Holmes leaves big boots to fill

By GREG DIXON

And so it ends as it began. Paul Holmes' lengthy, unique reign as TVNZ's paramount broadcaster commenced with Dennis Conner storming off the first Holmes show. It closes 15 years on with the Great Communicator's own walkout.

There's a pleasing symmetry to it. And it's as good a way as any for him to leave - better eating a bullet at the moment of your own choosing than being dragged unceremoniously out back and given one behind the ear.

It had to happen sometime. Holmes has been at TVNZ so long, Nostradamus probably predicted his demise. And certainly critics have spent all his TVNZ tenure saying it would happen any moment. Yesterday, the tea leaves were finally right. But that shouldn't disguise what this is: The passing of an era.

Holmes moves on having irrevocably altered the local television landscape - most especially TV current affairs - forever. Whether it is for better or for worse is moot.

He can be most infuriating. And the Holmes show has certainly aggravated me over the years with self-aggrandising showmanship where solid journalism should be.

Dirty Den's walkout - after Holmes asked him to apologise for cheating in the America's Cup - almost stands as a blueprint for what came after. It was an aggressive, overly-mannered encounter interview rather than a thoughtful interrogation, a ratings-generating event rather than genuine, tenacious journalistic grilling. It left you none the wiser. Nightly current affairs has a responsibility to do more than that.

Holmes is capricious too. He can be terribly soft on interviewees or terribly hard, often for no discernible reason.

And his ragbag of verbal and facial ticks, endearing to some, have, to me, always been a self-conscious affectation that passed some time ago into near self-parody.

But there is no doubting Holmes' talent, or that Prime is lucky to be getting it. The Holmes show has been such a success for TVNZ because its host can do something no other local TV broadcaster can: Effortlessly tap into Middle New Zealand's consciousness and unpretentiously communicate what he finds. He is a broadcasting freak.

And his show could have a real and meaningful impact: The $2 million raised in a week for flood victims is a recent example.

This can be no obituary. Holmes will always be a broadcaster like no other in New Zealand, and he will likely remain on our screens for years to come. How he will fare beyond the power and prestige of a weeknight show on our most watched network will be interesting.

Can Prime's small audience provide the quantity of attention he needs? Will he be the ratings fillip the Aussie-owned channel desperately requires? Does Prime have the resources to mount something on the scale his talent demands?

As for TVNZ, now we have a true test. As the huge One News audience set up Holmes each week night, Holmes' huge audience has set up TV One for the rest of its evening for 15 years. Can another face, another show, do the same? Or was it a phenomenon that cannot be replicated without him?

And whether it be Susan Wood, who took over last night and will host the show (now called Close Up At 7) until year's end, or some other pretender who takes his slot, I'm sure of only one thing: this morning: For a little bloke, Paul Holmes leaves very big boots to fill for TVNZ.