To: Kevin Kenrick, CEO TVNZ
Jeff Latch, Head of TVOne and TV2,
Andy Shaw, GM, Acquisitions, Production and Commissioning.
Dear Kevin, Andy and Jeff,
It’s been two weeks now since your baby “Seven Sharp” hit our screens and there’s a lot of people who feel they have a lot to say about it. And no wonder!
But it’s not the programme I’m writing to you about but your part in it.
Is it true that all of you were involved in every aspect of the programme from inception, including deciding which stories went where in the first week? I’m wondering what “Seven Sharp’s” Executive Producer, Raewyn Rasch had to say about that? I hope plenty, but I’m guessing not a lot.
Was it easy to breach the divide between sales and marketing (isn’t that what you guys do after all?) and start making editorial decisions, given that SS (now that’s got a ring to it!) didn’t know what it was or where it was going?
Now you’ve crossed that Rubicon – and started dabbling in making news decisions (it’ll be good for you Jeff, you’ll be able to add news producer onto your Skill Set on Linkedin… at the moment you only have strategic partnerships and content acquisition), will you be the guys to fall on your swords when the programme is quietly re-launched later in the year (go on! Don’t tell me that’s not going to happen… )?
Kevin, I know phones and television are very similar but you’ve only had to deal with handset products and prices up until now. Still it’s good to see you are taking your Editor-in-Chief title so seriously… a bit like Captain Mainwaring when he joined the home-guard.
And the ratings! Well, ratings, schmatings who cares about those? I know, I know, there was a big hue and cry when “Campbell Live” beat you in age 5 plus for the first time since it went to air in 2005 but it was a one-off, right? And who cares about 5 plus anyway? Only the bloody newspapers and what would they know? Oh, Campbell beat SS in all the younger age demographics, too. Weren’t those the ones you were aiming to win?
Its interesting to see though that “Seven Sharp” and “Campbell Live” is now getting neck and neck in that decried 5 plus demographic with Campbell gaining 1 % and “Seven Sharp” losing about 3%, with Prime”s “The Crowd Goes Wild” picking up viewers.
Kevin, if there’s one thing you need to know its networks don’t need to give viewers any excuse to shop around – and it looks like “Seven Sharp” is doing that in spades.
But hey, why don’t you have a chat with that nice new Programmer from Channel Nine you’ve hired in on contract? Apparently they think the programme is past redemption.
And if it is, we know that it won’t be you who’ll take the rap.
Your favourite former telly gal,
Janet
Ka-Powie !! Nice letter – Any show that can lose viewers to something as Schizo and dire as the Crowd Goes Wild should be headed to the dead hole. I have to admit though – haven’t been able to suffer an entire episode – I’ve totally given up on New Zealand TV to be able to deliver any News beyond announcing sports results and pandering to the narcissism of the 20 something repeaters.. oops – sorry I mean reporters – of course.
@Janet… brilliant!
@ Ross The Crowd Goes Wild is brilliant and entertaining and positioned exactly where it should be to the target audience it’s perfect for… I’ve never particularly liked sports programmes but I LOVE it, though I do despair that there will ever be long-format, in depth current affairs on TVNZ or any other NZ channel again.
Great piece of writing, Janet. Thank you. It’s important someone says this.
What I despair of, and what these men ought to assume responsibility for, is the destruction of an honourable history of current affairs at TVNZ. One News used to be outstanding on its best nights, and at the very least it was decent and reliable.
And there is such a fine list of people who believed in the power of current affairs to make a difference: Brian Edwards, Lindsay Perigo, Bill Ralston, Ross Stevens, Genevieve Westcott, the original Close Up, all the people behind Eye Witness News, and Gallery, and Assignment, and so many more.
And what has this tradition been reduced to?
A pandering to something so base that no-one in News and Current Affairs could possibly have come up with it.
Something cynical, cheap and desperate.
And those who are behind it? Do they feel any shame at all?
They ought to.
Thank you, Janet.
But I’m so sorry you had to write those truths.
It’s Captain Mainwaring
Perhaps the long term goal is to destroy 7pm as a natural news slot so that the marketing Muppets can grab it for themselves and install a piece of Julie Christie-style sludge. It saves them money and I suspect they probably watch that sort of crap anyway.
Did you expect anything different, after the 2011 50th Anniversary Special? Which was mind-shuddering junk.
TVNZ prefers not to hear the protestations, because they know what’s best for us.
Thanks for your comments. As you can see my ability to interact is nothing short of glacial – and for that I apologise.
@Simon you pretty much summed it up….”cynical, cheap and desperate”. But as the blog says will the architects of this mess pay the price? Doubt it
@ Ogden thank you for pointing out the factual error, I shall change it right now
@JohnSpavin I know that’s a view that’s out there in the blogosphere and being TVNZ it probably has some validity on anything north of the 4th floor but I can’t imagine any journalist not fighting against that. If they don’t they need to examine why they’re in the job in the first place….
wow what do really think haha…..again the signs of a devious marketing hand who really wants to make TV One something its not. How many more times …
Back in the day – my day, at least – sales and marketing wouldn’t have dared to lean on news and current affairs programme producers. And if they did they would have been told politely and firmly to fuck off. Actually it did happen once and I told a junior S&M person to fuck off. He complained to my departmental head who also told him to fuck off.
It seems times change. But I have to say I feel desperately sorry for any senior producer involved in this sorry mess.
It’s hard to think of anything professionally more soul-destroying for a real journalist than getting out of bed every morning to put something like this to air in order to satisfy sales and marketing.
I’ve no idea whether S&M people have direct input into Seven Sharp but I’m reminded of what happened to the Ford Motor Company when they let the sales and marketing dictate the design of a new car. It was called the Edsel.