The future of News Breakfast? Not as simple as ABC

Only a few months ago, incoming ABC chair Kim Williams joined RN Breakfast to discuss the company’s future, pointing out that the ABC must maintain “contemporary relevance”. It was the latest in a long line of headline-snatching statements from Williams, but one that seems especially weighty following Tony Armstrong’s departure from News Breakfast on Tuesday morning.

Armstrong has been with the ABC since 2020, when he started as a fill-in sports presenter.

During his three-and-a-bit-year stint, the Gamilaroi man and former AFL player won the Graham Kennedy Award at the 2022 Logie Awards for most popular new talent and the 2023 Bert Newton Award for most popular presenter. He was also nominated for the Gold Logie this year.

Tony Armstrong is leaving ABC News Breakfast, the second big recent departure along with Lisa Millar for co-host Michael Rowland. Credit: Marija Ercegovac

Considered a bright young talent and a large part of the broadcaster’s contemporary relevance, ABC was quick to confirm that Armstrong would not be departing the network. “Tony will continue to work with ABC, hosting a new show screening in 2025 that will be announced later this year,” said a spokesperson for the broadcaster.

Armstrong’s departure from News Breakfast comes almost a month after former host Lisa Millar left the show. Journalist Bridget Brennan replaced Millar alongside Michael Rowland, who has hosted the show since 2010. He has also hinted that his exit may be on the horizon.

Earlier this month, Rowland spoke with fellow ABC alumni and former News Breakfast co-host Virginia Trioli on her podcast, You Don’t Know Me, admitting he was looking for a “less intense” role.

“The toll it takes gets more pronounced every year – the hours, the horrible stories we have to cover as journalists presenting a news program,” he said. “I’m much closer to the end than I am to the beginning in doing this show and doing this intense news presenting work.”

The high-profile departures of both Millar and Armstrong are less than ideal and should Rowland also leave, News Breakfast would be on uncertain ground.

However, the show’s future is not under threat, according to a source at the broadcaster who spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak publicly. “They just added Bridget to the show, and they wouldn’t do that if they were planning on axing it or making significant changes to the format.”

In a statement to this masthead, ABC confirmed News Breakfast would return in 2025 but would not comment on the line-up. Armstrong is one person who wouldn’t be shocked at a shake-up.

“It really wouldn’t surprise me; nothing would surprise me with breakfast TV,” he said.

“Michael is obviously not at the start of the breakfast career, and it can be very brutal. Also, these things happen quite cyclically.”

News Breakfast is currently the third-ranked morning show on free-to-air TV. On Monday, it averaged 219,000 viewers nationally across its three hours. Seven’s Sunrise (387,000 viewers) was the most-watched in the slot, with Nine’s Today pulling an average of 270,000 viewers.

Those numbers are a long way down from the highs of May 2020, when the COVID lockdown drove viewers back to television. At that time, News Breakfast soared to an average of 367,000 viewers – a rise of 47 per cent from a year earlier – to become the second-most-watched morning show, behind Sunrise.

Armstrong got his start during the pandemic, which the 34-year-old attributes to his whirlwind experience in breakfast TV. “People got five years worth of me in like 10 months because they were just watching every single day,” he says.

Armstrong’s popularity led to other individual projects – A Dog’s World, Extra-Ordinary Things, Great Australian Stuff and the panel show Monday’s Experts - but proved a double-edged sword.

“The job started taking its toll on me physically. I felt like a zombie, spending every day on autopilot,” Armstrong says. “You never feel happy or sad; everything is just dulled because of the fatigue.”

The ABC’s challenge is now finding a replacement who can match Armstrong’s broad popularity and cut through. ABC News Breakfast reporter Charles Brice and sports reporter Tom Maddocks both regularly fill in for Armstrong on the show and are likely to be in the mix.

“I think whoever gets the role, I’d just encourage them to make it their own,” Armstrong says. “I couldn’t do the job the same way that Paul Kennedy did it, and it worked out all right for me in the end.”

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