Thoughts – 60 Minutes vs. Sunday Night

Sunday Night – Channel 7 – 6:30pm Sunday – AUS
60 Minutes – Channel 9 – 7:30pm Sunday – AUS

For thirty years 60 Minutes has been a news program that has entertained and informed Australians on Sunday nights. Recently however it has slipped considerably in quality and audiences have fallen away. So last year Channel 7 launched their very own ‘3 stories a night’ ‘Sunday night’ ‘news magazine’ program called, originally enough, Sunday Night. With Sunday Night returning to our screens I thought I’d compare the two programs to see how they stack up.

Sunday Night is hosted by Mike Munro and Chris Bath who adhere to the strict Channel 7 policy of ‘double hosts’ just like on Sunrise or The Morning Show. Sunday Night also sticks to the supposed ‘relaxed’ atmosphere Channel 7 so desperately tries to create by getting Mike & Chris to wander around a large set with no desk in sight – look at them present the news from a standing position, isn’t that relaxed?

60 Minutes as we all know is hosted by a set of reporters including Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Michael Usher, and the always terrifying Liam Bartlett. They introduce each story from in front of a black screen just like they always have; there’s no fancy set to wander around for these guys.

Last night both shows featured a story about Jaycee Dugard, the American girl who was kidnapped when she was 11 and held captive for 18 years by Philip Garrido. Sunday Night scored an interview with Jaycee’s stepfather who was there on the day she was kidnapped, while 60 Minutes “scored” an interview with Katie Hall, another victim of Philip Garrido. Sunday Night pulled hard on the heartstrings with the ‘how would you feel if your daughter was kidnapped right in front of you’ angle

60 Minutes on the other hand had a different direction for the story. Katie Hall’s story of being kidnapped by Philip Garrido is just as tragic, but it’s not the Jaycee Dugard story. Sunday Night scored the better interview subject, and 60 Minutes had to settle for the old ‘into the mind of a monster’ angle for their story. It should also be noted that both programs decided that taking their interview subjects to the respective scenes of the crime would be a good idea – totally not exploitive at all…

You couldn’t possibly expect viewers to sit through nothing but weighty news stories on a Sunday night so you have to lighten the place up a bit with a fluff piece. Even though everything on Channel 7 manages to somehow feel like fluff their fluff piece was their first story on Australian dinosaurs, while 60 Minutes had a Fleetwood Mac reunion tour.

Sunday Night recreated recently discovered Australian dinosaurs in full CGI. Never mind that when they talked about the dinosaur’s land speed, or skin colour, or even attacking technique that they were just making it all up. You wouldn’t hear the word ‘speculation’ on Sunday Night that would ruin a good story. Every single thing they said about these new dinosaurs was treated as fact. The most unbelievable part of the story those was when we learnt these dino-jerks had named the dinosaurs Matilda and Banjo – way to ruin dinosaurs guys!

Later 60 Minutes fluffed their piece around the place with a story about the behind the scenes turmoil of Fleetwood Mac. Now, either you know who Fleetwood Mac is so you’re already well aware of the ‘behind the scenes turmoil’ or you don’t know who Fleetwood Mac is so you don’t care. Either way no matter how rubbish Sunday Night’s story on dinosaurs was it trumped a Fleetwood Mac reunion story. I’m pretty sure there are members of Fleetwood Mac who don’t care about a Fleetwood Mac reunion.

This sort of half assed interview of an old band is one of the reasons 60 Minutes has been copping a bit of flack lately. It’s not surprising though, when one of the hard hitting questions posed to the band was “Is it good getting back together?” What’s your follow up going to be ‘what’s your favourite thing about Australia?’

Sunday Night ended with a story about home birthing that if I hadn’t stupidly decided to review this show I could have flicked over from because watching somebody give birth into a wading pool is not my idea of fun. We got to sit there as Sunday Night played the “us vs. them” card trying to convince their viewers that “they” were trying to stop “you” from having the choice of a home birth.

This was a story Sunday Night wanted you to form an opinion on. Either you thought these mothers were morons or you thought they were modern heroes, Sunday Night made a story that would get people talking – which is exactly what they want. On a side note: at one point one of the home birthing mothers said of their perfectly natural birthing experience “In the Bible there are midwives.” Yeah, and public stonings.

60 Minutes final story was the tragic tale of gold mining in the Congo. The sort of story that 60 Minutes used to deliver all the time: exotic location meets human atrocity. The Congo gold story was probably the best of the six for the night, but was paired on 60 Minutes with a less than exclusive interview loosely connected to the Jaycee Dugard horror story and a lighter than air interview with Fleetwood Mac.

Over on Sunday Night you have to give them the win based on audience manipulation alone. Lure the kids in with the promise of CGI dinosaurs, break the hearts of families around the nation with the story of a stepfather and his loss, before bringing it home with a little bit of forced outrage around a home birthing story.