Where will Karl be This Time Next Year?

Cartoon: Johannes Leak.

One show that won’t be back this time next year, or at any time at all, is Nine’s This Time Next Year.

The Monday night star vehicle for Karl Stefanovic, which deals with ordinary people setting themselves huge personal goals in the intimate setting of a big live studio audience on national TV, hit a ratings wall in its last two weeks, closing with a paltry 395,000 and 437,000 viewers in the five capital cities.

Karl Stefanovic with Yeppoon couple Clayton and Krissy Orr with their baby daughter Hope on the set of This Time Next Year..

While no one at Nine is blaming Karl, those aren’t the sort of numbers to inspire TV bean­counters to invest more in a show, particularly given that This Time Next Year requires at least a two-year commitment to film the ­“before and after” segments of its talents’ transformations.

Happily, Stefanovic appears to have finally found a role he likes at Nine, at a time he really needs the job. He is said to be “a pig in mud” in his new job as a 60 Minutes ­reporter, with network bosses happy with the new work ethic he has demonstrated since joining the show a few months back.

They also say Stefanovic fills the program’s need for a big male name to anchor the show, at a time 60 Minutes’ most senior bloke, Charles Wooley, seems to be winding down.

But with just over a year left on Stefanovic’s Nine contract, there remains one burning question. If a Karl comeback on the Today show circus doesn’t happen, will Nine be willing to once more offer him a $2m-plus a year contract in late 2020 as a mere 60 Minutes ­reporter? Or will he have to take a haircut?

Matt, Gary in 7 Masterstroke?

Are Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan the shock new hosts of Seven’s My Kitchen Rules?

Diary can reveal the hottest talk among insiders is that the axed MasterChef pair are about to take over Seven’s flagship show.

Gary Mehigan, Matt Preston and George Calombaris. Picture: Supplied

Diary’s Seven spies clocked Preston and Mehigan in recent days at studio two of Seven’s Redfern compound, where network soapie Home And Away is based. But, no, the culinary pair’s appearance had nothing to do with a ­special guest starring role in Summer Bay.

Instead, the word is they will host the second of two seasons of MKR, scheduled to screen late in 2020, as part of a new multi-year deal with Seven.

If that happens, it will represent the biggest cross-network talent swap since Lisa Wilkinson defected from Nine to Ten exactly two years ago.

And what of existing MKR hosts Manu Feildel and Pete Evans?

We hear they would still play key roles on the cooking show under Preston and Mehigan, but maybe more in a support capacity: possibly as team coaches, given that they remain under contract to the show.

Senior Seven production executives could not be reached last week. But interestingly, while Preston and Mehigan have been spotted at Seven, there have been no reported sightings of the other ex-MasterChef judge, George ­Calombaris — not surprising given his restaurant empire’s underpayment issues.

A few days after the sightings of Preston and Mehigan at Seven came a sudden briefing last Tuesday to freelance staff by Seven’s unscripted content boss, Evan Wilkes, who told them the filming of MKR series 12 had been unavoidably delayed from December 2019 until February next year. It’s the second major MKR delay in six months; filming had already been put back from June to December.

Some frustrated, out-of-pocket MKR personnel — working in everything from production to hair/make-up, travel and technical areas — were in tears on Tuesday when told the latest delay was down to “creative” decisions that prevent the series being filmed any time before February.

Diary hears those decisions ­related to “contract” issues.

Curiouser and curiouser. Could those contract issues relate to the fact Preston and Mehigan are contractually locked down to Ten until after the end of this year and can’t join Seven any earlier?

A Mehigan and Preston-­hosted MKR would certainly boost the show’s international sales, in light of the pair’s high profile from MasterChef Australia’s global success that saw the show sold to 180 countries. There’s also a private consensus that MKR, Seven’s biggest cooking brand, ­urgently needs a refresh.

If Seven has secretly pulled off MKR’s Mehigan-Preston hosting coup, expect it to be announced as soon as next week in Sydney, where the network’s “upfronts” (Seven’s annual pitch to advertisers) are held. You heard it here first.

MKR back on the boil

Meanwhile, series 11 of MKR — originally set down for the end of this year — will now go head-to-head with Nine’s ratings juggernaut, Married At First Sight, at the start of 2020.

And if the reports we’re hearing out of Seven are correct, this version of the cooking show — which has already been shot — looks like taking on MAFS at its own game.

Diary hears MKR series 11 — which will see contestants shacked up together in two houses — will be on the saucier side, with spicy affairs said to be on the menu ­between even members of opposing teams. In another page straight out of the MAFS playbook, there will also be “cocktail parties” ­designed to provoke plenty of ratings-generating tension.

MKR series 11, nominally titled “Fans vs Favourites” and starring many of the show’s heroes and villains from the past decade, is said to feature Pete Evans and Colin Fassnidge as its main judges. Meanwhile, Diary is told Manu Feildel also dusts off his chef’s whites to help out flailing contestants in the kitchen.

Uhlmann on ABC

As part of Friday’s big farewell to Jon Faine, plenty of the ghosts of the veteran ABC Melbourne radio host’s past made an appearance.

One was a former Faine show producer by the name of Chris Uhlmann, who worked on Faine’s show way back in 2006. Uhlmann, of course, eventually left the ABC in 2017 to take over Laurie Oakes’s plum gig as Nine political editor. Uhlmann’s time in commercial TV has given him a fascinating view on all of the hand-wringing about cuts at the ABC.

Journalist Chris Uhlmann. Picture Kym Smith

So after two years at Nine, who does Uhlmann think has it tougher: the commercial media or the ABC?

“Can I say the ABC is a tremendously important institution — but so is commercial news media,” he said on Friday. “And commercial news media now faces pressures the ABC cannot imagine.”

Why? Because Uhlmann argues commercial media is now in an age of flux: “We are being ­devoured by internet behemoths which we can’t compete with, that not just get the advertising dollars but also reproduce what we do.”

Uhlmann also said of his decision to defect from the ABC to Nine: “I didn’t leave the ABC for altruistic reasons — but I did need to move on.”

Trioli tunes in

Virginia Trioli begins her new job as host of ABC Melbourne’s morning radio show on Monday, replacing the now-retired Jon Faine.

Trioli tells Diary she is not planning any major surprises initially for rusted-on Faine listeners. “The real change to the show will be the presenter,” she says crisply.

She also says she has no knowledge about talk that the Melbourne-only version of The Conversation Hour will be ditched next year, amid general ABC belt-tightening.

ABC Breakfast co-host Virginia Trioli.

“That’s above my pay grade,” she tells Diary. “But the reality is that there’s a major budget cut coming through. It’s a huge problem for us.”

Seeing off Speers

With his departure from Sky News less than three weeks away, the ­official David Speers farewell tour kicks off on Tuesday night with a huge bash in his honour at Sky’s newish Canberra studios.

The Canberra goodbye for Speers — who is heading to the ABC as Insiders host in the new year — has been timed to take place on a parliamentary sitting week. That means attendee numbers will be big. And Diary is told the Canberra bash will be bipartisan, not only from a political perspective but a media one as well.

Politically, the big players are invited from both sides of politics, including ScoMo, deputy PM ­Michael McCormack, Josh Frydenberg, Christian Porter and Peter Dutton on the Coalition side, and Labor’s Anthony Albanese, Jim Chalmers, Penny Wong, Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek.

The bipartisanship will extend to the press gallery, with virtually all Canberra reporters from the biggest rivals, News Corp and Nine, to be crammed in with the pollies. And in a rare public show of cross-media solidarity, even ­reporters from the ABC and the Guardian will unite with Sky talent in honour of Speers. Now that should make for interesting conversations!

The bash will be more than a farewell from Sky for its departing political editor, with Speers uprooting his family to Melbourne in January after two decades in the national capital.

Wilkins’ son rises

There’s a friendly turf war emerging in the Wilkins clan about just who now owns the family’s media bragging rights.

Christian Wilkins, son of Nine’s legendary entertainment editor Richard “Dickie” Wilkins (and a frequent fixture in his own right in the Sunday papers’ social pages), has one-upped his famous dad, earning a surprise nomination in the Australian radio industry’s big awards night in Brisbane this Saturday night.

Richard Wilkins and son Christian Wilkins. Picture: Christian Gilles

The younger Wilkins has been named an Australian Commercial Radio Awards finalist for his fashion podcast, Radical Fashionism, in which he “struts down the catwalk of key fashion moments”. His major competition for the gong is from the big leagues: the heavyweight pair Hamish and Andy.

Strengthening Christian’s case for family bragging rights is that Richard, a two-time ACRA winner from his job hosting Smooth FM’s weekend morning show, didn’t score a nomination this time.

Happily, the elder Wilkins was thrilled to be upstaged by his son. “He’s up for an award and I’m not, and I’m proud as punch. It’s great to see Christian’s got the family name up in lights this time.”

Richo’s birthday bash

Prominent media commentator and ex-Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson is preparing for a doozy of a 70th birthday party early next month.

Richardson’s actual 70th birthday was on September 27. But the real party action will happen at the big Sydney harbourside bash on November 2 titled “Richo’s Roast: An Adventurous Life” (which, incidentally, he’s had no hand in organising).

Diary hears by the Sydney bush telegraph that the guest list will contain an even mix of names from Richo’s stints in politics and the media, with a dash of the Sydney power set thrown in for good measure.

An invite to a function celebrating Richo's 70th.

The highlight of the night, to be MC’d by close mate Vince Sor­renti, will be the roast itself, involving four of the country’s best known media and political figures: Nine’s Laurie Oakes, Alan Jones (Richo’s Sky on-air partner), former NSW premier Bob Carr and Bob Hawke’s long-time adviser, Peter Barron.

A satellite hook-up for a roast by a fifth mate, Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates (in Tokyo for a pre-Olympic event on the night) is also being arranged.

The epic night will be a three-stage affair. It will start with cocktails and canapes by the harbour, followed by a sit-down dinner featuring the Richo roast, followed by dancing and a surprise musical tribute (live by satellite) from a mystery Australian mega-band.

From the media, other guests will include David and Skye ­Leckie, Fox Sports hosts Mark Bosnich and Bill Woods, 60 Minutes’ Charles Wooley, and Richo’s Sky colleagues Paul Murray, ­Janine Perrett and Rowan Dean.

From Labor, the names will ­include Anthony Albanese, his deputy Richard Marles, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, and former communi­cations minister Stephen Conroy.

From the conservative side of politics, Tony Abbott will attend. Scott Morrison and former attorney-general and now high commissioner to the UK George Brandis were ­invited but will both be overseas on work assignments. However, a couple of other surprise Coalition guests are ­expected.

From the business end, billionaire property mogul Lang Walker will be in attendance, along with Michael and Judy McMahon, the owners of Richo’s favourite canteen, glamorous Sydney harbourside diner Catalina.

When Diary caught up with Richo, he said that reaching 70 had been a “bonus” after some well-chronicled health issues in recent years. “My dad died the day before his 50th birthday after smoking 60 a day and having three heart ­attacks,” he told us. “Mum died at 42. To be honest, I had my fears about even making 50! So 70 is a bonus.”