Seven scramble to bounce back from Joyce interview flop

Seven has stared down criticism of its Sunday Night interview with former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and his partner Vikki Campion with a follow-up on last night’s news bulletins.

The interview was widely criticised, including by Crikey, for failing to include answers to pertinent questions regarding misuse of taxpayer money during Joyce and Campion’s relationship, and new positions created for Campion in the offices of other Nationals MPs.

Yesterday afternoon, reporter Alex Cullen tweeted in response, saying he had asked those questions but the answers weren’t included in the final cut. “The response to these qs was the same as we’ve heard time and time again. Vehemently denied hence nothing new.”

In the 6pm news, Seven included previously unscreened interview clips which did address some of those questions, including to do with travel expenses.

The ratings for the full original interview were appalling. It was a flop, with just 1 million viewers (500,000 fewer viewers than producers reportedly hoped for). House Rules immediately before had its biggest audience of the its series so far (1.41 million viewers), meaning 410,000 viewers abandoned Seven during the interview.

Now there’s talk that Nine is chasing Joyce’s ex-wife, Natalie, while again waving hundreds of thousands of dollars. As she and her daughters already have viewer sympathy (whereas Joyce and Campion promoted hostility), this may do well for ratings. Seven Network’s management failure to understand that distinction also confirms just how remote they are from their viewing audience.