It’s been an eventful few days for Herald Sun and Sky News commentator Andrew Bolt. Not only is he going public with a huge spray at his ex-employer, 2GB, but the rumours have been spreading that he’s leaving his long-standing base in Melbourne.
Bolt has confirmed on Monday that the rumours are true. “Yes, I am leaving Melbourne,” he told Diary. “It’s awful here at the moment. Who wouldn’t want to leave Melbourne?”
Cryptically, Bolt also said he had fleetingly entertained thoughts of retirem ent, but had now shelved those plans. “I thought until last week this would be my farewell year. But now I’m planning to do a John Farnham and embark on a new farewell tour!”
Bolt has also revealed to Diary that he will move to “semi-rural Victoria” where he is currently building a house due to be completed by Christmas. Meanwhile, his popular show on Sky News will likely continue to be made in Melbourne, in a hybrid relationship that could see him work from his new home on certain days. “I am leaving Melbourne, but the show will probably continue to be made there,” he said. “Providing that it can work, I may try to do some episodes from home as well.”
He says what swung him to stay on was that he was now part of Sky’s strongest-ever ratings line-up, with the move of Alan Jones to the network. “I would have loved to spend the next decade locked in my library, but this is not the time to break up the Sky lineup,” he said. “My critics should be happy. It beats having to find and elevate another hate figure!”
Meanwhile, in a feisty podcast interview with his friend and former radio co-host Steve Price, obtained by Diary, Bolt has launched an extraordinary attack on the station on which he use to broadcast, 2GB, for “bailing out” of conservative commentary because of a fear of losing advertisers.
He particularly attacks 2GB in the interview for playing it safe to attract ad dollars, even taking a potshot at some of the station’s new talent: “(New 2GB drive host) Jim Wilson says that he wants people when he’s finished at 2GB not to know which way he votes. I think, oh gee, this is 2GB talking now? They’re all running so fast away from conservative opinion, so scared of left wing groups monstering their advertisers, that they’re bailing out.”
Meanwhile, Bolt has done nothing to silence claims he has bad blood with his former employer, 2GB, now owned by Nine.
Price and Bolt had a top-rating radio collaboration on nights on 2GB, 3AW and 4BC that abruptly finished when negotiations fell over between Bolt and the network’s radio bosses in February 2019 over “money, hours and duties”.
Nine radio bosses have since privately acknowledged they have made a conscious decision to sacrifice some of 2GB’s ratings dominance for ad revenue, amid advertiser boycotts. Bolt says this decision involves a big gamble that listeners have no alternative but to “listen to the ABC”.
Bolt also says in Price’s “On The Record” podcast, to be released this week, that their own departures from 2GB, along with that of Alan Jones, has sapped 2GB of right of centre voices.
He claims activist groups are trying, successfully, to “silence conservative voices on commercial media”.
“And it’s worked at 2GB, in part, because some advertisers freak and jump at shadows,” Bolt says. “They think a couple of people sitting in their underwear on the couch…wouldn’t be buying their products.”
Lisa’s big ‘tell all’ on Nine divorce
Lisa Wilkinson is secretly working furiously on a tell-all autobiography, Diary can reveal, using the extra time she has from not shuttling between Sydney and Melbourne for Ten’s The Project because of COVID-19.
And from what we’re told, no juicy detail will be off limits. Readers can expect Wilkinson to reveal the ups and downs of her relationship with former co-host Karl Stefanovic and her 27-year marriage to bandana-fancier Peter FitzSimons, as well as her time back in the 1980s and 1990s as one of Kerry Packer’s most celebrated magazine editors.
But there’s no doubting the memoir’s most anticipated detail: a full account of Wilkinson’s workplace break-up with Nine and the Today show.
Harper Collins confirmed to Diary on Friday that the Wilkinson memoir will be out next year, with publisher Catherine Milne telling us she was “beyond thrilled”.
“We know her book is going to be a standout success,” she said.
Wilkinson couldn’t be reached for comment.
Most closely watched will be her warts-and-all take on what she has previously dubbed the media’s “boys’ club”.
The Project host claimed when she left Nine in 2017 that it had been unable to meet her “expectations” — allegedly, equal pay with Stefanovic.
At the time, the talk was that Wilkinson left because she couldn’t negotiate a $2m-a-year salary.
Wilkinson hinted strongly at the issue of gender pay in a later speech.
“Maybe my biggest crime is knowing my value,” she said pointedly. “When you’re a woman, sometimes people don’t like it.”
Many took that as a direct dig at Nine CEO Hugh Marks. But Marks counterclaimed in 2017 that he reached a limit on what he would pay Wilkinson because Nine did not have exclusive “commercial rights” to her.
“I went to an incredible amount of trouble to build a $1.8m (a year) package for her,” Marks said at the time. “But it’s not just a pay thing. We want people to partner with us.”
Another fascinating facet of the memoir, which Harper Collins signed Wilkinson up for way back in 2014, will be the current status of her relationship with Stefanovic.
Wilkinson candidly admitted to Stellar magazine in March that she hadn’t crossed paths with Stefanovic since 2017. “The timing just hasn’t worked,” she said cryptically.
Jones for Premier?
Surely Alan Jones isn’t seriously considering a tilt at becoming Queensland Premier … is he?
A post by Jones on Instagram on Friday seemed to suggest the only thing standing between him and a tilt at Annastacia Palaszczuk’s job was lefties in the Queensland Liberal National Party.
After a fan begged him to “stand for Premier” at the October election in the state, Jones replied: “I would but do you think they would give me preselection? There would be a left-wing cabal in the LNP working overtime to knock me off!”
The Project’s escape
Amid all the bloodletting of last week at Ten, the one news and current affairs program that escaped unscathed was Ten’s The Project, home to Waleed Aly, Carrie Bickmore and co.
Diary asked Peter Meakin, the legendary news supremo who has worked for all three commercial networks, and now The Project’s senior consulting producer, why the Ten panel show seemed to escape unscathed last week, when talent from other big network shows, like Kerri-Anne Kennerley and Tim Bailey, got the chop.
His surprising answer was that The Project is safe because it’s made by an external production company. The show is produced by Rove McManus’s Roving Enterprises, not Ten itself.
“The Project is a contracted program, and that’s immutable,” Meakin told Diary. “Ten pays Roving to make The Project over a certain period. And Roving needs the talent to fill the contract.”
Meakin also made another intriguing revelation: that he recently ceased to be an employee of Ten.
“My employer now is Roving, not Ten,” he told us.
“It changed over a few months ago.” But, he added, he continues to maintain an office in Ten’s inner-city Sydney bunker in Pyrmont.
But Meakin, 78, isn’t counting his chickens on staying on The Project forever. “Maybe Rove will swing the axe in my general direction one day. But it’s a matter of whether he gets to me before Rookwood!”
O’Keefe’s Sydney Chase
Wacky times in TV-land. Melbourne’s total lockdown is now causing whole shows to abandon digs, and moving lock, stock and barrel to new cities.
Diary has learnt that game show The Chase, one of Seven’s most crucial programs as the hit lead-in to its 6pm news bulletin, is being literally transplanted from Melbourne to Sydney.
The first mover has been its key talent, host Andrew “Beef” O’Keefe. Beef secretly served a full two weeks of self-isolation in Sydney last week, after bailing out of Melbourne just before hotel quarantine for Victorians became mandatory.
Next to arrive in Sydney will be The Chase’s set itself. In a huge logistical undertaking, Diary is told the entire set will be taken down and loaded on a truck in coming days to crawl its way from Melbourne to Sydney.
And the next big change will involve the contestants themselves.
No longer will they be from Melbourne. Diary understands Seven will make a casting call to Sydneysiders as early as Monday for two versions of the show: the normal 5.30 program, and a special prime time version, Beat the Chasers.
That will be about a month ahead of filming resuming, allowing the show enough time to also recruit new local floor crew in Sydney. Phew!
Legal eagles’ new nest
Big news in media law circles, with Diary learning that the country’s top defamation practice fronted by Justin Quill and John-Paul Cashen has made a shock mass defection.
The eight-member defamation team is currently serving out its last six weeks with east coast practice Macpherson Kelly. But in October, Quill, Cashen and co will move en masse to prestigious national law firm Thomson Geer.
Unusually for legal circles, the divorce is amicable. Diary is told the team simply needed the bigger pastures of a fully national law firm to help it fully service national media companies — given its big clients include News Corp and Nine.
Emma spooks ABC
It was far from unnoticed at the ABC last week that Emma Alberici posted a snap of herself at a restaurant with two of Sydney’s top lawyers: prominent barrister Jane Needham SC and HWL Ebsworth dispute resolution partner Sophie Given.
Her timing was intriguing: days after Diary last week revealed a new Fair Work Commission legal case, “Alberici v Australian Broadcasting Corporation”, had commenced.
Alberici’s photo featured the power trio posing in front of a blackboard offering “daily truffle specials”.
Alas, truffles don’t seem to have been high on the night’s menu! The ABC chief economics correspondent later mischievously tweeted that she had “too many” wines, adding “apologies for any inappropriate leaks about my dinner with the barrister ladies …”.
Some saw Alberici fraternising with top notch Sydney lawyers as a coded message to the ABC. As “Cheryl Kernot” replied: “Best coding ever”. Other responses tweeted the hashtag: “#istandwithEmmaAlberici”.
But we’ve spoken to sources close to the Alberici camp, and we’re told the dinner was unrelated to the ABC, and rather simply an innocent catch-up between friends. Alberici is close mates with Needham and Given.
However, we’re told some nervous types within the ABC took her tweets about the dinner rather more seriously, thinking they directly related to the case.
For the record, the Alberici camp confirmed to Diary on Sunday that the dinner had nothing to do with the Fair Work action: “We’ve been having intelligent discussions with the ABC, and so far, so good. (Fair Work Commission) deputy president Val Gostencnik had been administering the matter absolutely within his charter.”
The ABC recently made the position held by Alberici as chief economics correspondent redundant. But parties close to Alberici tell us her case against the ABC is unrelated to the redundancy.
Instead, her claim is filed under Section 739 of the Fair Work Act, which deals with disputes in industrial agreements. Sources close to Alberici say the nub of her case is that her alleged unfair treatment, and also how it was dealt with by the ABC, was in breach of the ABC enterprise agreement.
We’re told submissions are shortly to be made to Gostencnik from both Alberici and the ABC, after initial proceedings 11 days ago and subsequent phone hook-ups — which the Alberici camp has praised as “conferences between adults”. The imminent submissions by both parties are likely to give clarity on whether this dispute is straightforward, or more drawn out.
Dan hits a 50
Last week, we suggested under-siege Victorian Premier Dan Andrews should save himself valuable contact-tracing resources by circumventing the daily leaks of the COVID-19 case numbers.
Diary’s Melbourne correspondents were pleased to see the advice seemingly heeded early Monday morning, with the @VicGovDHHS Twitter handle putting the daily figure out. We’d love to claim the credit, but, alas, turns out the decision was made in advance of our piece, with select media told to save phone calls and wait for the tweet.
Meanwhile, yesterday marked the 45th straight appearance at the podium by Dan Andrews.
That means Dan’s due to hit an epic half-century of appearances on Friday. Sources close to him tell Diary we should expect him to keep clocking up the daily milestones unbroken until the COVID-19 toll falls further. For all our sakes (Dan included), let’s hope it’s soon.
Fordham one-ups 3AW
Readers of Diary would be familiar with our unwitting recent involvement in the clash of the radio egos, ahem, titans — 2GB’s princeling Ben Fordham and 3AW morning king Neil Mitchell — in their battle to be first with the latest political news out of coronavirus-ridden Victoria.
Last week, Fordham seemed to be trying to one-up 3AW yet again, interviewing former Victorian Premier and once-upon-a-time Mitchell regular, Jeff Kennett, for Sydney audiences.
Jeffrey, intriguingly, seemed to be going on Fordham’s show to pour some cold water on wannabe Victorian Opposition Leader Tim Smith’s larger-than-life political ambitions.
Kennett — regarded as Smith’s chief mentor — strategically chose Fordham’s Sydney show on 2GB, the very place where the ambitious member for Kew has been making most of his recent personal attacks on Dan Andrews, to make his point. Clearly he thought the only place to get through to Smith was on Sydney radio!
“Tim is a young man, a young bull and all young bulls need to learn the ropes,” Kennett told Fordham. “I don’t think to be quite honest, you don’t ever achieve much by attacking personalities … it is not politically astute.”
Ouch! Diary now suggests 3AW’s Mitchell interview ex-NSW premier Mike Baird about Sydney politics this week, just to even things up!
McKenzie protest
Nine newspapers and 60 Minutes are most definitely not happy after the big scoop by star investigative reporter Nick McKenzie in June about alleged branch stacking in the Victorian branch of the Labor Party was shunned by one of the media’s big awards nights, the Sydney-based Kennedy Awards.
Diary has learnt that Nine’s “The Faceless Man”, a joint investigation fronted by McKenzie for 60 Minutes and The Age, did not receive a single nomination in the three categories in which it was entered for the Kennedys: best investigative story, scoop of the year, and best TV current affairs story.
McKenzie’s initial 60 Minutes story first showcased allegations and covert recordings involving one Victorian Labor backroom player, Adem Somyurek, which ultimately claimed three Victorian ministerial scalps.
We’re reliably informed that a written complaint was made directly by 60 Minutes executive producer Kirsty Thomson and Nine newspapers’ national executive editor James Chessell to the Kennedys, seeking an explanation for why it did not warrant even a nomination.
Should be fascinating.
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