Next to it Close Up was a runaway smash. And now Seven Sharp's previously unthreatening competition on TV3, Campbell Live, is on the rise - just by sticking to its knitting and delivering passionate and populist journalism. The show was on form by the end of last week, delivering solid stories to a growing audience hungry for such things as an investigation into supermarket prices.
But at TVNZ, the thinking about what current affairs is and should be has become hopelessly polluted, increasingly trapped in a strange new world where news, entertainment and advertising are meant to be a happy threesome.
Seven Sharp seems to have demonstrated what an unappealing concept that is. By the end of last week the show had adjusted itself from its bitsy beginnings - with longer items, less banter, more of a magazine show full of items that could have run almost any old time.
Doubtless, they will adjust further, maybe ditch a presenter, maybe even remember what the "current" in current affairs means. Anything's possible when you're down a dark hole in the middle of primetime TV.
Not that local current affairs is being served well elsewhere. In further evidence of TVNZ's retreat from the medium, its flagship Sunday show remains chopped to a half-hour at 7pm on Sundays - shoved aside by the unstoppable MasterChef New Zealand in the 7.30pm spot.
Over on TV2, 20/20 launched last week (9.30pm, Thursdays) with a racy mix of piffle - most of it sourced offshore. Last Thursday's show offered a meaty local piece on the male stripper industry plus four foreign semi-stories to do with showbiz or fatness or - in one case - both. Entertaining maybe, but hardly current affairs.
Closer to the real thing is 60 Minutes, which launched on Prime last Monday with that rare thing, a local interview with Peter Jackson. Last night's show (9.35pm) had no local content, save presenter Charlotte Bellis, and, oddly enough, another interview with an uber-director - this time Steven Spielberg.
So all strength to John Campbell who increasingly looks like a saint in the godless and lost world of New Zealand current affairs. Just by sticking with the knitting. Marvellous.