wouldn’t be for ratings but purely to consistently pump up National whilst rubbishing Labour and the Greens.
    Once the election was over he would be gone again. Then what?
    ‘The Project’ works in Australia because they have the talent to pull it off .Talent honed over many years of doing ‘Rove Live’ and lots of ‘stand up’ comedy work . If you don’t have the right personnel it ain’t gonna work .
    Simple as that.
    And because they don’t have any proper journalists anymore they end up repeating stories that have just been covered on the news ….boring..
    Boring stories combined with weak ‘bodily function’ jokes and lots of forced laughter equals ….flop.
    I feel sorry for the for the crew . They are giving it their best shot but are being asked to pull off the impossible .
    TV3 had a really good Breakfast Show with ‘Firstline’ and a top show of course with ‘Campbell Live,’ but the Key and Joyce wrecking ball didn’t want people to be educated or informed in case they were outed and so the race to the bottom continues apace….

  3. because they won’t be able to compete with Seven Sharp for that style of political current affairs in an election year.

    FSM save us, we’ve sunk so far down that this factoid probably won’t even provoke much comment.

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