The Rundown: Adelaide duo hot tip for Nova breakfast; Kate Ritchie’s new crime drama
An Adelaide trio have officially been announced as the team to replace Chrissie, Sam and Browny on Nova’s breakfast shift.
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Adelaide broadcasters Ben Harvey, Liam Stapleton and their long-time producer Belle Jackson have been officially revealed as Nova’s new breakfast team.
Ben and Liam have led the ratings after joining Adelaide breakfast three years ago.
As forecast in the Rundown column on Wednesday, the relatively unknown trio will take over from Chrissie Swan, Sam Pang and Jonathan Brown who will depart in December after seven years.
“We are all so grateful for the opportunity to wake up with the people of Melbourne every day – we love the city and can’t wait to call it our home,’’ Harvey said.
“Melbourne has Australia’s most competitive radio market and we are looking forward to proving ourselves against some of the biggest shows in the country.”
Ben & Liam previously had three years as hosts of Triple J’s breakfast show and in August last year Ben & Liam’s Lunchbreak was introduced in Sydney and Melbourne.
Stapleton said: “We’re so stoked to be dropping the ‘Producer’ part from Producer Belle’s title.
“She’s done the hard yards with us for the last five years and we can’t wait to have her on-air more. Belle moved from Melbourne to Sydney, to Adelaide and back to Melbourne for the show.
“We introduced her to our hometown and now she’s going to return the favour. We can’t wait for Melbourne to fall in love with her and put up with us.”
Chrissie Swan’s next move was announced on Thursday with the former breakfast host to have her own national show next year.
The Chrissie Swan Show will launch in January, airing from 2-4pm.
“It was a dream come true to be part of Nova’s Melbourne breakfast show and to connect with our listeners,” said Swan, who worked in breakfast radio for 20 years.
“I’ve achieved so much professionally and personally over the past seven years, and I’m thrilled to take on this new opportunity to embrace a new audience right across the country in this brand-new timeslot.”
Swan, a contestant on Australia’s first Big Brother series in 2003 and the third series of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!, has also appeared on The Circle and this year hosted Would I Lie To You, was a regular on The Project and most recently appeared as a judge on The Masked Singer.
Peter Charlton, Nova Entertainment chief executive said: “The 2pm to 4pm timeslot is important to both listeners and advertisers, with a highly engaged audience often on the school run. Chrissie has really broad appeal and we can’t wait to share her charismatic broadcasting style with a national audience in this marquee day part”.
Kate Ritchie’s new crime drama
Ritchie is part of the cast of the Channel 7 crime drama The Claremont Murders.
The two part drama was filmed in August.
Ritchie has in recent years often voiced a desire to return to acting. She is currently on air as a judge on Australia’s Got Talent.
After a year punctuated by various absences from her radio gig and a drink driving issue, Ritchie has taken extended leave from her Nova Drive show, citing a need to “re-energise.”
“This past year has been hectic for my family and I,” she said of her decision.
“I have had much change, like many of you, in a short space of time and it has taken its toll. So I’ve made the decision to take a short break to have more time for myself and my family to re-energise.
“I will return to Nova’s Kate, Tim & Joel Drive Show in the New Year.”
Should she not return Nova as planned, the network has a ready made replacement in the form Ricki-Lee Coulter. Coulter has stood in for Ritchie on multiple occasions during the past year.
Ritchie will not be attending the Australian Commercial Radio Awards in Sydney on Saturday.
Bickmore and Grimshaw sign offs loom
The end is nigh for two of TV’s powerful female presenters.
Following their recent announcements that they would be quitting their respective shows at the end of the year, the final episode dates have been confirmed for A Current Affair’s Tracy Grimshaw and The Project’s Carrie Bickmore.
Grimshaw will farewell A Current Affair on Thursday, November 24, after 17 years as host, but will remain a part of Channel 9.
“I’m going to take a year off, because I feel like I need that I need a one year sabbatical where I just can clear my head and learn to sleep again, rest my stupid brain. And then after that, I think I’ll probably be bored enough to want to come back, I reckon,” she told 2GB recently.
Channel 10 confirmed Bickmore will sign off from The Project on Wednesday, November 30.
Bickmore, a founding co-host of The Project, has announced she will leave the show at the end of November after 13 years.
Bickmore is not just quitting The Project, she is departing Channel 10.
Bickmore is expected to put more time into her HIT Network early drive show with Tommy Little next year. The popular pair will not be moving timeslots.
The gold Logie winner is unlikely to rush into a new TV gig. She is in the unique position where she can sit back and wait for opportunities to come their way – and there is no doubt she will have plenty of offers.
ABC farewells the good doctor
TV’s most famous Time Lord has left the ABC after more than 50 years.
Dr Who is moving from the ABC to Disney+, after the BBC inked a deal with the streaming service.
“After a long friendship, spanning more than 50 years, the universe has called the Doctor in a different direction and Doctor Who will no longer appear on the ABC beyond the current season,” the ABC said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The BBC has announced a new partnership with Disney+ to continue the series. ABC audiences can currently enjoy past seasons of Doctor Who, including the recent Centenary Special, on ABC iview.
“We are incredibly grateful to the generations of Whovians who have enjoyed Doctor Who with us on the ABC.
“Everyone at the ABC wishes the Doctor well on their adventures and we hope the Time Lord will visit us again at some stage in the future.”
Block’s $20m finale
The sale of the grand country mansions created on The Block will be seen as part of the Grand Final episode of The Block on Sunday, November 6.
More than $20 million is expected to change hands for the auction of the five enormous mini estates created in Gisborne South by this year’s Blockheads – Tom and Sarah-Jane, Rachel and Ryan, Ankur and Sharon, Dylan and Jenny and Oz and Omar.
Each home is on the market with price estimates of between $4m – $4.4m on the listings.
As is par for the course with The Block, the auctions will happen in private the day before with the drama captured for the finale episode. Regular Block buyer Danny Wallis is expected to be in the hunt for at least one of the properties this year having inspected each home during the construction stage.
The Blockheads have spent 12 weeks building 500-square metre homesteads complete with tennis courts, pools and even a winery on 10 acres of land each in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges, making it the biggest Block ever.
The show has been a ratings winner this season from episode 1.
The Block heads to Hampton East next year.
Crazy new dating show set for our screens
FBoy Island … the name alone of this ‘dating’ series is enough to get me to tune in as women try to weed the stayers from the players from a group of would be lovers.
It is either the worst named show on TV or the best, but whatever you think of it, it is certainly an attention grabber.
Foxtel will make an Australian version of this wild new hook up series that will be released next year.
The show, based on an American format, sees three women presented with a group of 24 great looking guys in an exotic paradise setting and they need to try to find the blokes who are serious about falling in love while identifying and booting out the ones just there for a romp in the sand.
The nice guys that are eliminated from the competition are sent to a mansion called ‘Nice Guy Grotto’, while the playboys (aka fboys), also known as Lotharios, are sent to the luxury-lite ‘Limbro’, an area of bamboo huts and hay-filled pillows.
Seb Costello to become a dad
Channel 9 reporter Seb Costello is to be a dad. Costello and his wife Bree are expecting their first child in early 2023.
“We are a few months down the journey now, but that first scan where the obstetrician got out the ultrasound and there was a vaguely humanoid shape and they print off a little polaroid for you, staring at that polaroid I was just filled with a type of love that I had never ever experienced,” he told Dee Dee Dunleavy on 3AW afternoons.
“It was pretty phenomenal that moment. We are very very excited and I will tell you who is even more excited is Peter and Tanya Costello, my parents, because it is their first grandchild.”
Costello reports for 9’s A Current Affair.
Breaking hearts for another season
Netflix’s hit reboot of Heartbreak High has been renewed for a second season.
The show, which has been met with global acclaim, is a reimagining of the classic Australian series that ran for seven seasons in the 1990s.
The first season of the new show immediately struck a chord with young viewers around the world following its September 14, spending three weeks on Netflix’s global top 10 list. It remains in Netflix’s top 10 in Australia.
It is clever, smart scripting with the storylines following a group of teens through their peer group issues, sexual encounters, fights, stresses, confusion, and issues of race. The characters are gender diverse and ethnically diverse. The show has also been nominated for 4 AACTA Awards.
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Originally published as The Rundown: Adelaide duo hot tip for Nova breakfast; Kate Ritchie’s new crime drama
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