Corin Dann's Q+A show has been given much more popular timeslot. Photo/Supplied.
Corin Dann's Q+A show has been given much more popular timeslot. Photo/Supplied.
TVNZ's political show Q+A has long been considered a good show hidden away in a terrible timeslot.
But that's about to change.
From this week, the hard-hitting political show fronted by Corin Dann will be moved from the television wasteland of sleepy Sunday mornings to the prime time slot of 9.30pm.
It's a move Dann says has the potential of tripling the reach of the show and giving the guests a much bigger platform on which to express their views.
At a time when political debates – particularly those expressed online – have become highly partisan, Dann hopes to offer the New Zealanders who tune in on a Sunday night something a little different.
"In the highly fragmented online world, you get a lot of people in their lanes and that's okay. But I like to think of this show as giving people a town square vibe where everyone is on equal footing and you have a conversation between left, right, female, male or whoever," says Dann.
"We want to find panellists that are a good cross-section of the country … It's about an exchange of ideas. And people have to put up their ideas and battle them out."
Dann says the new timeslot will potentially triple the audience of the show.
While international current affairs shows have enjoyed enormous success with controversial hosts, unafraid to express contentious opinions, this hasn't ever been Dann's style – and a bigger audience won't be enough for him to embrace his inner shock jock.
"I haven't taken that path, but I hope that people trust me as a pretty straight shooter," says Dann.
"I think that's the reputation I earned in the gallery as the political editor at One News for six years. You're not going to survive there if you're deemed partisan or biased in any way. It's just not going to work."
As a public broadcaster, TVNZ has an obligation to serve the public and Dann believes that this type of show serves an important democratic function in making people think about the big political issues of the week.
"It a case of talking about the big issues of the day and also having politicians explain their positions and fronting up to decisions they are or aren't making."
This might be true, but TV shows aren't guaranteed an audience on the basis of their democratic importance. As has been seen with the canning of Close Up, Campbell Live and Story, New Zealand audiences don't have quite the appetite for current affairs that they once had.
There has been a sharp turn toward entertainment in current affairs programming segment, with lighter shows like Seven Sharp and The Project taking over the timeslots previously dominated by hard news.
While there is an element of risk to pushing serious show into an important timeslot, TVNZ would have been somewhat encouraged by the performance of the political debates during the election last year.
TVNZ's Leaders' Debate during the election reached over a million New Zealanders overall and, more importantly over 393,000 in the critical 25-54 advertising demographic.
This was obviously a major event and Q+A will not reach those dizzying heights. But whereas the election could be seen as the Rugby World Cup of politics, Q+A's weekly political debate could be perhaps be equated to Super Rugby.
The show won't necessarily attract the type of audience capable of freezing a broadband connection, but the gritty live interview format will at least invite intrigue from some viewers eager to see whether the nation's prominent politicians will drop the ball when hit with some tough questions.
"I never want it to get nasty, but it will be robust," says Dann.
The increased audience and attention on the show will, however, add to the pressure on Dann to perform. In the past, TVNZ hasn't shied away from changing the lineup when things don't work – and with roving reporter John Campbell joining the mix, Dann will have strong competition in his midst from later this year.
That said, Campbell doesn't seem to have much interest in a sedentary position, saying in his official TVNZ announcement that he looked forward to getting back into the field and interviewing New Zealanders.
Dann welcomes the opportunity of working with Campbell on stories that might be of interest and says he isn't concerned about the increased pressure that might come with the new timeslot.
He said he may have felt greater pressure a bit earlier in his career, but after 10 years in front of the camera, he's come to terms with who he is and what he can and can't do.
"Of course there's more pressure but that's the deal. I'm not too worried about it. I just want to do a great show, have fun doing it, cover the right issues and be on my game," he says.
