Nine newsreader Peter Overton off air after worrying health update
Peter Overton’s latest on-air absence has prompted concerns and questions Nine has refused to answer.
Peter Overton’s latest on-air absence has prompted concern within increasingly comms-averse and locked-down Nine.
On Thursday Nine failed to answer a series of questions relating to injuries its highest paid newsreader sustained in a recent accident.
More frank about the incident was the newsreader’s wife, Jess Rowe, who took to Instagram on Monday to inform her 190k social media followers husband “Petee” had “badly injured” his wrist in a fall.
Former TV personality turned podcaster Rowe posted: “Petee recently had a nasty fall at home.”
The couple live in an $11 million five-bedroom house in Vaucluse they bought four years ago.
The fall was serious enough for 59-year-old Overton to be admitted to hospital and undergo surgery.
Rowe’s post, which included a shot of Overton reclining in a hospital bed with a heavily plastered left arm (albeit slightly out of focus and in the background behind his wife), included details of the surgery.
“He has had a four hour operation which involved a bone graft, 3 metal plates and various screws. He’s now under strict instructions to rest & recover. So it will be some time before he’s back on screen,” Rowe wrote, failing to disclose how Overton sustained the injury.
In a separate account of the fall, this column hears Overton informed Nine bosses he fell while helping unload solar panels from the back of a ute – a surprise to colleagues who note he’s hardly the handyman type.
Nine’s million-dollar newsreader is said to have suffered a concussion in the fall, worrying TV bosses.
On Thursday, as Nine stonewalled our attempts to clarify the concussion claims, Rowe was some 7000km away in Phuket enjoying a mother/daughter Schoolies week with the couple’s eldest daughter Allegra.
While spruiking the delights of a swish resort, Rowe offered a shout out to her injured husband: “Despite Petee’s accident – he’s in the best of hands at home – we were adamant we still celebrate this time for (Allegra).”
It was much the same back in January when Rowe, who has no affiliation with Nine and last held a regular role on TV on Ten’s Studio 10 in 2018, took the PR lead on her social media account to disclose the reason for her husband’s then weeks-long absence from work.
Overton, who should have been in the chair helming Nine’s top rating evening news bulletin following a Christmas break, instead was off air and in recovery for weeks following his latest health scare.
While Nine kept silent on the matter Rowe informed her followers husband “Petee” was taking leave to have a polyp removed from his famous vocal chords – not an insignificant matter when your voice is your stock in trade.
For publicly listed media company Nine – which would once have insisted on owning the message, and profiting from it – it makes for a puzzling new business practice.
Overton’s latest fall is just the latest in a long line of illnesses and misadventures for the newsreader.
In 2015 he underwent spinal surgery on a ruptured disc.
Two years later he had a lymphoma scare that turned out to be a virus and not blood cancer.
Since 2020 he has repeatedly gone under the knife following multiple melanoma diagnoses.
These include the removal of one from his hairline that year and having three removed from his back in 2021.
In 2022 he presented the news with a bloodied eye, telling viewers it was a subconjunctival haemorrhage or burst blood vessel.
Last year he was off air for weeks in April following a hip replacement.
Georgie Gardner also absent
Georgie Gardner’s absence from Nine’s newsdesk on Thursday night was noted during a turbulent week in which her employer Nine took the axe to newsroom jobs.
Gardner has been filling in for Peter Overton since the start of the week but on Thursday the 6pm newsreader’s seat was occupied by weekend newsreader Deb Knight.
Gardner’s $600,000 contract is said to be up for renewal at the end of this year and insiders claim her sometimes brusque manner has made her unpopular in some circles within Nine.
It is just over a year since Gardner reportedly lashed out at a news producer on the studio floor after not being informed of a line-up change within a news bulletin.
The producer filed a complaint with Nine management as Gardner embarked on two weeks leave.
Gardner and newly ousted weather presenter Amber Sherlock also are known to have historically clashed in Nine’s makeup department where Gardner apparently doesn’t like standing idly around waiting for more junior members of staff, like Sherlock, to be made up.
How very strange, then, was Gardner’s unexpected tribute to newly dumped Sherlock at the tail of Wednesday night’s bulletin.
“Before we go tonight, we’d like to extend a farewell to our colleague Amber Sherlock,” Gardner said.
“For a number of years, she has been a valued member of the news team, bringing us our weather reports. I’d like to thank Amber for her contribution, and we wish her and her family the best.”
Sherlock, best known for 2017’s “Jacketgate” affair, is among staff let go by Nine during the week.
Also gone, reportedly along with 50 others, are Adelaide presenter Kate Collins, Brisbane sports presenter Jonathan Uptin and Newcastle newsreader Gavin Morris.
These departures follow those of Weekend Today presenter Clint Stanaway and Melbourne weather presenter Livinia Nixon.
GOLDEN BACHELOR TO RETURN
The Golden Bachelor will proceed to a second series with broadcaster Nine now on a hunt for a famous single man.
Despite season one’s lacklustre ratings, Nine is in pre-production for a second series having commissioned two series from production partner Warner in 2024.
This column hears Nine hopes to replicate the success of the 2017 season of The Bachelorette broadcast on Ten and starring Sophie Monk.
The series rated well and ended with Monk taking home Sydney publican Stu Laundy for what turned out to be a brief and bumpy fling.
Nine and Warner are now casting the latest Golden Bachelor season.
While this column can think of a long list of famous antipodean men over 50 who are single or divorced – Sam Neill, Keith Urban, Anthony La Paglia, Paul Hogan, radio presenter Ross Stevenson and Andrew “Twiggy” Forest to name a few – we can’t think of one legitimately famous man who might choose to be associated with the franchise.
Of course the question is how famous does one need to be for such a reality show – and whether famous-ish will do?
If so, might Southern Highlands horse breeder Richard Lavender, ex of program host Sam Armytage, could well be a contender.
The casting news comes on the heels of our report last week that the program’s star, Barry “Bear” Myrden, came unstuck after consuming a few drinks at the Melbourne Cup.
KYLE PULLS PIN
Kyle Sandilands pulled the pin on his appearance at Supanova Comic Con & Gaming’s event in Brisbane last weekend.
Following overwhelming backlash on the event’s social media account, Sandilands took to the airwaves on KIIS FM two days prior to his scheduled Saturday appearance to announce “I’m out!”
“I’ve said I’m not going to that piece of shit,” he said.
“(It’s the) perfect excuse for me to get out of that shit event.”
Sandilands, who has a cameo in action-comedy film Zombie Plane, was to have appeared on a panel with some of the film’s stars including Brian Austin Green, John Jarrett, Cody Simpson, Lincoln Lewis and Sophie Monk.
But following what Sandilands called a “meltdown by a couple of lunatics” he withdrew from “that stupid comic book thing”.
Not one to toe-the-line for long concerning company ethos, Sandilands took aim at KIIS FM’s accountants that same day.
“(Does management) get angry when the $10g goes off?” he asked producer Jaimee “Mayo” Hassos in an attempt to ascertain whether KIIS FM management baulked at handing out cash prizes to listeners.
The question comes after the radio’s management invested heavily in expensive cash giveaway promotions this year and last to coincide with the radio program’s launch in the Melbourne market.
“They’re trying to screw the listener over. Is that what you’re saying? It sounds like if someone dared win it, you’d get scolded behind the scenes. That’s not allowed. That’s illegal,” Sandilands fired up.
“If anyone gives you grief because we give away too much shit, you tell ‘em, ‘What you’re doing to me’s illegal’. Then you come and tell me. You don’t get bully-boyed by the accountants who run the joint. They’re only here because of the success of Jackie and I anyway. When we started there was one accountant. Now there’s 900 and they think they’re running the joint. Wrong! We’re running the joint!”
We can only imagine Sandilands thinks of the communications watchdog’s ACMA decision to impose a new licence condition banning the Kyle & Jackie O radio show from using “strong and explicit sexual references” including “spoken words, innuendo and/or sound effects that would be understood by the ordinary reasonable listener as having a sexual meaning”.
LAWS AND FORDHAM: TIL DEATH DO US PART
How fascinating the brouhaha over claims Ben Fordham’s 2GB radio show attempted to hijack John Laws’ death announcement last Sunday for his Monday show.
Two things this column knows for certain.
Fordham’s late father John started and ran (with his capable wife Veronica) a talent agency, The Fordham Company, that made a small fortune from his long and lucrative association with radio star Laws, for decades the highest paid man on Australian radio.
That association stretched back to the decade before the 1999 Cash for Comment controversy which saw Laws and his 2UE stablemate Alan Jones accused to pocketing huge sums for endorsements.
John “Fordo” Fordham was called to testify during the Australian Broadcasting Authority inquiry about the agreements he had put together on Laws’ behalf.
Having walked through fire together and survived it, the Fordham family and John Laws had forged a close association that would stand the test of time.
It stands to reason then that the Golden Tonsils might have had a conversation with the late agent’s son and media commentator Ben – correction, sons, there’s also brother Nick who took his father’s place at the helm of the family talent agency – about being first with the news of his death.
That’s how trust and loyalty works, the first thing I know.
The second thing is that the statement issued by The Fordham Company on Sunday night announcing Laws’ death had an error in it.
According to the undated statement, which landed in this writer’s in-tray at 8.43pm on Sunday night, Laws died “yesterday”, ie Saturday.
He didn’t. He died on Sunday.
It’s easy to see why the timeline suggested by the statement inferred it was due to go out Monday – after Ben Fordham had taken his place behind the mic at 2GB for his breakfast show.
Fordham this week said the suggestion he’s tried to embargo the announcement was “horseshit”.
While it’s possible it was just a typo, an error, it has to be said that it’s a pretty significant one to make in a statement designed to do one thing, announce the death of a family friend of 40 years standing.
Bizarrely, we have rule-breaker Kyle Sandilands to thank for not quietly respecting any embargo plans anyone might have had.
At 7.20pm on Sunday Sandilands, who rarely posts on social media, announced the death of his “mentor” and “mate” Laws’ on media platform X.
It was Sandilands’ first original X post in over three years. (In the intervening years he has re-posted his manager on four occasions).
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Originally published as Nine newsreader Peter Overton off air after worrying health update
