Why Livinia Nixon credits chocolate for her career kickstart
She’s one of TVs most versatile and enduring presenters, lighting up our screens on Nine News and Postcards. But Melbourne’s favourite girl next door, Livinia Nixon, started her career on a chocolate ad and hosting alongside a seven foot duck.
Fiona Byrne
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Underestimate Livinia Nixon at your peril.
From her early days playing opposite a claymation puppet and a seven foot duck, Melbourne’s favourite girl next door has gone on to prove herself over the past 22 years to be one of Australian TV’s most versatile and enduring presenters.
After getting noticed via commercials, Nixon appeared on Plucka’s Place before joining Hey Hey It’s Saturday. She went on to co-host the quiz show Temptation with Ed Phillips from 2005 — 2009.
“I did not want to just be the girl in the gift shop standing next to a dishwasher. It really had to step up to more of a co-hosting role,” she said of opportunity.
“There is probably a place for a show like that now.”
Nixon joined the Channel 9’s Melbourne News team as weather presenter in 2004.
In 2016 she rejoined Postcards, the Victorian lifestyle show that this year celebrates 20 years. At 43, Nixon is busier than ever juggling family, she and her husband Alistair have two sons, Henry, 9, and Ted, 5, and career.
Here we discuss Peter Andre, the Hey Hey days, her mentors, having your IQ tested on national TV, and why her trademark blonde hair was her secret weapon.
FB: Hi Livinia, tell me is it true that you owe your TV career to chocolate and a plastic cup?
LN: Maltesers? Well, yes. I was at uni studying commerce arts and I was modelling on the side and I was cast in this ad for Maltesers. It was kind of a groundbreaking advert at the time because it had the claymation Maltesers characters talking to me. In reality when we were filming they were polystyrene cups with little faces drawn on them that I had to look at and flirt with. But that ad really captured people’s imagination and took me from being a model to being someone who could make that transition into television. It put me on people’s radar but I think it also showed you can be the girl next door and still be appealing; someone they feel they can sit down and have a chat with. That is the sort of person who viewers want to see on their screens. I make an excellent cup of tea by the way.
FB: It was not just chocolate that helped you get noticed, is it true that the singer Peter Andre also played a part?
LN: Through my modelling I appeared in some film clips and one of them was the Peter Andre Funky Junky film clip. That clip still gets occasionally played on Rage because every now and again I wake up on a Saturday morning and switch my phone on and get all these texts from people going, “it was on at 4am, we saw you.” I am also in a Japanese karaoke clip. I never heard the song for that karaoke clip but I assume it is some heartbreak, broken up song. I had to walk around Melbourne, past the Yarra, look at the river and nearly be about to cry, walk through the gardens and pick up a leaf and throw it away. It was like something from Lost In Translation. The whole day was totally bizarre.
FB: Your big TV break came when you joined Hey Hey It’s Saturday alongside Daryl Somers
LN: I was working at Foxtel at the time so I was learning from people like Glenn Robbins and Marty Sheargold, asking lots of questions, sitting in the control room and watching how it all came together. From there I moved across to Channel 9. I started on Hey Hey at the end of 1997. I filled in for the last four shows of the year and then I joined permanently in 1998. I knew pretty much nothing but every Saturday night being on live TV in front of 1.5 million people I knew I had to learn quickly. The first night I was on the show was the night that (INXS singer) Michael Hutchence passed away and Daryl said to me I am going to talk about it, let me take this one. So I sat there and watched him reminisce about Michael and the shock of his passing and then he very beautifully managed to transition into music in general, Australian music, and bands they were having on the show. He just did it so amazingly well and I thought, “wow there is so much you can teach me.” I always think back to that moment. He was a great mentor. Russell Gilbert was also incredibly generous. He taught me the rules of comedy and how to tell a joke.
FB: You were part of Hey Hey until it wrapped in late 1999 and the returned to the show 10 years later when it came back for two specials and then a short run series.
LN: When the show was coming back and we had a date that we would be on air I thought there would be an email, that we will get together for a barbecue or something, because while we had a few catch up lunches we had not been altogether for quite a while. The date got closer and nothing. Then the night rolled around and I was a little stressed because I thought but we really needed to see each other to click back into together. Anyway it got to the point where we were standing behind the curtain and I could hear the audience being warmed up. There was Daryl, Molly (Meldrum), Red (Symons), Russell (Gilbert), John (Blackman), Wilbur (Wilde), all lined up and it was the first time we had all been together in that scenario for a decade and it was honesty like nothing had changed. I thought this is going to work and the curtain went up and off we went. Talk about leaving it to the last minute.
FB: You describe Daryl Somers as a mentor. Who else has influenced you during your career?
LN: Eddie (McGuire) is great, He is amazing and always available to offer advice. You could talk to him for 30 seconds and learn something or be motivated to do something. I learnt so much from Daryl. He gave me such an opportunity on Hey Hey. It was a great learning ground and he was generous with his advice. One of the things I Iearned from Daryl was the power of preparation. I am sure that is the same in any job. You can’t just turn up and do it. And just sitting in the news studio every night and watching how Peter Hitchener reads an autocue, he does it with such warmth and such ease. I have learnt a lot just from being there and watching him.
FB: What did you make of the late 1990s and early 2000s when there seemed to be a lot of interest in your appearance, particularly your blonde hair colour.
LN: My blonde hair. For me being a blonde when you are growing up you hear all the dumb blonde jokes, you battle all of that. I went to uni and I thought maybe it will stop after this. I studied Commerce Arts majoring in marketing and Chinese. You are always feeling you are fighting just a little bit of prejudice, you know, people look at you and assume your IQ is pretty low. I guess you are always constantly proving yourself. Now that might just be the nature of television; you always feel you need to look your best, you need to do your best, you just always need to feel like you are putting your best foot forward and that is not necessarily a bad thing, but you do feel like you are constantly proving yourself.
FB: Speaking of IQ you did take an IQ test on national TV to shut a few people up.
LN: I hosted the IQ test (Test Australia: The National IQ Test in 2002 with Eddie (McGuire) I was asked if I would do an IQ test. I thought, ‘‘OK, step up to the plate Nixon and actually put a number to it.” I scored 119 which I was happy with. It was OK. They revealed the results on television which was a bit of a nerve wracking moment.
FB: What do you put your career longevity down to?
LN: You need to prepare, you need to think things through and you need to have the right team around you. I think that is one of the reasons my career has lasted so long is because I have had great people around me who really care about me and have my best interests at heart and I rely on them for advice and I listen to them and take their advice on board. In any aspect of life you are reinventing yourself and your life changes. When I started in TV I was still at university, so I was juggling study and filming commitments and I was trying to buy my first car, that is where my head was at. Now it is at “what am I going to put in your lunch box today to make it exciting?” I am in a very different phase of my life and people have been so generous and so lovely and have kind of enjoyed watching me go from being single to engaged to married to my big fat (pregnant) belly that covered half the state of Victoria on the news every night, to taking time off to be with my children. Everyone has been really understanding and from my point of view I really appreciate that.
FB: How do you approach social media?
LN: It is a decision the individual has to make about how much information you give out or how much you let people into your life, your home, your family. That is a personal decision. You need to think things through, think about what you are posting, think does this make me vulnerable, and make decisions based on that. As much as you want to let people in and share with them, you do have to protect yourself and your family. Social media is not new to us at all, but we are all still learning about it. I really think to expect young people to understand the responsibility that comes with posting information, that is something you really need to discuss with your children.
FB: Speaking of children, have Henry, 9, and Ted, 5, turned you into a soccer mum yet?
LN: Henry plays basketball so we often go and watch Melbourne United. Henry is also into footy, he supports Richmond like me. We talk about Dusty’s tats for at least 45 minutes every week. Ted is now into soccer. He is a Melbourne supporter like my husband. We go to the Richmond Melbourne ANZAC eve games. It is very quiet car ride home because there are always two people on the losing side.
FB: How do you find the balance between career and motherhood?
LN: Being a working mum makes me a better mum because when I am with them I am really with them. I put my phone down, I don’t have a computer on, we are talking and connecting and asking questions. When I was at school, I went to an all girls school, we were told you can have anything and that was fantastic to go into life believing that, but nobody tells you how tiring that is. Juggling a career and a family and trying to fit everything into your life is really difficult. Once you are on that treadmill of a family and school runs and lunch boxes and readers it can sometimes feel relentless but I would not have it any other way. I really enjoy my work and on the home front when I walk in the door at 7.30pm the kids have a competition to see who can get to me first. It is so beautiful. They are the absolute joy of my life.
FB: You are very much a part of the Postcards team which celebrates it 20th anniversary this year. What makes that show a success?
LN: There is something magical about Postcards that people love and find delightful to watch and have done so for the past 20 years. It is a lovely world that you turn on with Postcards for that half an hour on a Sunday night. It is a comforting distraction from everything else that goes on.
FB: What advice would you give people seeking a media career?
LN: Trying to capture people’s attention these days is so difficult. Thank goodness when I started out the television was the main activity for people at night. I had a much easier path than I think people do now who are trying to get noticed in such a busy, crowded, noisy market. My advice would be make sure you are across social media, connect with people, prepare, listen, be open and willing to learn and be grateful. I think a lot of people just expect things will happen and that is not the case. You need to respect each opportunity and be grateful for every opportunity and that means turning up on time, being prepared and being interested and being kind to people around you.
FB: Finally, how is your golf handicap going?
LN: I don’t want to put a number to it because I should be so much better considering I started when I was 21. It is my happy place where there are no mobile phones, no traffic, you are surrounded by nature and you are competing against yourself and I really enjoy that.
