News Corp columnist returns next month with longer show and segment that will ‘put the media under genuine scrutiny’

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Three years after getting his own political TV show, the influential News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt has been given an extended hour-long program and added media analyst to his brief with a new segment, News Watch.

“I am delighted to be returning to Network Ten in the expanded one-hour format,” Bolt said on Wednesday. “I will continue to talk to Australians about the things that matter to them, cutting through the spin without fear or favour.”

Bolt, whose show, the Bolt Report, returns to Ten at 10am on Sunday 2 March, later wrote on his blog: “Among the guests for the first show: Peter Costello, Michael Costa and Gerard Henderson. We have invited Bill Shorten to come on the show on the very near future, of course, and hope the old Labor ban is lifted. I did think it counter-productive.”

Ten offloaded the show to News Corp for two years in 2013 to save money. Ten broadcasts the show but News pays for its production, staff and transmission costs.

Meet the Press – a long-running Ten show which was also given to News Corp to produce – has not been recommissioned and its future looks bleak. Ten says it is “in hiatus”.

Bolt, who writes the country’s most-read political blog, on the Herald Sun, said he intended to use the extra broadcast time to “cut through the spin of so much of the media”.

The conservative journalist makes no secret of the fact he is not a fan of the ABC, which he has branded as left wing.

This week he said the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, who has been criticised over a hardline policy on asylum-seeker boats, had done such a good job in his portfolio he should be the next communications minister and could fix up the ABC, too.

“Scott Morrison has performed even better as immigration minister than I predicted. It is astonishing that no boats have arrived in more than eight weeks, despite some Indonesian authorities’ refusal to cooperate,” he wrote on Tuesday.

“So where would a canny prime minister – keen to nurture talent, promote his agenda and confound his enemies – next place Morrison? Where could a capable and articulate conservative be employed with great profit?

“I look at the ABC and cannot help thinking what tremendous good a Morrison could achieve that a Malcolm Turnbull won’t …”

The Bolt Report has been unable to match its ABC rival, the long-running Insiders political chat show, hosted by Barrie Cassidy, in the ratings.

Insiders, which runs at 9am, achieved a metro average audience of 269,000 across ABC1 and ABC News 24 last year, and was up 18% on 2012.

The Bolt Report, at 10am, achieved a metro average audience of 148,000 on Ten.

Ten described the Bolt Report as “the latest political and social commentary, panel discussions and interviews with leading Australians” and said the expanded show would include a new News Watch segment to “put the media under genuine scrutiny”.

Ten’s executive general manager, Russel Howcroft, said half an hour was not enough for the network’s star recruit. “Expanding the Bolt Report to an hour will give the opportunity for more in-depth and extended interviews and analysis,” Howcroft said.

“The Bolt Report is already one of Australia’s most-watched television programs on politics and the new format will only add to its appeal and influence.”