Paul Little: If you want current affairs, try weekend telly

With the exception of the passing of Halley's Comet, few night-time events can have been more eagerly anticipated than the debut of new hosts on TVNZ 1's Seven Sharp.

A key difference being that, in the latter case, there were not one but two glittering celestial entities to be observed.

On social media, on broadcast media and print, in the highways and hedges, in cafes and workshops, on buses and from rooftops people asked themselves and each other: would Seven Sharp's news hosts meet the challenge of Three's The Project?

It's a wonder the collective intake of breath at one minute to seven on Monday night didn't create some sort of unprecedented weather event.

I didn't watch. Free-to-air TV in real time is not on my – as it were – radar these days.

But I did watch the build-up and the reaction, and although it would be going too far to say I felt people's pain, God knows I heard enough of it.

The main theme of discussion beforehand was that the land of seven o'clock TV had been laid waste by vandals and Philistines and the people prayed for a saviour to renew it and bring joy and happiness back to, if not their world, at least a corner of their lounge.

There was lots of talk about thinking outside the square and brave strategies – which is what employing two highly qualified and likable people passes for these days.

Whatever your feelings about the show itself, you have to admit that a world in which intelligent, thoughtful people can devote so much of their mental energy to something as inconsequential as 20-plus minutes of commercial television as though it matters can't have too many things wrong with it.

And the worry-hunters found plenty to keep them happy when the blessed event finally came to pass.

The show, they said, was awkward, stilted and the set was too pink. The presenters were too close to the camera. They were too far away.

I didn't see it so I have no opinion on the show, its format, its set, its topics, its tone, its aims or it presenters.

But listening to the lamentations of disappointment, it was clear for many the main criticism was the show did not reintroduce the current affairs broadcasting standards of the BBC in its 1960s heyday.

Gentler remonstrances had a tone of: "Why, even Paul Holmes used to …"

But where is it written that at 7pm on weekday nights there shall be half an hour of serious current affairs on free-to-air television? Or trivial current affairs for that matter?

Seven Sharp – and The Project – are best thought of as light entertainment shows built around events of the day. Fine.

They are entitled to be whatever kind of show they want to be in the interests of scraping together some sort of audience at a time where viewer numbers are, to put it mildly, not what they used to be.

Perhaps this trauma will finally cause those who yearn for the current affairs glory of yore to turn their faces away from the past and, if not to embrace the future, at least accept the present.

Like me, they have every right not to watch Seven Sharp or anything else. In this way they can never be disappointed.

There is as good current affairs TV being made today as there ever was.

It just happens not to be right after the news. It's on the weekends at times that may be inconvenient to some but thanks to the glories of the internet and other technology we can now watch our free-to-air TV whenever we want to.

If that's what you want, it's easy to find.