TV3’s new current affairs programme debuts tonight
Monday, January 14th, 2008Initially meant to begin airing in late 2007, TV3’s Nightly News with Vincent Browne is to finally debut tonight at around 11pm.
The programme replaces the station’s News Tonight programme, which was a straight-forward news round-up, and promises to “go behind the headlines to take an in-depth look at the stories of the day”, whatever that means.
It is certainly filling a small gap in the market in terms of a news feature-driven nightly programme, however whether it simply wraps up the days news or tries to actually break stories remains to be seen.
It seems as though a reasonable investment has been made in the programme, at least in the context of TV3’s journalistic output. Joining Browne will be Newstalk’s Karen Coleman and Brian O’Donovan, who has been promoted up through the ranks of TV3 News to this more senior position.
Nightly News… is also the jewel in the crown of a TV3 News revamp which kicks off today.
The exact format is still unclear but by the spiel on their website it seems to be covering all bases - the day’s news is reviewed, there’s original content like interviews and in-depth reports, there’ll also be analysis, sport, weather and finally the newspaper previews (which is unique in itself). All of TV3’s dependables will make a showing too, such as Ursula Halligan, Alan Cantwell and Colette Fitzpatrick.
The show will be interesting to watch on a number of levels - firstly to see how Browne makes the transition to TV, secondly to see what direction the overall programme is looking to take and thirdly to see if TV3’s new owners really are serious about investing in homegrown content and current affairs. We’ll have a better idea of all three by midnight.
(by the way, Jim is taking bets on what will happen on tonight’s show - some very tempting odds on some of those bets too).
Blogs elsewhere
January 14th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
newsnight doesn’t do a ‘b’ team but if it did….
Pardon my scepticism.
January 14th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
[…] TV3 Nightly News with Vincent Browne Starts Tonight […]
January 14th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Just switched over from Q&A, to get the start… seams to have gotten off to a good start - loads of raised voices so-far.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
It was an interesting interview alright, although it did come across as a bit all over the place and disorganised at times.
Browne seemed a small bit unsteady too, but that’s to be expected - opening night nerves etc.!
The package about the sex offenders register was quite interesting too and certainly a good sign - hopefully they’ll follow the trend of having analysis of an existing story followed by an original piece such as an investigation.. that said it’d be a bit much to expect them to have worthwhile investigative (etc.) pieces on a daily basis.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:02 am
It looked awful and I don’t think Browner really knew what he was getting into.
Wasn’t the sex offenders thing quite an old story anyway?
And they really needed a victim, especially in studio afterwards, to lift the thing.
The discussion was so dry that it was pointless.
Also, I get the vibe that the programme is trying to be all things to all men. This is especially difficult to do when there isn’t one thing that you’re able to particularly well in the first place.
Still, early days and all that. They’ll really have to depend on Browner to be on his game to get the most out of this programme. It needs him to be at his best more than any other element of the show.
January 15th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Not sure if the sex offenders thing was an old story, it’s the kind of thing that tends to come around in cycles, but it was good nonetheless and a matter worth raising, even if it’s been raised before (in fact it’s probably even more news-worthy if it’s a problem that’s been highlighted before).
Not sure if having a victim in studio rather than on the tape would have done much to lift the interview - maybe a DoJ representative would have been better.
I agree that they’re trying to be too broad in what they do, though. They could easily drop the weather and sport (especially as Sport Tonight is on afterwards) and give themselves more time for the newspaper preview or the features themselves.
They also need to figure out a way to let Browne see the front pages without him having to sort through a pile of paper… all that rustling of paper when the graphics were on was quite distracting.
It’ll be interesting to see how it finds its feet over time and I hope it’ll become more polished. Good point on it being so dependent on Browne - maybe they might move the likes of Karen Coleman forward over time if needs be, not to be co-anchor but just to another in-studio presenter so Browne has someone to pass over to for stories.
January 16th, 2008 at 12:00 am
They seem to have made some format tweaks and the discussion on co-location was quite well managed by Browne - far better than the one on Bertie yesterday, anyway.
One counter-point Browne missed that I would have made to James Reilly’s idea of a single waiting list was that it would probably do private hospitals out of business in an instant, however.
They seem to have turned the Sports into more of an informal chat, rather than just a sports report but I still think they should drop the sport altogether (when there’s a dedicated programme on afterwards).
Dearbhla McDonald and Frank Kelly were far more capable with the newspapers than Joe Higgins and Noirin Hegarty too and good to see the weather pushed back to the end, which makes far more sense than having it smack in the middle.
Certainly seems to have made improvements already, though, while still being a bit rough around the edges.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Well, the way it is, Shameless was on at 11 last night.
There’s only going to be one winner there.
January 16th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Shameless can be downloaded for free using Channel 4’s Four On Demand service… which is pretty useful for those of us stuck in just four channel land.
January 16th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I’m stuck in hundreds of channels but no computer land.
I spend so long at my PC in work every week so I just could not stomach having one at home anymore.
It’s liberating.
January 19th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Sounds interesting. I’m not in Ireland but I’d love to see clips or images from the programme. Does anyone know of any sites where I can see this? The TV3 website is terrible!