{"id":444624,"date":"2026-01-29T07:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T07:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444624\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T07:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T07:08:17","slug":"leaked-channel-ten-email-reveals-experiment-to-save-flagship-news-program-after-ratings-slump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444624\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaked Channel Ten email reveals \u2018experiment\u2019 to save flagship news program after ratings slump"},"content":{"rendered":"

A leaked email has unveiled Channel Ten’s “experiement” to boost 10News+.<\/p>\n

TV Blackbox revealed on Tuesday that an internal email had surfaced showing Ten’s plans to improve the flagship news program and prevent viewers from switching to competitors’ 6pm bulletins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Next week, we’re going to experiment a touch, to try and hold people better over the 5pm\/6pm changeover,” Channel Ten’s Vice President of News, Martin White, wrote in the leaked comms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

One of the proposed changes involves scrapping the 5pm news host’s “goodnight” message and, instead, ending the segment with a weather forecast.<\/p>\n

A graphic of the weather report will be aired and the weather presenter will close the bulletin before proceeding to its 10News+ offering at 6pm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“No music, no goodbye, disclaimer along the bottom of the screen over the graphic,” White stipulated in the email.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Then we go straight into the Plus opener \u2013 pics and VO, not on camera.”<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Data shows Ten loses most of its viewers, who switch channels to 7News and 9News, at around 6pm.<\/p>\n

The new format hopes to transition the audience directly to 10News+, thus upping numbers of the flagship news program in the viewership wars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the email, the experimental shake-ups will be trialled for one week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’ll see what difference it makes next week before deciding what we’ll do next.”<\/p>\n

Channel Ten declined to comment when approached by SkyNews.com.au.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It comes after Ten trimmed down 10News+’s\u00a0 run time to just half an hour.<\/p>\n

In October, it was revealed the evening new program would reduce its run time as part of the media company’s refreshed 2026 line-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe revised 30-minute edition of 10 News+ will continue to deliver sharp, credible, and distinctive journalism each weeknight at 6:00pm,” a spokeswoman for Ten shared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Typical\u2019:<\/p>\n

It is followed by a “refreshed” entertainment line-up, with Deal or No Deal hosted by Grant Denyer at 6:30pm and Millionaire Hot Seat hosted by Rebecca Gibney at 7.00pm.<\/p>\n

The current affairs show, which has been met with lacklustre viewership since hitting screens in June, replaced The Project after sixteen years on-air.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fronted by Amelia Brace and Denham Hitchcock, 10News+ was introduced as a \u201cpremium, in-depth news, current affairs and insights program\u201d.<\/p>\n

It also promised “extended context and deeper reporting on the day\u2019s biggest stories”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A leaked email has unveiled Channel Ten’s “experiement” to boost 10News+. TV Blackbox revealed on Tuesday that an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[230766,64,63,29617,32721,134,427],"class_list":["post-444624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-10news","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-tv","tag-channel-ten","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}