Saving Spinoff TV

Grim micro aggression policing millennials don’t rate on TV? Who woulda thunk it?

Apparently The Spinoffs “Gonzo reporting, scorching hot takes, and ruthless media analysis” – (that’s honestly a real quote, I’m not factiously making that up) – has gone down about as well as Donald Trump acting in a self written play performed at Silo Theatre during Pride Week.

Okay, okay, okay.

Let’s just pause in the schadenfreude at news they’re haemorrhaging ratings so badly that they have been moved to the grave time slot of no where and have been replaced by fucking Fail Army.

And when I say pause, I mean right after I say these mean things.

Here’s Duncan Grieve screaming about NZ on Air spending $7m on Filthy Rich – I’d rework the math he uses to denigrate that use of NZ on Air money, but I detest math only slightly more than I detest smug millennial media so let’s just say he’d probably now kill for a fraction of the ratings of Filthy Rich that he attacked so fiercely. Apparently, ‘It’s really popular on woke twitter’ is enough of a reason for NZ on Air to shit gold bullion straight into Toby Manhire’s mouth.

The ridiculous excuses are running thick and fast:

“It was a hybrid product’, if that’s true, then why not show us the online stats which should be astounding right?

“People didn’t know if it was a comedy or current affairs”, seeing as it gained this money off the back of its blog, pretending no one knew what it was seems back to front.

“The target audience don’t watch linear TV”……. ummmmm. Then why did we give it $700 000 for a TV show then?

Look, excuses are excuses, you take the opportunity you are given and you MAKE it work. I say all this as someone who has produced independent TV and has made it successful. I’ve hosted and produced,  Stake Out, Citizen A, The War on News, Ipredict Election Special and Waatea 5th Estate, all gained cult followings, all rated well for the broadcaster and I’m currently looking at putting together a late night political TV talk show.

So why should Spinoff TV be saved? Because it is progressive TV, albeit middle class, and we have so little current affairs any longer that we desperately need to keep something on air that makes us think.

I watched The Project and Seven Sharp this week, and I just don’t know what those shows are anymore…

…this looks like it’s being filmed inside TVNZs womb. The bewildering lack of insight on issues that matter has reached such a shallow level, you can only tell something matters when Jessie cries on The Project…

…we have existential crises facing our nation, nothing at 7pm is preparing any critical thought whatsoever for those issues.

So as much as it pains me to suggest how to save a TV show for a middle class blog with too many avocados, here’s how you save Spinoff TV.

You play to the strengths of your audience and the time slot you have.

Dump the bloody pre-produced stories and spend the cash on making the show LIVE. this is what TV doesn’t seem to understand or appreciate any longer, they have a live platform, they should utilise that a hell of a lot more.

SpinoffTV Live could then harness the live element of social media which makes Twitter and Facebook so powerful and actually pull the audience to them rather than waiting for the audience to find time between podcasts and 20 million uploaded videos to youtube each second.

Use the time slot to say and do things live that will attract respect, attention and empowerment. Have a conversation with the audience that they can participate in. The reason why Radio has managed to survive despite being left behind by almost every other media technology advancement is because it tells you what is happening now, live, right away,  Spinoff TV should be that.

Why they aren’t a live studio based show astounds and bewilders me. It can, and should be, far better than what it is.

They’ve got the talent, they’ve got the ideas, they just lack any sense of using what they have and fusing it with the live social media target audience they are chasing.

Don’t give up and feel depressed, make it work by being smarter with what you’ve got.

Oh and PS, the scripting is appalling.