A week of The Project, why is the AM Show so bad and should we sell off TVNZ?
It was a long week last week wasn’t it?
Watching The Project struggle, stagger, fall over, get up again and still look confused as to what it was doing on screen in the first place was a painful process.
Not as painful as watching Duncan Garner on The AM Show though. I’ve not watched or listened to a lot of Duncan Garner and now I am, I have real doubts as to how on earth he managed to get on TV3 at all.
Duncan has all the insight of a torch without batteries. The questions on The AM Show are the kind of questions a drunk child would write, it’s ignorance broadcast to people who clearly don’t care about they watch or listen to.
It is such an underwhelming show.
That said, The AM Show is still 10 million times better than the awful TVNZ Breakfast who are What Now for Christian adults.
Back to The Project. I still don’t understand who this show is for. I think it’s Edge or ZM listeners, people who have no actual discernible media taste themselves.
Forget them playing the meth story twice on opening night, there was a hell of a lot more to be concerned about during the week.
Adam Dudding did a good job looking behind the scenes at the Australian makers of the show and the type of philosophy to news that they have.
Unfortunately they don’t have one.
It’s just glitzy, lots of audience clapping and news stories so brief you actually wonder if they even happened.
It’s the bewildering shallowness of the stories that surprised me most, I’ve had deeper and more meaningful conversations with my laundry.
Former News God at TV3, Mark Jennings didn’t mince words…
If this imported format doesn’t work here, TV3 will be in trouble; it has literally bet the house on this one.
The network is losing money and time is running out for its board and management. It’s a brave roll of the dice as this show is costing at least double, possibly triple, what its 7pm predecessors Story and Campbell Live did.
Failure would see some of the executive team at Flower Street quietly shown the door.
…and that whiff of desperation stayed with the show for the entirety of last week.
All the hosts looked like they thought they might get sacked at any moment.
Former Campbell Live staff were furious that footage Campbell Live had taken of the Christchurch Earthquake, a story that Campbell Live made their own, was repackaged for The Project which ultimately ended up replacing Campbell Live.
Salt meet wound.
But for me the moment I banged my head on my desk was Tuesday night with guest host Kylie Bax.
There is only one reason why you would have Kylie Bax on, and that’s because of her friendship with Donal Trump.
We have an apparent lunatic running the most powerful country on the planet and some insight into his personality and whether he’s as bat shit crazy as he comes across from someone who has spent time with him would be genuinely insightful.
What did Jessie Mulligan do instead? He said everyone was bored of Trump so he wouldn’t ask her any questions about him.
WTF?
What other possible reason to have Kylie Bax on the show other than to provide insight to Trump?
If The Project are so limited in their intellectual curiosity that creating insight isn’t even on their agenda, why waste 30 minutes watching it?
Meanwhile, John Drinnan asks why we still own TVNZ.
I believe that the next Government needs to set up a levy on Sky TV and Telecommunication companies which is used to fund RNZ, TVNZ and buy the NZ Herald.
If we want public broadcasting then we need to rebuild the public broadcasting infrastructure, not continue along the splintered multi-billion online fractures of digital media.
Radio, TV and Newspapers still connect with a hell of a lot of of people who can’t afford monthly internet charges.
But it’s difficult standing up for TVNZ when it is so awful. TV1 should be advert free and run as a public service station while TV2 should be the commercial jammed big overseas TV show channel.
Instead of selling them off, a prudent Government would reinvest and rebuild these public broadcasting assets via a properly regulated media landscape that forced those who make millions from it being unregulated to start paying a levy to fund NZ content.
Once RNZ, TVNZ and NZ Herald are properly funded, anything else from the levy can go to NZ on Air to divy up amongst other media and new experimental formats.
We need new leaders in those public broadcasters who take their job seriously as the guard god of democracy.
Right now we have Breakfast TVNZ, The AM Show, The Project and Seven Sharp all of which manage to make us less compassionate, more ignorant and a lot dumber.
Unfortunately a stupid electorate is exactly what many Politicians want.
100% Martyn,
“Right now we have Breakfast TVNZ, The AM Show, The Project and Seven Sharp all of which manage to make us less compassionate, more ignorant and a lot dumber.”
I very seldom even watch any NZ media now, because it is insulting to our intelligence considering that so much is going wrong in the “NZ two speed economy” you’d think they would take us all seriously, especially that the “Maxim institute has said today on RNZ that we must now face the issue of declining areas and regions of NZ will suffer decline in future and that we need to talk about this now.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/325489/regions-must-face-challenge-of-population-decline-report
New Zealand / 5:56 am today
Regions must face challenge of population decline – report
Share this
Adriana Weber, Emergency Services Reporter
@Adriana_Weber_ adriana.weber@radionz.co.nz
A report predicts populations in many regions will drop or stagnate within three decades.
Gisborne is one of the many places that will see its population shrink, according to the report. Photo: 123RF
The Maxim Institute’s report said populations in about 44 of the country’s 67 authorities would stagnate or decline within 30 years, compared to 11 areas now. That could place them under severe financial strain as they try to pay for infrastructure.
While centres such as Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury and Queenstown are set for growth, the report painted a bleak picture for most other regions.
These included Rotorua, Taupō, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, Kaipara, Southland and the West Coast.
Maxim Institute chief executive Alex Penk said the government’s regional development programmes focused solely on economic growth – but the population trends posed a big challenge on that front.
“In fact they mean that for some regions growth is not going to be the reality.”
Some towns, including Kawerau and Matamata, were already working to manage decline in their areas.
“They created a wrap-around programme that relocated workers from one region to where the jobs were in the other region.
“That’s the kind of response that we could actually have on the table, if we start talking about the reality that’s facing us and I think that’s actually a really positive opportunity for us. It isn’t something we should be afraid of.”
Massey University demographer Paul Spoonley, editor of the book Rebooting the Regions: Why low or zero growth needn’t mean the end of prosperity, agreed decline was something that needed to be accepted, especially by politicians.
“There aren’t many politicians around the country who are going to want to talk about decline.
“When you begin to talk about the demographic challenges and the economic challenges that are coming, there’s some mayors who are really in denial, and that’s going to be an issue.”
The mayor of Gisborne, Meng Foon, disagreed with the paper’s findings as far as his region was concerned.
He said given Gisborne’s high population of youth, and the work underway to create jobs to keep them there, the region was set to grow.
The Project is trying to appeal to a younger audience that doesn’t watch TV at 7pm.
The only people who consistently watch television every night as a matter of habit are 60 and over.
“The network is losing money and time is running out for its board and management. It’s a brave roll of the dice as this show is costing at least double, possibly triple, what its 7pm predecessors Story and Campbell Live did.”
Can Mediaworks get treimbursement for Mark Weldon and Julie Christie? After all, it was that “Diabolical Duo” who gutted TV3 and destroyed one of the best brands in NZ – “Campbell Live”.
Now Mediaworks are having to pay for their incredible stupidity.
Aside from the hapless workers who’ll lose their jobs through no fault of their own, I will have no regret when TV3 finally collapses. I just hope the Board of Directors is sued by every TV3 staffer for the damage caused to their careers.
And finally, whats the bet Christie and Weldon have quietly removed “Mediaworks Board Director” from their CVs?
“The only people who consistently watch television every night as a matter of habit are 60 and over.”
And they were loyal followers of Campbell Live!! OMG! The irony, the irony!!!!!
Programing with cool effects get off to a weak start and trying to sell the idea that they’re an 18+ Harry Potter doesn’t push myself to like characters who are just a collection of supernatural teenagers Tropes inserted in a generic urban fantasy world. In the end I don’t pass by episode 1 so maybe the series get better or not but the beggining is boring and doesn’t catch my attention.
In respect of the Herald it is churning out daily feel good stories about our booming economy, booming immigration (that is a good thing apparently) and booming tourism. Not a dickey bird that our tourism numbers are being boosted by homeless people.
People, NZ is a Rockstar that is booming. Is it that the Nat’s are now calling in all favours? The Herald is certainly responding like the pathetic propaganda machine it is. How is it still in business?
The nine year freeze on funding for Radio NZ. Now thats a scandal
And while Chairman Dick Griffin (and other Nat lackeys) remain in charge of RNZ it will continue to be a scandal – of increasing proportions.
The funding freeze doesn’t explain the lack of interviewing skills from Jesse Mulligan & Jim Mora though. Ever heard them ask a guest a difficult question? No, me neither.
Yes, we need to retain TVNZ and make at least TV1 not for profit and rebuild it’s quality programming (like on the SBS and BBC models), plus make it totally internet savvy.
By the way, this is a Green party policy.
RNZ needs a funding increase. Here is a petition to end its 9 year funding freeze! https://www.tinyurl.com/jg9e42t