Former Sunrise host Melissa Doyle in shock return to Seven Network with new TV gig

She spent 11 years co-hosting top breakfast show Sunrise and left the Seven Network in 2020. Now, Melissa Doyle is back with a surprising new hosting gig on the channel.

Melissa Doyle is back in the fold at Channel 7 some 18 months after finishing up with the network.

The veteran reporter and former Sunrise host will take the helm in the revamp of much loved TV format, This Is Your Life.

“I am honoured to continue the legacy of such an iconic program as This Is

Your Life,” Doyle said.

“I can’t wait to present the Big Red Book to some of our most loved Australians and together celebrate their remarkable lives and the people and moments which mean so much to them – and to all of us.”

This Is Your Life is originally an American format that launched first on radio in the US in 1948, hosted by Ralph Simpson.

Melissa Doyle returns to Channel Seven to host a revamped This Is Your Life.

The premise is that prominent and everyday extraordinary people go through their life as the host narrates from a ‘red book’ telling their story as they are presented with family, friends and colleagues.

It premiered in Australia with Mike Willesee as host in 1975. Subsequently the likes of Digby Wolfe, Roger Climpson and Mike Munro hosted the show up until 2008.

Actor/singer Ally Fowler (right) suprises Rowena Wallace at the 2000 charity spectacular of Mike Munro's - This Is Your Life.

Host Mike Munro of 'This Is Your Life' gives Evonne Goolagong Cawley a book on her life in 1996.

In 2011, the Nine network put Eddie McGuire in the host’s chair but that incarnation lasted just four episodes before being axed.

“This Is Your Life was an iconic and incredibly successful show for many years,” Seven chief content officer Angus Ross said. “We can’t wait to bring the format into 2022 and to welcome Mel Doyle back to Seven as its host. Mel is one of the best in the business. Intelligent, warm and engaging, she is the perfect person to present This Is Your Life and to celebrate the careers and achievements of some extraordinary Australians.”

Doyle, 52, finished up with Seven in 2020 after 25 years with the network. In that time she hosted many of Seven’s flagship shows including Sunrise, Sunday Night, 7News and Today Tonight.

Doyle joined Seven in 1995 as part of its Canberra bureau and sat alongside Sunrise co-host David Koch for 11 years until 2013.

Rebecca Gibney on This Is Your Life.

At the time of her departure in September 2020, Doyle told The Sunday Telegraph’s Stellar magazine that she wasn’t surprised by the management decision.

“I wouldn’t say it came as a total shock, I just felt really sad,’ the mother-of-two told the magazine. “I let myself have one day when I wallowed on the couch and had a gin and tonic a little earlier than I should have.”

Doyle, who also works for smoothfm radio, added: “I’ve had more opportunities than I could’ve imagined. I’ve covered more stories, been to more places and met more people than the 16-year-old girl who wanted to be a journalist could’ve dreamt of.”