TV3 has a rethink on ‘Life’

TV3 is moving afternoon chat show Late Lunch Live to an evening slot and abandoning a plan to fill the nightly 7.30pm slot with a new magazine show called Life.

Late Lunch Live, presented by Martin King and Lucy Kennedy, will be renamed The 7 O'Clock Show and go out in an hour-long slot on weeknights from February 16th. Meanwhile, Life will air on Fridays at 8pm for a limited initial run of five weeks.

A spokeswoman for TV3 said the broadcaster had "a rethink" on Life.

The format had been billed to advertising buyers as a daily studio-based programme that included reports from around the country on “the stories and events that matter”. Filming for the Sybil Mulcahy-hosted show began late last year.

TV3 said it was happy with growth of almost 60 per cent in the recent viewing figures for Late Lunch Live, which has been on air for a year and a half. A live chat show in peak-time was "long overdue", said group head of daytime Victoria Quinn.