The reviews are in for The Bolt Report, Andrew Bolt’s new Sunday morning TV pulpit at Channel Ten — and they’re not pretty.
As Sydney Morning Herald media editor Tim Dick writes: “Not having seen every attempt at television current affairs in Australia, it is impossible to judge The Bolt Report the worst. But surely it comes close.”
Bolt is not dull, Dick acknowledges. But his TV show — more Bolt, less Report — was: “It is named for Bolt, hosted by Bolt, and dominated by the Boltian worldview.” David Knox at TV Tonight agrees: “Insiders showed he is more effective as a commentator than host, a role which requires more moderating and less editorialising. Can Bolt possibly have it both ways?”
Or, as Dan Barrett argues on Crikey TV blog White Noise, if you’re planning a Fox News-style rant-fest at least do it loudly: “The Bolt Report feels like a low-rent cable news opinion-driven panel show that doesn’t have a strong voice. For the show to work, The Bolt Report and its host need to be bolder.”
But there’s only two metrics that really matter. For Bolt, that’s the reaction of his many (mostly Victorian-based) fans. After admitting he was “nervous for the first minute”, Bolt took to his blog to seek feedback — and the vast majority of some 655 comments are positive. “A breath of fresh air from all the other far left wing nonsense we see on tv,” said “John”.
And for Ten, it’s the ratings. They’re tiny, but about double the number of viewers who tuned into Video Hits the week before. As Glenn Dyer reports for Crikey (more detail in TV ratings), the show debuted with 163,000 at 10am with another 123,000 watching a 4.30pm encore edition.
And there was a big boost for Meet The Press in its new post-Bolt time slot, with 98,000 viewers its best result in years.
There are as yet undiscovered tribes in the Peruvian jungle knew Crikey would be biting hard with criticism of Bolt’s new show. If there is one thing i have discovered since i abandoned the lunacy that is the left so many years ago is, if you have an opinion that differs form the looney left be prepared to be ostracised for having any opinion at all.
The madness that is our Governments policy on refugees was well discussed and informative in the first 5 minutes of this program. If you want Bolt to be bolder, be careful of what you wish for lefty’s.
I think Dan Barret is right, watching the show on line you feel he’s trying to be Australia’s Glen Beck but — hard to believe, I know — is a little too subdued.
Absolutely no pretence at balance though. The graph that illustrated the fall and rise of ‘boat people’ started at 4000 during Howard’s era, went down to near zero then shot up to who-knows-how-far during the Labor era — it literally went of the screen. (Psst, Andrew, falling numbers this year didn’t fit the narrative?)
But if he gets more strident and even more biased and has much more of Latham, it should end up being quite entertaining. I suspect that unless he does that, his kind of audience will not bother watching on a Sunday morning when they can hear that sort of thing from the convenience of their commute.
John, nobody is saying Bolt doesn’t have the right to an opinion. Crikey have the right to their opinion. Bolt regularly attacks people for having a different opinion to him so your criticism is fantasy, although I’m sure you’ll see my criticism of you as an attack on your God-given right to free speech.
Given that the ABC Insiders program recorded only 172,000 viewers, Bolts first debut rocked in 163,000 viewers – which is a remarkable effort for a supposedly teen audience – wouldn’t you say?
Even his own producers were looking at only 40,000 viewers in that Sunday time slot. They couldn’t believe their luck. He even pulled viewers to the aged Meet the Press and swelled their numbers. How lucky is TEN? Their gamble had paid off. But for how long?
Many viewers complained that they didn’t get to watch Bolt because of Southern Cross Television in the country regions had Video Hits playing still in the old time slot.
People were angry because they couldn’t tune in to see his show.
Now imagine the numbers if he truly went National in a real time slot – against whoever you care to trot out.
Bolt is a sensation.
The real reason for his success is that people are not served well by the Media in this country.
Learn to accept this fact and redress the balance if you want his popularity to wane.
He has a growing constituency that is all his own. So all in all, I would wager Bolt is enjoying some fine champagne right now, rubbing his hands with glee and planning his next program rant against Julia Gillard. Her Government after all needs to be held accountable and the mainstream media were caught napping.
There is no stopping him now.
Thanks for that Frank Bolt. I am pretty sure your brothers ratings will drop once people get over seeing the same car crashed every week.