Sunrise EP denies team member caught out by open-mic comment

Reports an unnamed Sunrise host ‘shrilled’ in front of an open studio mic about the departure Tim Worner are ‘wrong’ says show boss Michael Pell

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THE executive producer of Seven’s Sunrise program has denied a report in a rival newspaper that an unnamed host of the breakfast show “shrilled” in front of an open studio mic on Friday “Have you heard … Tim’s gone!” following word of Tim Worner’s hasty exit from Seven.

The comment, reported the Sydney Morning Herald, was not broadcast but was heard on the internal audio system at Seven by those working on the floor and in the control room.

But as speculation grew yesterday as to which of the hosts it may have been — “Kochie doesn’t tend to shrill …” said one flatly, “unless the stock market plunges suddenly …” — Sunrise EP Michael Pell flatly denied the report, saying it was “wrong”.

Sunrise’s Sam Mac, Samantha Armytage, David Koch and Mark Beretta.

Seven’s issues with open mics have previously come to this writer’s attention with a veteran Seven star fingered earlier this year for repeatedly criticising colleagues over the open mic — a sort of internal intercom — to the embarrassment of everyone bar the lofty talent.

Meanwhile Samantha Armytage, more so than her offsider Koch, is expected to be sorry to see Worner go from Seven. He was the executive who promoted her to the Sunrise team in late 2013 (at the expense of Mel Doyle) before handing Armytage her own short-lived prime time show, Bringing Sexy Back, in 2014.

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IN further network denials — Nine yesterday refuted claims it misrepresented the new Karl Stefanovic vehicle by naming it This Time Next Year. One insider told this column a more appropriate title for the show might have been This Time In Two Years given some of the transformation stories were shot in late 2017.

Karl Stefanovic on This Time Next Year. Picture: Paul A. Broben

A network spokeswoman said that was incorrect and maintained the “befores” were shot at the beginning of 2018 while the “afters” were shot in February 2019.

“It’s just that a scheduling delay meant it seems longer,” she said.

There was absolutely no truth to talk some of the sequences were shot in August 2017, she said.