Annette Sharp: It’s time ageing TV stars on Seven and Nine made way for up-and-comers

The major stars on channels 7 and 9 are all veterans, with an average age of 50-plus, writes Annette Sharp. Surely it’s time to promote some new talent? TELL US WHAT YOU THINK.

After 66 years and almost a million hours on the dial, the head gasket of Australian free-to-air television has finally blown.

The telltale signs have been apparent for years, but the return of retired variety show host Daryl Somers at the helm of Seven’s Dancing With The Stars: All Stars during the fiercely contested opening weeks of the free-to-air television ratings season is surely all the evidence one needs to recognise the industry is on its arthritic knees.

Daryl Somers was reinstated as host of Dancing With The Stars: All Stars. Picture: Nigel Wright.

Over at Nine, the decision to dispatch serial ratings flop Karl Stefanovic to interview Scott and Jenny Morrison for 60 Minutes last Sunday — rather than Nine’s expert political reporter Chris Uhlmann, or one of 60 Minutes’ five regular interviewers — speaks to the growing desperation of industry bosses, who routinely compromise the integrity of their news products in cliched marketing stunts that leverage the declining audience of one program against the declining audience of another.

Seven’s decision to reinstate the 70-year-old Somers as host of the 19th season of Dancing With The Stars — at the expense of someone younger and funnier (as in 2020 winner Celia Pacquola, or perhaps Lawrence Mooney) — is a strike against Seven and a blow to the ranks of undiscovered and burgeoning talent across the country.

Somers’ return also raises the average age (though perhaps lowers the height) of Seven’s on-air presenters.

Why not make way for younger talent like Celia Pacquola to shine through, asks Annette Sharp. Picture: Channel 10

He joins a roster that includes Sonia Kruger, 56, Larry Emdur, 57, David Koch, 65, Natalie Barr, 53, Kylie Gillies, 54, Samantha Armytage (returning in Farmer Wants A Wife), 45, Ricki-Lee Coulter, 36, Joh Griggs, 48, and Mark Ferguson, 55.

This brings the average age of Seven’s talent pool, with Somers in the mix as represented by this group, to 53.9 years – older than Nine’s current pool based on its present roster of big hitters.

For the purposes of this exercise this writer has tallied the ages of Nine’s Scott Cam, age 59, Stefanovic, 47, Ally Langdon, 42, Richard Wilkins, 67, Liz Hayes, 65, Liam Bartlett, 60, Tara Brown, 53, Eddie McGuire, 57, Peter Overton, 55, Shaynna Blaze, 58, Magda Szubanski, 60, Hamish Blake and Andy Lee, both aged 40, and Sophie Monk, 42.

This group’s average age is 53.2. That’s still vastly older than the nation’s population average, which in 2020 was 37.8 years.

Seven star Sonia Kruger.

Channel 9’s Karl Stefanovic.

For decades Seven has promoted itself as the nation’s “family” television choice. In chasing Nine’s more serious news and sport-oriented audience, Seven has sacrificed some of its youthful appeal.

It certainly, like Nine, has forgotten to throw caution to the wind and take a few risks.

Dancing With The Stars is a program that relies on one thing above all else — a revolving roster of stars. Without these stars, there is no show — and for this reason the program has been routinely rested since its launch in 2004.

When the ex-wife of a retired Australian cricket captain (Kyly Clarke), the current wife of a former Sydney Swans player (Lynette Bolton) and the son of a rival TV network’s entertainment reporter (Christian Wilkins) are billed as “stars” of your show, your program is in its death throes, as too is the industry that has failed to invest in its future by bringing on new stars.

Today, tragically, social media “followings” have become the yardstick by which a “star” is measured.

It’s plain to see that it’s a short-lived fix, and one that comes at the expense of working comedians, writers, artists, musicians and actors — the very people in whose hands the industry might prosper.

Got a news tip? Email [e-mail]