Sunday Night shake-up: Channel Seven executive producer to be replaced by Nine veteran

SEVEN’S flagship program Sunday Night has undergone another shake-up with its current executive producer Steven Taylor abruptly leaving, to be replaced by 22-year Nine veteran Hamish Thomson.

SEVEN’S flagship program Sunday Night has undergone another shake-up with its current executive producer Steven Taylor abruptly leaving, to be replaced by 22-year Nine veteran Hamish Thomson.

Sources claim Taylor — who was promoting the program via his Twitter account on Sunday — was told today he was no longer needed on the current affairs program by Seven’s director of news and public affairs, Craig McPherson.

Hamish Thomson will join the Sunday Night crew as an executive producer. Picture: LinkedIn

The controversial move comes just 18 months after Taylor was made EP of the flagship program after its former producer, Mark Llewellyn, was expelled for physically attacking producer Paul Waterhouse.

Lacklustre and inconsistent ratings is believed to be behind the move, a claim Seven deny.

Combined, Sunday Night’s metropolitan and regional national audiences averaged 1.24 million viewers in weeks 7 to 29, narrowly beating 60 Minutes, which had 1.10 million viewers.

In metropolitan markets, Sunday Night averaged 778,000 viewers, compared to 765,000 viewers for 60 Minutes.

Thomson recently made headlines after it was revealed the former 60 Minutes producer passed up the disastrous Beirut child kidnapping story, and was made redundant not long after.

Thomson was said to have considered the story of Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner for a one-off episode of Inside Story, however gave it up ­because it was too expensive and fraught with risk.

McPherson, who is reportedly a huge fan of Thomson’s having worked with him at Nine, confirmed the news with Confidential today and said: “Hamish is one of the most successful public affairs producers in the country with a terrific eye for stories that resonate far and wide. He’ll provide astute leadership and relentless drive to the very talented Sunday Night team.”

Tim Worner, CEO of Seven West Media thanked Mr Taylor — a former ABC Foreign Correspondent producer — for his outstanding dedication to the program’s success during his tenure.

“Steve has been a driving force on Sunday Night and under his impassioned leadership, it is the most-watched public affairs program in 2016,” Mr Worner said.

Thomson began his career at The Daily Telegraph and The Australian, and prior to joining Nine in 1994 was managing director of news and information outlet Thomson Media Group.