Sunday Night
Channel Sevens new current affairs program Sunday Night was always going to be an interesting proposition.
Channel Seven taking on Channel Nine’s current affairs staple 60 Minutes is essentially the final step in Seven completely usurping Nines dominance in television news.
Furthermore, it was always going to be worth noting exactly how producer Adam Boland would tackle the evening current affairs format. Boland had been successful in revamping Sunrise as a program intimately connected to the everyday lives of its viewers, eventually taking the same technique to the successful The Morning Show. Sure, his late night effort The Night Cap was a bit of a letdown, but his taking on an evening current affairs show seems like more of a natural fit. It was always assumed he’d take the same principles that belie Sunrise to the format, but how it would be executed was the question.
Sunday Night premieres this coming Sunday at 6:30pm and is cleverly launching with a complete humdinger of a launch story, they’re focusing on the death of Britt Lapthorne. Lapthorne was an Australian tourist visiting Croatia where she was soon found dead. It’s an emotive story that resonated highly with the Australian public. And now Sunday Night is showing the last video recording of Lapthorne prior to her death, along with the photo of the prime suspect in the murder investigation. It’s one heck of a story to launch with and kudos to Boland and the folk at Seven for working a story that will garner massive attention for the new show.
That said, footage in the show preview in which family and friends of Lapthorne are shown pictures of the prime suspect simply seems like a cheap way to score footage of angered and upset family members. It’s a technique used on bottom-feeding ‘current affairs’ shows like Today Tonight and its a shame Sunday Night isn’t raising the journalistic bar that little bit higher. Also, hearing Mike Munro decry state that “As a father, this is too close to home as it could happen to any of us” simply feels on the nose and too reminiscent of the low-grade journalism he presented on ACA. It’s certainly possible to talk to every day Australians without talking down to them.
Boland is also continuing the conversation through to the new 7HD show All In Call, an audience Q&A show in which they’ll discuss issues raised on Sunday Night. The show, to air directly after Sunday Night, is certainly an interesting approach to expanding the format. Hopefully Channel 7 actually come to the party and promote it properly with promos throughout the Sunday Night and a message to switch to 7HD to continue the ‘conversation’. It’s initiatives like this that will have audiences finding value in multi-channeling.
Sunday Night has an opportunity to define the Channel Seven brand in the same way that Sunrise has for the past few years. If they can strive to achieve the journalistic integrity that is oft-lacking in commercial television current affairs and utilise the possibilities that its counterpart program offers, Sunday Night can be more than a ratings success.
Tags: adam boland, All in Call, brit lapthorne, Channel Nine, Channel Seven, Sunday Night, sunrise
That level of close up on Mike Munro is too much first thing in the morning.
Mike certainly has retained his big smug smile
Britt Lapthorne was kidnapped and murdered. I grieve deeply for her parents, I most desperately don’t want to add to their grief.
She was clearly another target/successful victim of a kidnap/murder ‘squad’ in that area.
I say again. A kidnap/murder squad.
With many tentacles.(?)
The CCTV vision clearly showed a ‘snatch, the driver is fully aware of the traffic lights, his need not to ‘run’ any light to avoid undue ‘attention’, (notice by passers-by), cruise calmly to the kerb, door open, no fuss, and grab the target .
They killed Britt Lapthorne.
The Australian Government has no less a duty than to pursue and prosecute to the fullest lawful extent who did this.
Nothing less.
This girl was victim to a kidnapping for human trafficking. They murdered her because there was so much media attention surrounding her case that they couldn’t sell her to anyone without getting caught.
This situation is so common in Eastern Europe.
The police are paid to turn a blind eye – they don’t have the resources to stop this crime. It’s costs more prosecuting these people than actually stopping them from doing this.
Human trafficking is the third most profitable illegal activity, aside from the weapons and drugs industry.
Its just so sad for that gorgeous girl.
Can I just clarify that the above Lauren is not me, Regular Lauren (aka LaurenA1)?
I was uneasy (to say the least) at the way Mike Munro milked the Britt Lapthorne case ‘amazing revelations that will blow the case wide open’ in interviews in the week before Sunday Night first aired but was pleasantly surprised with the info they actually dug up. Good work, I thought.
Whoever is framing the shots of Chris and Mike is not doing then any favours. Chris’ dress last week was not flattering at all. Love the idea and the people just think you should look at the set up and framing. All the best
I can’t feel the chemistry, either. How can any earthly camera or vision mixer make Mike Munro look anything other than what he is? A reptile in a meatsuit. Poor Chris Bath.. It does seem like a more than uncomfortable pairing.
I had held ch 7 up on a higher plane than it now deserves with the hiring of monroe, he would have to be the most dishonest and smug bastard on tv in australia. the transport industry loathes him