The Project's replacement 10 News+ proves a complete disaster for the network as ratings plunge to devastating low
The hard-hitting current affairs series, hosted by former Channel Seven reporters Denham Hitchcock and Amelia Brace, launched last week a national average audience of just 291,000.
Those figures have only gotten worse, dropping to 244,000 by Tuesday and sliding further still to 205,000 by mid week.
Thursday's ratings keep skidding into oblivious, with just 159,000 national viewers tuning in.
On Friday, the situation was decidedly grim, with only 152,000 viewers switching on the in-depth news program.
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The current affairs program was slotted in to replace The Project after it was sensationally axed after 16 years.
The early figures have shocked industry insiders, after the show heavily promoted its investigation into Australian mother Debbie Voulgaris, who has been jailed for 16 years after smuggling 7kg of drugs into Taiwan.
Meanwhile, a very healthy 478,000 viewers tuned in last Friday to watch The Project's emotional finale.
It's not good news for the program after KIIS FM radio host Kyle Sandilands, 54, slammed the first episode, claiming it was difficult to watch.
'Being a Channel Seven network employee, I still committed to watch 7News but I recorded 10News+ and went back to watch it,' he explained on his radio show on Tuesday.
'I know it was the first episode and it's tough to critique the first, but it was weird. It was like ABC TV had sex with Ron Burgundy and that's what came out.'
Kyle said the news series didn't air 'one story I cared about.'
'They are nice folks at Channel 10, but they want to be this high and mighty. I wanted to give it a go, but I felt like it missed the mark,' he continued.
His co-host Jackie 'O' Henderson defended the series and insisted viewers should 'give it a chance'.
'I bet if you listened to the first show of you and [me], it would have been sh*t. You need to give things a chance,' she said.
The show also received mixed reviews from other viewers upon airing its debut episode last week, with many sharing their thoughts on X.
Several compared 10 News+ to A Current Affair with one posting: 'This is like ACA. Going to people's houses to talk and them avoiding the cameras.'
'You replaced The Project with a Temu ACA not seeing @theprojecttv is incredibly depressing. 10news+ sucks!' complained another viewer.
Someone else said: 'This is proper @Channel7 style commercial JUNK. It's like watching a cross between Fox News and Anchorman. Why the silly 'news' voices!?'
One more person tuning in at home asked: 'Anyone else bored so far?' while someone else said, 'please no more long investigation reports it's 6pm'.
'Oh dear. I thought I would give 10 News Plus a go. I feel like we have regressed 20 years! An inauthentic painfully choreographed attempt at current affairs!' one said.
'Dribble. Won't last the year' a viewer said with another adding, 'Felt like it was a Comedy Company parody from the 80s. The fist pump at the end? Yikes.'
Not everyone was so negative with one fan writing: 'Loving @10NewsPlus - strong launch story. Is this the new Schapelle Corby story we all need to know about. 10 news should be very proud.'
The show's hosts, recently poached Seven journalists Hitchcock and Brace, opened the episode by telling the audience what they can expect from the hard-hitting program.
'Firstly, we're not here to tell you what to think, to scare or depress you' Hitchcock said.
'We will give you facts, information you can trust – the truth,' Brace added.
'Of course, we are a daily news program, so you won't miss the stories that matter,' Hitchcock went on.
'But we are also digging deeper with investigations and original reporting you won't see anywhere else,' Brace said.
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The Guardian
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Five key moments in the murder trial of Australia's mushroom lunch cook Erin Patterson
The triple murder trial of Australia's mushroom lunch cook has attracted worldwide fascination and intense media attention for months. After seven days of deliberations, a supreme court jury found Erin Patterson, 50, guilty of murdering her parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, with poisoned beef wellingtons she served for lunch at her home in Leongatha, Victoria. She was also found guilty of attempting to murder the fourth lunch guest, Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson. Patterson had pleaded not guilty to all charges. Here's how the trial unfolded. For five weeks, Patterson quietly observed her murder trial from the courtroom dock. On day 24 of the trial, Patterson began to tell her side of events at a lunch she prepared for four elderly relatives. During days in the witness box, Patterson's raw and emotional evidence detailed her 'never-ending battle with low self-esteem', plans for weight loss surgery and struggles with an eating disorder. Questions from her defence lawyer, Colin Mandy SC, about her interest in wild mushrooms, elicited her history of foraging that began after observing mushrooms in the Korumburra botanic gardens during walks with her children in 2020, during the Covid pandemic. Patterson admitted she had never been diagnosed with ovarian cancer despite telling her lunch guests she may need treatment for this. Questioned about messaging her Facebook friends 'this family I swear to fucking god' in relation to her in-laws, Don and Gail, Patterson said she now felt 'ashamed'. Under cross-examination by prosecutor Nannette Rogers SC, Patterson denied deliberately lacing the beef wellingtons with death cap mushrooms but accepted the toxic fungi were in the dish she served on 29 July 2023. Patterson said she lied to police about dehydrating mushrooms because she was afraid she would be held responsible. She said on 1 August 2023 – three days after the lunch – she realised foraged mushrooms may have been in a container with store-bought dried mushrooms used in the beef wellingtons. Patterson said the realisation came after her estranged husband, Simon asked her: 'Is that how you poisoned my parents, using that dehydrator?' while she was in Monash hospital days after the lunch. She agreed she did not tell anyone about her realisation. In Patterson's final moments in the witness box, prosecutor Nanette Rogers made three suggestions to the accused. That she deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms in 2023, deliberately included them in beef wellingtons she served and did so intending to kill her guests. 'Disagree,' Patterson said to each. Ian Wilkinson entered the witness box on day six and began to tell the jury about a family lunch held on a winter's day in July 2023. Recalling the lunch invitation, Ian said he and Heather were 'very happy' to be invited to Patterson's house less than a fortnight before the meal. Ian had never been for a meal at Patterson's Leongatha home and no reason was given for the invitation. 'It seemed like maybe our relationship with Erin was going to improve,' he said. Inside Patterson's home, Ian recalled her plating the individual beef wellingtons on four large grey plates and a smaller plate – an 'orangey, tan' colour. Patterson, he said, ate from the odd plate. Patterson and her guests tucked into their meals – each allocated a single beef wellington – which looked like a pasty – with a side of mashed potatoes and green beans, Ian said. After the group had finished eating, Patterson 'announced that she had cancer', Ian said. 'In that moment, I thought, 'This is the reason we've been invited to lunch',' he said. Ian and Heather fell sick the evening of the lunch, the court heard. On day three of the trial, the prosecution called their first witness – Patterson's estranged husband, Simon. He detailed the couple's multiple separations before a final separation in 2015. Simon said despite being separated, the couple had a strong friendship – often holidaying together overseas with their children – until a dispute over child support in late 2022, when his accountant listed him as 'separated' on his tax return. After this, the 'chatty' nature of their digital correspondence ended. 'It became functional,' Simon told the court. During Simon's evidence, the court was shown text messages between the pair in the lead-up to the lunch. The day before, Simon texted Patterson to say he felt 'too uncomfortable' to attend. In Patterson's reply, she said the news was 'really disappointing' and that she had 'spent a small fortune on beef eye fillet' for the meal. 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How Australian death cap mushroom trial unfolded - as Erin Patterson found guilty of murder
Why you can trust Sky News An Australian woman has been found guilty of murdering three people after serving them poisonous mushrooms. Mother-of-two Erin Patterson, 50, has been convicted of the 2023 murders of her former parents-in-law, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail Patterson's sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, along with the attempted murder of Reverend Ian Wilkinson, Heather's husband. Prosecutors said she served guests beef wellington knowing it contained deadly death cap mushrooms, also known as Amanita phalloides. After a nine-week trial in Morwell, Victoria, the jury concluded she poisoned the guests on purpose and rejected her defence that the deaths were a "terrible accident". A sentencing date for Patterson is yet to be scheduled, but the charges carry a maximum life sentence. Here is everything you need to know about the case. An unexpected invitation Patterson invited the four victims for lunch at her home in Leongatha, a small town in Melbourne, on 29 July 2023. Her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, was also invited but didn't attend. Text messages read out in court revealed Patterson found his decision not to come "really disappointing" as she had spent time and money preparing the "special meal". He said he had listed them as financially separated on a tax return, which triggered a series of child support payments that meant he would no longer pay their two children's private school fees directly, he told the court. Speaking to the court through tears, Mr Patterson said: "I was sure she was very upset about that." Reverend Wilkinson said he and his wife were surprised by the invitation, telling the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC): "There was no reason given for the lunch, and I remember talking to Heather wondering why the sudden invitation." But he said the pair were "very happy to be invited". Patterson's daughter, according to ABC, told the court that her mother organised a trip to the cinema for her and her brother in advance of the lunch. Sole survivor gives details about the lunch Reverend Wilkinson told the court Heather and Gail offered to help plate up the food, but Patterson rejected the offer. Each plate had a serving of mashed potatoes, green beans and an individual beef wellington. Patterson said the mushrooms were a mixture of button mushrooms from a supermarket and dried mushrooms bought at an Asian grocery store several months ago, which were in a hand-labelled packet. Reverend Wilkinson said the four guests were given large grey dinner plates, while Patterson ate from a smaller, tan-coloured plate. He said he remembered his wife pointing this out after they became ill. The reverend said he and his wife ate their full servings, while Don ate his own and half of his wife's. Reverend Wilkinson said that after the meal, Patterson told them she had been diagnosed with cancer, suggesting the lunch was put together so that she could ask them the best way to tell her children about the illness. What makes death cap mushrooms so lethal? The death cap is one of the most toxic mushrooms on the planet and is involved in the majority of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide. The species contains three main groups of toxins: amatoxins, phallotoxins, and virotoxins. From these, amatoxins are primarily responsible for the toxic effects in humans. The alpha-amanitin amatoxin has been found to cause protein deficit and ultimately cell death, although other mechanisms are thought to be involved. The liver is the main organ that fails due to the poison, but other organs are also affected, most notably the kidneys. The effects usually begin after a short latent period and include gastrointestinal disorders followed by jaundice, seizures, coma, and, eventually, death. The prosecution said she did this to justify the children's absence. The defence does not dispute that Patterson lied about having cancer. When asked why she lied about her health, Patterson told the court it was partly to elicit sympathy from her husband's relatives, as she felt they were growing apart. "I didn't want their care of me to stop, so I kept it going. I shouldn't have done it," she said, adding: "I did lie to them." Defendant wanted to serve 'something special' While on the stand at the beginning of June, Patterson said she might have accidentally included foraged mushrooms in the fatal lunch. She said she brought expensive ingredients and researched ideas to find "something special" to serve. She said she deviated from her chosen recipe to improve the "bland" flavour. However, she denied that a series of photos showing mushrooms placed on weighing scales in her kitchen was evidence she had been measuring a "fatal dose" to serve to her lunch guests. Prosecutor Nanette Rogers asked: "I suggest that you were weighing these death cap mushrooms so that you could calculate the weight required for the administration of a fatal dose for one person. Agree or disagree?" "Disagree," Patterson replied. The mother of two said she began foraging for mushrooms around the towns of Korumburra and Leongatha during the COVID lockdowns in 2020 and would use a food dehydrator to dry and preserve them. Prosecutors earlier claimed the defendant denied ever owning a food dehydrator, but police traced one owned by her to a nearby dump. It was later found to contain death cap mushrooms. Two mobile phones she owned were also reset to factory status three times. Patterson told the court she disposed of the dehydrator before a visit from child protection, who were investigating her living arrangements. She said the phones were wiped because she panicked during the police investigation. "I was scared of the conversation that might flow about the meal and the dehydrator," she said. "I was scared they would blame me for it, for making everyone sick. I was scared that they would remove the children." Patterson talks through tears Lawyer Mr Mandy also questioned Patterson about a series of expletive-laden messages she sent to friends about the Patterson family. "I wish I'd never said it. I feel ashamed for saying it and I wish that the family didn't have to hear that I said that," Patterson told the court about the messages. Talking through tears, she added: "I was really frustrated with Simon, but it wasn't Don and Gail's fault." The court previously heard the relationship between Patterson and her estranged husband deteriorated shortly before the murders due to a disagreement over child support. Patterson's children 'ate leftovers after guests went to hospital' All four victims fell ill and were experiencing severe vomiting and diarrhoea by midnight on the day of the lunch. Police previously said the symptoms of all four of those who became ill were consistent with poisoning from death cap mushrooms, which are responsible for 90% of all toxic mushroom-related fatalities. Patterson said she also became ill hours after eating the meal. Her daughter, according to the ABC, told the court she remembers Patterson telling her she had diarrhoea that night. Patterson claimed she and her children ate leftovers from the beef wellington on the same day. Her daughter told the court she remembered this, and that her mum didn't eat much because she was still feeling unwell. The mum said she scraped the mushrooms off the plates in advance because she knew her children didn't like them. Patterson went to hospital two days after the lunch, where she initially discharged herself against medical advice, the court was told. A nurse at the hospital where she was treated told the court she "didn't look unwell like Ian and Heather", who were at the same hospital. Gail and Heather died on Friday 4 August 2023, while Don died a day later. Reverend Wilkinson spent seven weeks in hospital but survived. Days after the deaths, police opened a homicide investigation and confirmed Patterson was a suspect. She was charged on 2 November 2023 and convicted in July 2025.
