Ten’s News+ audience starts low and sheds three quarters of its viewers over first week

Ten’s same-same but worse news and current affairs offering has lost three quarters of its audience in its first week – and it didn’t have a lot of viewers to start with.

10 News+ has shed more than 100,000 viewers since it premiered on Monday. Picture: 10 News

When Ten’s new hope in evening news – 10 News+ – launched with an average of just 291,000 viewers across the country, the network described its approach as “marathon not a sprint”.

But by the end of the week the show had shed three quarters of its viewers and the reality was that it was more of a painful limp into obscurity.

After the soft launch on Monday night, Ten would have been hoping it would steadily find its audience. On Tuesday and Wednesday it lost 16 per cent of its viewers each night, on Thursday another quarter of the audience didn’t come back, and by Friday night the show’s national average was just 138,000 viewers.

How long Ten intends to run the marathon is a mystery.

They have punted their previous evening news offering, The Project, and poached seasoned reporters Amelia Brace and Denham Hitchcock from rival networks to front their bold new step into doing news differently.

Walkley Award-winning journalist Amelia Brace and investigative journalist Denham Hitchcock on the first episode of 10 News+. Picture: 10 News

Brace and Hitchcock are widely respected for their journalism, but don’t bring the same level of experience in presenting.

According to one highly placed source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the big problem is Ten id doing exactly the same as everyone else.

“It’s honestly baffling. Ten are bringing a knife to a gunfight,” the source said.

“I don’t blame the people on the show, or even the people making the show.

“It is the fault of whoever in management thought it was a good idea to insert basically the same news and current affair offering in the most hotly contested slot in Australia television which is being slugged out in a fight to the death by the two biggest heavyweights (in Seven and Nine).”

And the results speak for themselves. Ten has been obliterated in the timeslot with up to a million more people watching its commercial rivals.

10 News+ is not the first news disaster for the network – Wake Up, which sunk to 30,000 viewers, was canned after six months. Picture: AAP Image

10 News+ immediately follows Ten’s 5pm news service, which enjoyed significantly higher ratings all week – meaning people actively chose to change channels rather than watch two solid hours of news on Ten.

“I don’t understand the calculation that there are all these people out there who are so desperate for a news program that they want another hour of news after watching an hour of news on Channel 10, but don’t want to watch an hour of news on Seven or Nine,” the source said.

More troublingly is that 10 News+ numbers are down on The Project’s, the show it replaced.

The Project’s audience was slowly trickling away but it still managed to achieve a 2025 average of 350,000 viewers nationally, nearly 100,000 more than 10 News+’s highest figure, and 160,000 more than its first-week average.

The Project, while in a different timeslot, had stronger ratings that the show that has replaced it.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Ten has stepped boldly into doing news differently and found the ground less steady than hoped.

In January 2011, Ten poached storeyed journalist George Negus from SBS and gave him his own current affairs program, 6pm with George Negus.

Six weeks later, as the show’s ratings tanked, it was moved to 6.30pm – and before the year was out the show was axed and replaced with a longer format of The Project.

And while it is like comparing apples with elephants, given the changing viewing habits of broadcast television over the past 14 years, 6.30 with George Negus ended its terrestrial television life with an audience nearly five times higher than 10 News+.

Even Australian news legend George Negus couldn’t save Ten.

A few years later, Ten recruited one-time breakfast television wunderkind Adam Boland to replicate his success at Sunrise for them.

He invented the ill-fated Wake Up was plagued by challenges from the moment it arrived on our screens.

Six months later it, too, was gone after its metropolitan viewership sunk to just 30,000.

TV commentator David Knox, from the website TV Tonight, said despite some of the stories on 10 News+ being strong, there was questions as to whether it was right for the early evening.

“There were some decent reports, such as the story on Australian mother Debbie Voulgaris imprisoned in Taiwan, and an undertaker in the Muslim community, but at 6pm they are a big ask when the home environment is still in a state of flux,” Knox said.

“Friday night’s edition with the experienced Hugh Riminton demonstrated there are ways to bring a lighter touch, but it needs shorter interviews and a director who will keep it moving.

“I’d be thinking about 90 mins of 10 News and 30 mins of 10 News+ while the other bulletins are focused on sport.

“ACA and Today Tonight thrived there for years, so it’s a potential opportunity if the content and presentation is right.”

For now, at least, Ten doesn’t appear to be looking at making any kneejerk changes to the format or the timeslot, apart from luring former The Project host Georgie Tunny to 10 News+, which may quell some of the anger fans of the show felt about its axing.

Ten was approached for comment.