Battle lines drawn in new 7pm ratings war
Battle lines have again been drawn in the fight for supremacy in the 7pm current affairs time slot, as Seven Sharp returns to New Zealand TV screens this week.
The opening skirmish will unfold on Monday, when viewers will meet TVNZ’s flagship current affairs show
Breakfast cohost Hilary Barry and — in what some describe as a bold, exciting move — media satirist, Mike Hosking impersonator and The Hauraki Breakfast co-host Jeremy Wells.
Wells, whose appointment was announced this week, told the Weekend Herald it had been a busy week that included rehearsals and suit fittings.
“The whole thing’s been surreal. . . it’s a pretty cool opportunity. It’s a hard thing to say no to.”
TVNZ revealed yesterday the opening show will include Kiwi songstress Anika Moa interviewing her superstar Canadian counterpart Celine Dion in Las Vegas.
The Project’s trio of hosts, Jesse Mulligan, Kanoa Lloyd and Josh Thomson, were back at work three weeks ago, when the TV3 show returned to air, getting a jump-start on TVNZ and its established audience.
But the move doesn’t appear to have paid off significantly with their average audience dropping slightly to 140,000, compared with their first week on air last year. Seven Sharp delivered an average audience of 427,000 last February.
Broadcaster Bill Ralston, whose long career in journalism included four years as head of news and current affairs at TVNZ in the early 2000s, said the state broadcaster’s strong hold on the 7pm slot made it tough for
The Project to make inroads.
People would tune in to see the new duo and while much would depend on how the combination worked, he was confident both would do their jobs well, Ralston said.
He had “a lot of respect” for Wells, whose deadpan humour first came to prominence via the alter-ego Newsboy on DJ Mikey Havoc’s TV show in the 1990s, before finding its own home on satirical news show Eating Media Lunch.
“I think he’s a superb operator and if he’s allowed to be his satirical self I think it’ll be a very hard programme for TV3 to overtake.”
Wells said he did not think he would be too extreme to start with.
“I think if I go in talking about crazy things, the audience will be like, ‘Who is this guy? Who does he think he is?’ I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to alienate people.” But his presenting style would be true to himself.
“I’m me and I can’t really be anyone else.
“I mean, I can impersonate Mike Hosking, but I don’t know how many episodes that would go for.”
Being comedic would not work with everything, and Barry would be the show’s lead, he said.
“She’s the established broadcaster, she’s the one with credibility.”
Wells complimented the opposition,
I think [Wells is] a superb operator and if he’s allowed to be his satirical self I think it’ll be a very hard programme for TV3 to overtake. Bill Ralston
describing The Project as “massively entertaining and really well put together, funny, subversive”.
Ralston said The Project had one advantage over its rival.
“Seven Sharp seems to have abandoned the idea of studio interviews.
“You’ve really just got presenter front people. They don’t interview anyone anymore, which is weird,” Ralston said.