Russell Baillie: A Bridge to somewhere - what’s with Three’s 2024 line-up?
Taking to primetime: Ryan Bridge will head a new 7pm show on Three. Photo / Supplied
There is, if you’re desperate, nothing wrong with having breakfast for dinner. It’s lighter, there’s less to chew on, and it’s cheaper, too. That is what TVNZ found after it turned Seven Sharp into a post-news lifestyle guide, with its many one-interview-with-an-expert stories, helmed by Hilary Barry and Jeremy Wells on a big, soft couch.
Meanwhile, Three’s The Project was more of a long lunch, a tag-team-presented, big-production buffet of the serious and the entertaining. Until, that is, Warner Bros Discovery decided that making a good show to dwindling broadcast audience ratings while paying a licence fee to the format’s Australian inventors wasn’t worthwhile.
Next year, Three’s 7pm slot will be filled by a new show fronted by Ryan Bridge, until now a co-host of the network’s AM morning show and the tallest beard in NZ TV. The show is yet unnamed.
“Bridge” would certainly be a gift to the nation’s headline writers. Though “Bridge Live” does sound like a worrying warning to motorway traffic. Though using his first name could lead to some nifty regular features – on whistle-blowers (“Braving Public Ryan”) and global warming (“Saving Climate Ryan”). No doubt the consultants – the ones who made Patrick Gower “Paddy” for Paddy Gower Has Issues – are focus-grouping it right now.
The news of Bridge taking it to primetime came as part of WBD’s 2024 line-up announcement for Three.
The new show is described as a mix of interviews and panels, with Bridge saying we should “expect lively debate, context around the day’s big stories and both local and international guests”.
Says Sarah Bristow, senior director news at WBD ANZ, “We’ll challenge, provoke, entertain, spark emotion and drive a live conversation with our audience. The show will be gutsy, courageous, and won’t shy away from the hard topics.”
All of which seems to be pitching it as a gruntier, shoutier, newsier option to the middle-class comfort-zone of Seven Sharp. In theory, that’s going to make life interesting for the producers of our weekend morning political interview shows.
But it’s a rare talent who can sustain as the solo face of a daily half-hour current affairs show. Paul Holmes and John Campbell did it, with more experience, in what were different eras.
Three seems to be putting its faith in Bridge to become the next one. But a prediction: “Bridge Live” will be – or will become – a half-hour AM in the late pm. It is, after all, a cheaper and less cheerful replacement for The Project. That’s all it needs to be.