The writing has been on the wall for some time and now the first chess piece has fallen.
A two page advertisement on page 24 in Adelaide’s Sunday Mail revealed news that will send chills down Eddie McGuire’s spine. His beloved Millionaire Hot Seat has been bumped from its prime slot of 5pm to 4pm for local news, but only in one market.
While it’s certainly not the end of Hot Seat, it does not bode well for its future. Once the darling of Channel 9, providing a big lead-in to the 6pm news, the show has struggled in recent times up against The Chase.
A spokesperson from Nine told TV Blackbox;
“Much loved Hot Seat has moved to 4.00pm, to allow us to bring viewers all of the local news you can use, live from 5.00pm.”
From Monday the new line-up will be;
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4pm – Millionaire Hot Seat
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5pm – Nine’s Afternoon News
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6pm – Nine News
Nine’s Adelaide news has struggled in recent years with Kate Collins and Brenton Ragless at the helm and has not been able to make any significant ground on the perennial number one – 7 News. In fact on many nights it is beaten by ABC News.
News director Jeremy Pudney was previously news director at 10 News Adelaide and certainly knows the importance of the 5pm slot. Both Seven and Nine rely on the flow of afternoon audience into the 6pm news which is where bragging rights are won or lost.
While some might doubt the importance of lead-in, no-one would argue every little bit helps in the nightly battle for ratings. Back in 2009 news guru Peter Meakin told The Weekend Australian he was sceptical of the importance of lead-in, although also remarked;
“I say a prayer to ( Deal Or No Deal host) Andrew O’Keefe each night”
That statement was made when Deal Or No Deal was Seven’s 5.30pm show and providing a huge lead-in to the news at 6pm, which started winning in many markets.
Moving Hot Seat to 4pm indicates Nine are looking for alternatives. On the Gold Coast a local news service plays at 5.30pm leading into the 6pm news.
There have been suggestions Nine is looking to UK gameshow Tipping Point as a possible replacement for Hot Seat but the network has publicly rubbished those claims – although it should be noted they are currently running the UK version in the afternoon, just like Seven did before making a local version of The Chase.
READ MORE ABOUT TIPPING POINT: HERE
What’s unclear is whether viewers will have news fatigue with two hours of news back-to-back. Presumably Nine are hoping to steal some of 10’s news audience.
While there are viewers who will watch a block of news programs each night, research I have seen throughout the years shows they are more likely to watch different channels in order to make sure they are seeing different perspectives and different stories. For example, they will watch 10 News First at 5pm and then switch to Nine or Seven at 6pm before turning to the ABC at 7pm. They are unlikely to keep watching the same channel.
What is worth noting is that one-market experiments are always worth keeping an eye on as the results will impact decisions made nationally.
This will leave 7 Adelaide as the only afternoon news broadcast at 4:00pm.
This is not the first time 9 Adelaide aired news at 5:00pm, before it moved to 4:00pm Rob Kelvin presented a half hour 5pm local bulletin following the national 4pm news from Sydney leading in to Hot Seat at 5:30pm.
mmm Hot Seat is pretty sensible with regard to questions and style. Chaser is ridiculous. 2 rounds of almost the same ‘News’ is a turn off. Please put Millionaire back at 5 p.m. There is nothing particularly interesting on the radio at that time. ABC plays re-runs, and SBS has the archaic repeats of Letters & Numbers (from the late 90’s I suspect)
I think it is stupid move,two hours of news is too much.
I think Eddie’s show is great and a good lead into the news.
Most working people would come home during Eddie’s show,even if you miss the first half it does not matter.
News is good but some can be depressing.
Most people need to unwind before watching the news.
Not a good decision.
We will watch another show and change to nine news at 6.00pm
John
I can but reinforce the previous comments..
"I think it is stupid move,two hours of news is too much.
I think Eddie’s show is great and a good lead into the news.
Most working people would come home during Eddie’s show,even if you miss the first half it does not matter.
News is good but some can be depressing.
Most people need to unwind before watching the news.
Not a good decision."
We certainly don’t need another depressing, boring news lumped on top of the other one which ends up showing what will get shown again in half an hour anyhow…Dumb.
Keep it for earlier in the afternoon when it was supposed to be on..
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As far as The Chase is concerned, I never figured or wanted to figure it out.
It appears they have paid employees, eg Masters and Mistresses, answering questions that contestants should?…All sounds too shonky to me !
However I can not see the people switching to Channel 9 to watch News at 5 O’clock !
I will not be watching two hours of news instead of Eddie. I prefer Eddie to The Chaser but not at 4 pm as I will still be working outside at that time. As it is, there is not enough world news on the regular news programme on 9 (or 7) and do we really want to hear about muggings and knifings and bad behaviour, from those in authority who should know better, every day. They are now so common that they are no longer news.
In short – bring back Eddie to 5 pm so that there is at least something to look forward to at the end of the working day.
The move to 4pm is treating viewers with contempt. Obviously those involved believe the show appeals only to the stay-at-home, or shift workers. I suspect the outcome will be clear. Those who watched HotSeat and stayed for the news will now avoid Nine altogether.
Big mistake. Huge!