The Bolt Report

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The Bolt Report
File:The Bolt Report logo 2016.png
The Bolt Report logo used on Sky News Live
Presented by Andrew Bolt
Country of origin Australia
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 6
Production
Production location(s) Melbourne, Victoria
Running time 60 minutes
Production company(s) News Corp Australia (2011-15)
Sky News Live (2016-present)
Release
Original network Network Ten (2011-15)
Sky News Live (2016-present)
Picture format 576i (SDTV)
Audio format Stereo
Original release 8 May 2011 (2011-05-08) –
present

The Bolt Report is an Australian political discussion program hosted by political commentator Andrew Bolt, who focuses on conservative political and social comment in the form of opinion commentary, panel discussion and interviews.[1] The program highlights climate-change policy, immigration issues, federal deficits and government borrowing, government corruption and free speech.

The program premiered on 8 May 2011 on Network Ten as a weekly Sunday morning political discussion show airing for thirty minutes at 10am AEST/AEDT. On the final show of 2013, on 24 November 2013, Bolt disclosed that The Bolt Report would return in 2014, with an extended running time of one hour.

In 2016, the program moved to Sky News Live relaunching as a nightly primetime program, which debuted on 25 April 2016.

Format

File:The Bolt Report logo.JPG
Former logo of The Bolt Report (2011-2015)

The program involves panel discussions, interviews and commentary.

The show also previously had individual segments including:

  • "Spin of the Week" - a look at the best media spin of the week nominated by readers of his blog
  • "Free Speech Award" - an award given to a high-profile personality who has made a controversial or criticised statement during the week. The inaugural award went to a former prime minister, Paul Keating, for his description of supporters of Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore as "sandal-wearing, muesli-chewing, bike-riding pedestrians".[2]
  • "Poor Taste Award" - an award given to a high-profile personality for an offensive statement made during the week. The inaugural award went to Julia Gillard for a describing Tony Abbott as the "love child of Sarah Palin and Donald Trump".[3]

Sky News relaunch

The programme was put into hiatus in December 2015 with the last bulletin aired on the 29 November 2015, reportedly over News Corp's unwillingness to continue paying production costs of $2 million.[4] While the future of the program was initially deemed uncertain, Bolt became a contributor to Sky News Live in February 2016, seemingly confirming the end of his association with Ten.[5]

In March 2016 it was announced that The Bolt Report would resume on Sky News Live in May 2016 airing in primetime on weeknights at 7pm.[6][7] The Sky News version will be produced in-house from the Sky News Melbourne bureau, unlike the Ten version which was produced by News Corp Australia.[8]

The program ultimately premiered on Sky News Live earlier than previously advised on 25 April 2016.[9]

Ratings

The program debuted with 163,000 while the encore received 123,000 viewers.[10] The debut was narrowly beaten by Insiders, which received 172,000 viewers.[11] Bolt stated on his blog he would like to beat Insiders[12] on which he had appeared for 10 years.[13] He reached this goal in his second episode, reaching 174,000 viewers, beating Insiders with 166,000.

In 2011 ratings for the show declined to 136,000 viewers for the third episode and 131,000 for the encore. This compared to 207,000 for Insiders.[14] For the remainder of 2011 The Bolt Report remained at the bottom of the free-to-air ratings for its timeslot.[15] This contrasted with The Bolt Report's 2012 ratings share which regularly exceeded that of Insiders.[16] In July 2013 the number of viewers of the program was approximately 168,000.[17] In November 2013 the program had an estimated 104,000 viewers.[18]

The first eleven episodes of The Bolt Report on Sky News in 2016 averaged 23,254 national viewers, behind the averages of both Jones + Co (36,122) and Paul Murray Live (30,186).[19] Bolt defended the average stating the figures were "out of date, because we're building, not sinking."[20] Episodes on both 12 and 16 May 2016 saw The Bolt Report average 42,000 viewers and outrate all other Sky News programs on those dates[21][22] and has peaked at 50,000 viewers on 20 May 2016.[23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Keating unleashes the lip on 'muesli-chewing' Moore, Sydney Morning Herald, 5 May 2011
  3. ↑ Tony Abbott, the love child Palin and Trump never knew, Sydney Morning Herald, 22 May 2011
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.(subscription required)
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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