August 12, 2015 7:00am by David Farrar

Story off to a solid start

According to ratings statistics website Throng, Story – co-hosted by Duncan Garner and Heather du Plessis-Allan – kicked off last night with an audience of 276,780.

So how does that stack up?

Well, last year Cambell Live averaged 219,406 viewers per night and that dropped to nearly 190,000 before its demise this year.

That said, at its best Cambell Live enjoyed average ratings of more than 280,000 viewers per night, and it’s important to note that many viewers will have tuned in last night simply to see what the new show was like.

It would appear that some 100,000 viewers switched from TV One’s Seven Sharp to see what Story had on offer but Mike Hosking and Toni Street still drew more than 28,000 more viewers than the new kids on the block.

Viewers and critics praised Story’s straight-up-the-guts approach, getting right into the news without too much delay. In their debut episode, Garner and du Plessis-Allan tackled dodgy real estate agents, – ultimately resulting in one agent losing their job – criminals tampering with ankle bracelets and a light piece about gaming.

It was a good first episode. The real estate CEO looked incredibly uncomfortable under HDPA’s interviewing.