Newshub Not-So-Late Not So Great

Three appears to have squandered a grand opportunity to reinvent Newshub Late as a lively mix of news and current affairs in its earlier slot of 9.30.

The reasoning behind the promotion from typically 10.30 to primetime is hard to fathom given the content is largely the same: refried headlines of the day’s previous bulletins.

When there were only two state-owned channels in the 1970s and ’80s, news junkies could enjoy much more dynamic mid-evening news shows like Tonight at Nine and Eyewitness News, which invariably offered fresh rather than refreshed content (most famously then-Prime Minister Robert Muldoon’s calling of the snap election and his devaluation interview which triggered economic and constitutional turmoil).

A decade later, TV3’s Nightline broke the mould with its often irreverent and idiosyncratic late-night take on the day’s news.

But Three’s under-the-radar rescheduling of Newshub Late is as puzzling as the network’s inability to respond to my queries about the reasons why and whether a format revamp would ensue.

It follows WBD’s failure to comment on why Newshub Live at 8pm vanished without trace this year from Eden after being cited as an example of the conglomerate’s commitment to news coverage in this market.

If WBD truly was serious about upgrading the quality of its coverage, adding more HD field and studio cameras would be a priority.

Do executives not see how shoddy SD coverage, including from Parliament, undermines Newshub’s editorial strengths?

As a viewer with a 65-inch 4K TV, and in a marketplace where competing news coverage is largely Tweedledum-vs-Tweedledee, I will always opt for the broadcast with the best footage — and TVNZ 1’s is untouchable vs Three’s.

If Three ever had a chance to close the ratings gap with TVNZ 1 in the news stakes, beefing up and better resourcing Newshub Late for peak-hour was it — especially now that it screens only three hours after the flagship bulletin.

Since that doesn’t appear to be the intention based on the first two broadcasts in the earlier slot (unless you count a live cross to the Supreme Pie Awards), you can only assume it’s a scheduling strategy.

Under WBD ownership, Three’s primetime line-up has degenerated into a largely soulless parade of reality and lightweight docuseries mostly sourced from Discovery’s cable-fodder vault.

It’s anchored at 7.30 with whatever it hopes will be the Next Big Thing in stripped reality (the latest prospect being the upcoming The Traitors NZ), before evolving into factual, light-ent or movies.

Procedural drama used to be more to the fore but that was before Three lost its Rookie and NCIS franchises — it still has the original but the first spin-off Los Angeles has ended its run after being burned off on Saturday nights — and struck out with newcomers like the low-rating Accused.

It’s surprising Accused hasn’t been rescheduled to late-night but the fact it’s still on at 8.30 suggests Three doesn’t have viable alternatives — which may explain why the network has double-billed new episodes of 9-1-1 with repeats on Monday nights (it’s no coincidence that the Newshub Late tactic coincides with 9-1-1 ending its run next week).

By bringing Newshub Late forward an hour, Three lessens its dependence on a faltering three-hour entertainment block that mostly wasn’t competitive from 9.30 by using a staple that frequently won its 10.30 slot with Three’s key audience, 25-54 year-olds. (Newsroom reports last year cost-cutting WBD wrote off $5.4 million worth of programmes “rather than risk playing them and having them rate poorly”.)

The most important period for advertisers and hence ratings is 5.30-10.30, so by shifting Newshub Late to Newshub Not-So-Late, Three would appear to be off-loading weaker fare to post-10pm so it can prop up its primetime prospects.

If that’s the logic, it’s hard to fault — but how much more successful might it have been had Newshub been reinvigorated to capitalise on a stronger lead-in in an earlier slot?