One year later: Why Natasha Exelby isn’t haunted by ABC blooper

NATASHA Exelby was one of the most talked about people of 2017 thanks to her viral blooper. Now she’s revealed what really happened on the night.

CAN you believe it’s been a whole year since Natasha Exelby’s blooper went viral?

The ABC news presenter was arguably the most talked about person in Australia this time last year thanks to her three-second gaffe where she was busted daydreaming during a live bulletin.

In the days that followed, there were reports Exelby had been relegated to behind the scenes producing shifts by the ABC who were allegedly upset that the blooper made them look unprofessional. And in May 2017 she confirmed she would no longer be doing any casual shifts for the broadcaster.

So how does Exelby feel about the blooper? What really happened within the walls of the ABC after the incident and what’s she up to now? News.com.au caught up with the experienced journalist to find out.

THE DAY IT HAPPENED

“It was late on a Saturday night, I think it was the 11.30pm bulletin,” Exelby told news.com.au.

“I had some things going through my mind at the time and then it happened so quickly. I was next to the sports presenter, Meredith Sheehan, who I’d never met before then but strikes me as a lovely creature. And after it happened I felt pretty sick and Meredith just said, ‘it’s a Saturday night, don’t worry, no one will be watching.’ I thought to myself, it just takes one.”

The moment Natasha realised she was live on air.

GOING VIRAL

When Exelby woke up on Sunday morning, she already had a few text messages from friends about the blooper. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

The footage spread like wildfire on social media and Exelby told news.com.au that “not in her wildest dreams” did she think it would travel so far and wide.

“I turned my phone off because it was going ballistic and as a general rule I don’t ever read stories about myself because it generally leads to chocolate binges,” she said.

“I was pretty embarrassed with what had happened and my mother said something to me that she had never said in my life. She said, ‘Tash, I think you should jump on Twitter because it’s going to make you feel better’.”

When Exelby checked the social media site, she was shocked to see the hashtag #PutYourBloopersOut trending as media personalities from around the world starting sharing footage from their slip-ups on TV.

“I knew that quite a few journalists and people in the media had my back but I still grapple with how many people who have such busy lives were tweeting to support me,” Exelby said.

“I was fielding media requests from Russia. I’ve got friends who were working in Iraq at the time and they’d seen it. China, Norway ... everyone had picked up on the clip.

“I think I probably owe a bit of that to Russell Crowe because when he tweeted about it, that’s when it really tipped the viral scale. I’m yet to profit any money from it but if I do maybe I should be looking at giving Russell a cut.”

Come on ABC - Australian Broadcasting Commission - talk about an over reaction to an over reaction . Free @NatashaExelby !!! https://t.co/4xALx8V5PN

— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) April 10, 2017

PUTTING IT INTO CONTEXT

Exelby had already had a long and distinguished media career before the blooper thrust her into the international spotlight. She’d been a political correspondent, co-host of Channel 10s Wake Up! breakfast show, and just before joining the ABC, had been working as a foreign correspondent and news anchor with Turkish broadcast, TRT World.

“I had only moved back to Australia from Turkey in late-November 2016,” Exelby explained.

“In the time that I was there, there were 22 terror attacks ... There was an attempted military coup where my own newsroom was raided. I had a colleague who had a gun to her head while she was live on air. Thousands of people were arrested, hundreds of them were journalists. My apartment block was shot up by AK-47s. Eighty-one journalists still remain in jail from that.”

Given all the stuff she had witnessed, Exelby might have been slightly embarrassed by the blooper but certainly wasn’t going to let it get her down.

“The reason it went viral is because it was a bit of fun,” she told news.com.au.

“When you normally turn on the news, it’s grim and bleak. Working as a foreign correspondent I kind of know that more than most people. People liked it because it was something to laugh about, it made people smile.

“That same week [as the blooper] was around the time of Syria and chemical weapons stories and there were so many awful things happening in the world ... If I made people laugh or brought 10 seconds of relief to their day then I’m happy to help.”

Natasha Exelby on TRT World in Turkey.

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE ABC?

People were outraged when Exelby was allegedly benched by the ABC after the blooper, a claim that the ABC News Director denied at the time.

“No one would ever be punished for a blooper and, while it isn’t appropriate to publicly discuss confidential details of people’s personal work arrangements, this has not happened to Natasha,” Gavin Morris said in a statement last April.

“Media reports that Natasha has been ‘banned’, ‘barred’ or ‘fired’ are untrue. Natasha is a freelance journalist who works as a contributor. She has been rostered for various shifts and has been assured since yesterday that we want that to continue. While she is not currently doing any on-air shifts, this will be subject to normal performance management.”

As for whether or not that was true, Exelby maintained a dignified silence at the time and is choosing to still do the same now.

“There’s a lot of things that went on,” she told news.com.au. “Maybe I’ll talk about it one day, but not today.”

THE NEXT STEP IN HER CAREER

After leaving the ABC, Exelby appeared on KIIS FM as a guest newsreader and occasionally popped up on The Project as a co-host.

But deep down she knew she was didn’t want to pursue full-time journalism straight away and wanted to find a new way to apply the skills she’d picked up over the years.

“I became interested in the corporate world,” Exelby told news.com.au.

“I’ve been in some fairly challenging situations on both sides of the camera. I’ve spent a lot in time in media scrums when people were getting scrambled and I thought I wouldn’t mind having a crack on the other side.”

As a result, she set up media consultancy business, XLB Media.

The first client Exelby provided crisis management for was herself, taking on the ABC in the court of public opinion. And you’d have to say she won that battle fairly convincingly.

“What happened at the ABC with a clip going viral and having paparazzi outside your house, it’s tough, and I think there’s a lot of people who work in PR who have been journalists for a long time but there’s not a lot of people in PR who have experienced it themselves,” Exelby said.

Her roster of clients in Australia and Asia now includes diplomats, politicians, CEOs and professional athletes.

“Being sacked a couple of times, being a headline, I’m not sure if it’s a banner of shame or a badge of success but I think it’s made me pretty good at what I do.”

Natasha Exelby poses with young Syrian refugees. Picture: Supplied