Nine’s rumoured $1 million ransom could pay off in biggest TV ratings of the year

NINE has reportedly paid $1 million to free its 60 Minutes crew and Brisbane mum Sally Faulkner. But will it now pay off for them in TV ratings?

IF rumours out of Beirut police station are to be believed, Nine has paid $1 million for the biggest TV story of the year — the freedom of their 60 Minutes crew and Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner’s failed bid to bring home her children.

As chequebook journalism goes, it’s not even close to a record deal, with Ms Faulkner’s ex-husband Ali Elamine reportedly pocketing the six-figure sum in “compensation” for holding both the TV network and his former wife to ransom over their botched mission to retrieve the couple’s two children, still heartbreakingly torn between their parents.

While a Nine spokeswoman continued to play down the plea deal last night, only making comment to confirm the required bail for the ‘Beirut Four’ and Ms Faulkner had been paid, their release was big news enough for Sydney anchor Peter Overton to break into programming and share the network’s relief with its audience.

Former colleague ... Peter Overton with Tara Brown. Picture: Supplied

Overton, himself a reporter on 60 Minutes for eight years, said the scene at Nine’s headquarters was one of jubilation, telling viewers: “there were tears, there were hugs, a sense of elation.”

The anguished families of the detained crew were, he said, “waiting to hear from their spouses, they are waiting to know they are coming home.”

European correspondent Tom Steinfort, who has had the unenviable task of covering his colleagues prison plight in Beirut for the past 10 days said while he had not been able to speak to the crew directly, news boss Darren Wick was “over the moon.”

But the cost to the current affair flagship’s reputation and the price to be paid — if any — by those who authorised this ill-fated, albeit well-intentioned recovery, should now to be determined.

Money well spent ... Nine chief executive Hugh Marks is set to launch an investigation into how the 60 Minutes operation went wrong. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

With Nine chief executive Hugh Marks promising last week to launch an internal investigation into the international scandal, as soon as “everybody is back in Australia,” the finger-pointing and bloodletting can and will begin at pace.

Not to mention the jockeying within the network to helm the story of their own network’s monumental misadventure.

Today co-host Karl Stefanovic and A Current Affair’s Tracy Grimshaw are both well-placed to front the explosive story, having spoken out in solidarity with their detained colleagues and their distressed families.

Wants interview ... Tracy Grimshaw hosts A Current Affair. Picture: Supplied

Well placed ... Karl Stefanovic is a likely choice to interview the 60 Minutes team. Picture: Supplied

While headlines have screamed for “heads to roll” since the first arrests on April 6, some network insiders remain unconvinced jobs will be lost despite the costly exercise.

Even if you add the fees for expensive crisis managers, Lebanese lawyers and the reported $115,000 fee which child abduction agent Adam Whittington maintains was paid directly to his team, it still may not be enough to claim scalps.

As an example of the network’s forgiving form, one source told NewsCorp Australia a Nine staffer who cost the company $2 million for airing six seconds of footage they were not entitled to still has their job.

It’s a pick-and-stick culture fostered by former CEO David Gyngell, who backed his journalists (including wife Leila McKinnon) in the often high stakes of commercial TV news.

Despite the fact some will see the $1m price tag as highway robbery, paid to a father many still see as the villain in this story, it will prove chump change when it comes to the potential ratings return when the TV crew and Ms Faulkner can finally, freely, speak.

Will it pay off? Tick, tick, tick ... that could be next week on 60 Minutes.

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Originally published as Nine’s rumoured $1 million ransom could pay off in biggest TV ratings of the year