The Bolt Report

The Bolt Report is an Australian political discussion program hosted by conservative 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 denial, immigration issues, Indigenous Australians, federal deficits and government borrowing, government corruption and free speech.

The Bolt Report
The Bolt Report logo used on Sky News Live
Presented byAndrew Bolt
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons10
Production
Production locationsMelbourne, Victoria
Running time60 minutes
Production companiesNews Corp Australia (2011–15)
Sky News Australia (2016–present)
Release
Original networkNetwork Ten (2011–15)
Sky News Australia (2016–present)
Original release8 May 2011 (2011-05-08) –
present

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. The Bolt Report continued in 2014, with an extended running time of one hour, until 2015.

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

Format
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 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 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 program grew its audience by 23 percent in 2015.[19]

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).[20] Bolt defended the average stating the figures were "out of date, because we're building, not sinking".[21] Episodes on both 12 and 16 May 2016 for The Bolt Report averaged 42,000 viewers and outrated all other Sky News programs on those dates[22][23] and peaked at 50,000 viewers on 20 May 2016.[24] The Bolt Report was the most watched program on subscription television on 9 November 2016 as part of post-2016 American presidential election coverage with 139,000 viewers.[25]

In the first half of 2018, The Bolt Report posted its highest ratings since moving to Sky News, and increasing viewership by 36% since the same period in 2017.[26][27]

In 2019, the show continued to set record ratings for the program up +26% year-on-year and reaching 256,000 weekly.[28]

In the first half of 2020, The Bolt Report was up +38% year-on-year, with a reach of 710,000 viewers.[29]

By 2020, the show increased its average audience by +27%, reaching an average of 327,000 unique viewers each week.[30]

See also

References
  1. Bowden, Ebony (18 January 2016). "Andrew Bolt's Channel Ten show The Bolt Report reportedly cancelled by network". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  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. Meade, Amanda (21 March 2016). "The Bolt Report to be resurrected on Sky News five nights a week". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  5. Bowden, Ebony (1 March 2016). "Andrew Bolt hired by Sky News Australia to report on Royal Commission in Rome". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 1 March 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  6. Knox, David (21 March 2016). "The Bolt Report shifting to SKY News". TV Tonight. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  7. Christensen, Nic (21 March 2016). "Sky News revives Andrew Bolt's The Bolt Report, moving it to five nights a week". Mumbrella. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  8. Bodey, Michael (21 March 2016). "The Bolt Report relaunches as nightly show". The Australian. Retrieved 22 March 2016.(subscription required)
  9. Knox, David (20 April 2016). "Airdate: The Bolt Report (on SKY News)". TV Tonight. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  10. Knox, David (9 May 2011). "Week 20". TV Tonight. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  11. Knox, David (15 May 2011). "Week 20". TV Tonight. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  12. Bolt, Andrew (16 May 2011). "First Goal Reached". Herald Sun. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  13. Bodey, Michael (11 April 2011). "Andrew Bolt to thunder on after Insiders". The Australian. Nationwide News Pty Limited. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  14. Knox, David (23 May 2011). "Week 23". TV Tonight. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
  15. Paddy Manning, Julian Lee (12 December 2011). "Rinehart goes into bat for low-rating Bolt". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
  16. Glenn Dyer (21 November 2012). "Bolt beats Insiders, thanks to his defender Lachlan". Crikey. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  17. Ben Butler (12 July 2013). "Ratings nothing to giggle about". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  18. "Soft Sunday viewing hints at summer". TV Tonight. 18 November 2013. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  19. Lallo, Michael (20 February 2016). "TV battles of 2016: Nine recruits key demographics, marches on Seven stronghold". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  20. Meade, Amanda (13 May 2016). "Celebrities protest at 'crazy' redundancy of Age arts critic". The Weekly Beast. The Guardian Australia. Archived from the original on 12 May 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
  21. Bolt, Andrew (13 May 2016). "Yes, of course I am starting small. But, damn, this is great – and growing". Herald Sun. Archived from the original on 17 May 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  22. Knox, David (13 May 2016). "Thursday 12 May 2016". TV Tonight. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  23. Knox, David (17 May 2016). "Monday 16 May 2016". TV Tonight. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  24. Knox, David (20 May 2016). "Thursday 19 May 2016". TV Tonight. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  25. Knox, David (10 November 2016). "US election dominates Pay TV". TV Tonight. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
  26. "Sky News on a roll as presenters bring in record number of viewers". The Australian. 16 July 2018. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  27. "Sky News delivers record-breaking audiences". Sky News. 16 July 2018. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  28. "Sky News reports new audience records for 2019". 29 July 2019.
  29. "Sky News records record ratings for COVID-19 crisis coverage". 13 April 2020.
  30. "Sky News wider distribution sees audience surge on multiple platforms". 6 July 2020.
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