Veteran newsreader Sharyn Ghidella axed from Brisbane evening news bulletin

A veteran Channel 7 newsreader has revealed how she found out she’d been brutally axed from the station.

Veteran newsreader Sharyn Ghidella has been brutally axed from her position as co-host of Seven’s Brisbane evening news bulletin following 17-years on air.

A confounded Ghidella, one of Seven’s most popular presenters north of the border whose talents have added value to programs including Weekend Sunrise and, previously, Nine’s Today Show, informed colleagues of her ousting on Friday morning.

“Greeting all … After 17 years at Seven, apparently, my time is up,” she said in an internal staff email.

“It’s not quite how I expected it to end after 38 years in the industry, but hey, that’s TV.

“Coombesy (Brisbane News Director Michael Coombes) has kindly offered me a send-off on air but I’m not sure I have the intestinal fortitude for a long goodbye so I’m making a clean break and I probably won’t get the chance to bid you farewell in person.

“Please know that I have held all of you in the highest regard during my time on the mountain and I thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for everything you did to ensure we made it to air each night.”

Channel 7 newsreader Sharyn Ghidella has been axed from the station.

The newsreader was notified she’d been sacked while having her hair done for a work commitment.

Ghidella, who co-anchored the 6pm nightly news with Max Futcher, is one of a host of veteran news staff who have been shown the door under Seven’s rookie new news boss Anthony De Ceglie.

In a Facebook post 50-something Ghidella, who has presented the news for 38 years, added the past couple of weeks had been “miserable” at Seven.

Sharyn Ghidella was a co-anchor of Brisbane’s 6pm nightly news.

“When you work in TV for as long as I have, not a day goes by when you aren’t expecting the proverbial tap on the shoulder. After 38 years, my shoulder tap has finally come.

“A long list of talented, loyal and dedicated employees have been shown the door, in what seems to have been an interminable process of pulling the Band-Aid off slowly when it comes to removing what’s been deemed excess stock from the building.

“It’s been heartbreaking to watch.”

Ghidella joins Seven’s former news director Craig McPherson, Sydney news director Neil Warren, Melbourne news director Shaun Menegola, Spotlight executive producer Mark Llewellyn and senior reporter Robert Ovadia who has lodged an unfair dismissal case against Seven in De Ceglie’s brutal bloodbath.

Her dismissal precedes De Ceglie’s plans to further shake up the Sydney news bulletin with the addition of a comedian and an astrologer, an appointment ex news director McPherson is said to have pushed back against.