Grimshaw’s $250K pay haircut; ABC inquiry into Four Corners star labelled a farce
After a year in which she was paid $500,000 for just three TV interviews, Nine beancounters have slashed former A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw’s pay amid mounting angst at cost cutting.
One-time A Current Affair presenter Tracy Grimshaw has taken a massive quarter-of-a-million-dollar haircut to stay with Nine as the media giant desperately tries to rein in extravagant “old school” spending in its broadcast division.
The award-winning interviewer had been on an eye-watering $500,000 annual contract – courtesy of the channel’s famously generous director of television, Michael Healy – since stepping down as host of Nine’s top-rating nightly public affairs program at the end of 2022 and passing the torch to incoming anchor Allison Langdon.
The opulent arrangement has become a major source of contention in some sections of Nine’s national newsrooms – and in particular among the media outlet’s rank-and-file television reporters – following successive rounds of brutal redundancies at the network.
And it’s hard to blame the troops.
Despite repeated assurances the broadcaster had “plenty of projects in the pipeline” to justify Grimshaw’s exorbitant salary, she was tasked with conducting just three solitary interviews for the network all year, after sitting down with former adman John Singleton, singer Vanessa Amorosi and Australian Federal Police commissioner Krissy Barrett for 60 Minutes.
That was enough to make her the highest-paid presenter in the country – at least on a pro-rata basis – after raking in about $166,000 per appearance … or about the same amount Nine News weather presenter and white jacket-gate star Amber Sherlock made in an entire year before she was unceremoniously sacked in the latest round of cuts just last month.
“It’s absolutely nothing against Tracy – we all love her,” one Nine insider said. “She’s a superstar and the best interviewer we have, but it’s impossible to justify paying her so much for so little when others are losing their jobs.”
Yeah, it’s not bad work if you can get it, which of course you can’t.
But rest assured, Grimshaw can’t get it any more either.
Sources told Diary the popular presenter’s future was safe with Nine and she had been re-signed for at least another year, but her ongoing deal has now been pruned back to a far more modest $250,000 per annum.
That puts her just about on pay parity with 60 Minutes’ rising stars, Amelia Adams and Dimity Clancey, as well as that other guy they have on the books (Something Hegarty? You know the one we mean? No? Well, neither do we.)
It also puts Grimshaw on a collision course with 60 Minutes’ young gun full-timers in the new year as she stakes a claim for even more airtime – and yarns – on the show.
Get the popcorn ready.
ABC’s Four Corners ‘farce’
The ABC’s claims it is conducting a “rigorous investigation” into serious allegations of misconduct against a Four Corners reporter has been labelled a complete farce amid accusations it has failed to even engage with the self-professed “media cowboy” who sparked the entire scandal.
More than six weeks have passed since the ABC publicly announced “management is thoroughly investigating” allegations one-time bikie turned Four Corners journalist Mahmood Fazal secretly pocketed $13,000 to co-host an unauthorised true crime podcast funded by a foreign cryptocurrency gambling site.
And yet Diary can reveal the broadcaster still hasn’t spoken with the man who made the shocking and as-yet-unproven accusations: Fazal’s former podcast partner and equally colourful independent journalist Ryan Naumenko.
“Not a word. Nothing. Radio silence. No calls,” Naumenko claimed when we checked in with him at the weekend.
Geez, we’ve heard that the wheels of justice move slowly, but they are still supposed to move.
After all, you hardly need to be Sherlock Holmes to realise that Naumenko is worth talking to as part of any “thorough investigation”.
He’s only the bloke who ignited the furore all the way back on October 15, when he launched a withering online attack against Fazal – a former sergeant-at-arms with the notorious Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang and Walkley Award-winning podcaster who has been employed by the ABC’s most prestigious news and currents affairs program since 2023.
The post followed a spectacular falling out between the duo over their fledgling “Word on the Street” series, which promised to “dive into the gritty underbelly of crime”, after just one episode.
In the spray, Naumenko, a convicted fraudster who now describes himself as “part journalist, part outlaw”, accused the ABC journalist of demanding an upfront cash payment before he started work on the series’ second episode, before later confirming their project was being bankrolled by Vegastars – an online gambling site based in Costa Rica and not even registered here. (Both key details, he claimed, Fazal conveniently forgot to explain to his bosses at the ABC).
Now, given Naumenko’s extensive criminal past and history of deceit, it’s difficult to take any of his allegations at face value and it’s worth noting Fazal has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
Of course, that’s presumably why Naumenko sent a series of screenshots to the ABC’s Media Watch program purportedly detailing his text message conversations with Fazal about their podcast, which allegedly proved the Four Corners reporter was across the provenance of their funding and adamant he received all payments in “cash” so that he would not “get caught being paid”.
For his part, Fazal has claimed some of those text messages were deliberately taken out of context while others, including a particularly unbecoming exchange in which he allegedly confessed he wanted “to kill” YouTube identity Jordan Shanks, had been “fabricated” entirely – a suggestion Naumenko denies.
The ABC reporter’s lawyer, Rebekah Giles, also told Media Watch that any funds Fazal did receive from Naumenko were only ever transferred to him so he could pay their production crew – only for Naumenko to produce further screenshots allegedly showing that he had already paid them separately.
Murky, indeed.
Far from shedding any light on the situation, the ABC’s managing director, Hugh Marks, chose to bang on about something he liked to refer to as “the process … the process … the process” after being asked for an update on the matter at the National Press Club in Canberra a week and a half ago.
“When something goes wrong, (we need to) follow the process. Make sure we do all the things that are necessary to have a rigorous and thoughtful investigation of whatever occurs,” Marks said.
“So we’re going through that process. I can’t give you a date as to when it will finish, but it’s important that we follow the process, and we do it in a respectful, measured, considered way.”
When it will finish? At this stage, we’d settle for just knowing when it will even truly begin.
And we’re not the only ones.
Naumenko reckons he hasn’t just been sitting idly by the phone waiting for the ABC to call. He says he’s tried contacting them – multiple times – about the matter, only to be ignored.
“I contacted them the day of (my) ‘exposé’ and multiple times after that,” he told Diary. “No responses to emails, nothing.”
So much for handling things in a “respectful, measured, considered way”.
The unnecessary delay in conducting a proper, balanced investigation into these serious accusations can only be causing unnecessary grief and much consternation for Fazal, given he has reportedly been stood down pending the outcome of the probe. After all, it’s only his career and reputation on the line.
The ABC wasn’t up for discussing the review – or any of its dealings with Naumenko – when we checked in about his claims on Sunday.
But if this is what constitutes a “thorough investigation” in at the ABC, it’s little wonder Liberal MP Sarah Henderson – herself a former respected Walkley Award-winning ABC journalist – is demanding a Senate inquiry into the editorial checks and balances at our taxpayer-funded broadcaster.
Molan quits 69X Minutes
Former Sky News Australia host Erin Molan has spectacularly severed all ties with low-budget and even-lower-browsed social media current affairs show 69X Minutes amid rumblings of a bitter off-air blow-up with program founder and juvenile-pun-fan Mario Nawfal.
The excitable crypto entrepreneur launched what he declared would be “the next nail” in the “legacy media” coffin to much fanfare back in February after billionaire Elon Musk joked he would “actually fund … a hard-hitting show on X called 69 Minutes”.
“Served unfiltered, unbiased and raw. I bet we get higher ratings than the other old hack of a show that ‘shall not be named’,” Nawfal boasted with unchecked hubris in a nod to CBS’s long-running 60 Minutes program in the US. “We are the media now.”
Well, we hope he didn’t stake the house on that bet, because the show has already gone dark online.
Despite promising the program would deliver an exciting, new instalment “every Sunday” as it dragged the “truth kicking and screaming into the spotlight”, Nawfal hasn’t upload a fresh instalment on his 69X Minutes YouTube channel since July 17, some four months ago – and even then, that one only received a miserly 769 views (including ours).
By way of comparison, the latest instalment of CBS’s 60 Minutes attracted just shy of seven million viewers in the US alone. Cop that legacy media!
What’s more, while there was an initial, and somewhat embarrassing, rush by some media outlets to automatically presume Musk was actually “supporting” 69X Minutes, program insiders told Diary it was never made clear whether the SpaceX and Tesla boss ever actually had any real involvement with the show.
He almost certainly wasn’t funding it.
In fact, there is now rampant speculation Molan was never even properly paid for presenting what was billed as “the most dangerous show on the internet”.
Molan, who has long since removed all references to the program from all of her social media accounts, declined to comment on her financial dealings with 69X Minutes at the weekend.
Instead, the ever-optimistic presenter explained she was now instead fully focused on producing her own show after being signed by conservative US powerhouse the Salem Podcast Network (which used to host the late Charlie Kirk’s program).
“The dream was always to go out on my own entirely – to control and own every single bit of content – and now I do,” Molan told Diary.
“The Erin Molan Show is only three months old but the growth has already blown us away … with recent guests including Benjamin Netanyahu, Boris Johnson, Eric Trump and Nigel Farage.
“After 20 years on network television I feel very grateful to have been forced to jump in the deep end – it’s a whole new world for me.”
While we weren’t able to reach Nawfal to discuss 69X Minutes’ future or finances, the unchecked demise of the wildly overambitious and overblown show will come of little surprise to the Diary faithful.
We first noted there were significant problems behind the scenes on the program way back in July, just days before Nawfal posted its final episode on YouTube.
Of course, at the time, everyone told us, “Diary, you’re being too harsh on the kids” and that it simply was not true that there are any issues with the then-already amateurishly inconsistent internet upstart.
No way. No how.
Apparently, Diary simply didn’t understand the information superhighway.
Well, we hate to say we told you so … but … guess what? We actually don’t. We love it. And we told you so.
Gone but not forgotten
Seven insists Alex “Cash Grab” Cullen and Natarsha Belling will return to the airwaves in the new year despite being abruptly “rested” over the summer.
The newly recruited news presenters’ respective shows, Seven’s Winning Arvo, and Seven’s National News at Noon bulletin, have both been put on hiatus during the Ashes tour … even on days when there is no cricket. We’re as stumped as anyone by that particular call.
Worryingly, at least for Belling, who has seemed somewhat surplus to requirements at Seven’s Media City headquarters since arriving in January given the enduring presence of network stalwart Ann Sanders, her daily news bulletins have been replaced by a selection of cheap midday movies and UK crime shows for weeks now and absolutely no one has seemed to notice, much less care … which is never a particularly great sign.
Of course, the last time Seven “rested” prime-time “news” segments over the summer – namely former top news boss and amateur astrology buff Anthony De Ceglie’s much-mocked nightly horoscope reading and Friday night funnyman skits with Mark Humphries – they were never to be seen again.
Even though De Ceglie also takes credit (surprise, surprise) for bringing Cullen and Belling to the network, before then reading his own stars – and the prevailing wind – and making for the exit, sources assured us their futures were far from on the wane at the network. Let’s see.
Shock jock’s super drama
Nine Radio shock jock Mark Levy’s ratings have never been better … and yet, at the same time, his grip on his plum position fronting the network’s influential morning talkback show on its flagship 2GB station has never looked more perilous.
The radio host, who replaced Ray Hadley in the coveted role last December, recorded an undeniably impressive 0.9 percentage point bump in the latest ratings survey last week, retaining top spot in the fiercely competitive Sydney timeslot with a 15.8 per cent share of the available audience.
So far so good. But away from the mic, things haven’t been looking so rosy.
Diary revealed at the weekend the amount of money the former national Wide World of Sports presenter owed creditors following the collapse of his highway-side restaurant, Pronto Sylvania, had spiralled from $680,000 to more than $1.6m, with liquidators now warning there was a “high risk” they would never be repaid.
And that’s not great news, particularly given Levy has already publicly promised on air that all of his “outstanding debts are in the process of being paid and will be fully settled” – after all, a shock jock’s word is surely his bond.
Although insiders said Levy remained steadfastly committed to fulfilling that promise, worryingly, for both the long-serving NRL Continuous Call team host and his benevolent corporate overlords in at Nine, there are fears the worst is still to yet come.
According to the “initial report to creditors” filed with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission by administrator Mitchell Ball last week, the radio host’s failed company, Saint George Hospitality Group Pty Ltd, of which he is sole director, not only owed creditors $1,663,938.67 but also as-yet-unverified amounts of “outstanding superannuation” to dozens of former restaurant employees.
While Ball noted Levy had been co-operative and indicated he was “in the process of refinancing his real property” to help service his debts, the liquidator warned the failed restaurant had little to no assets of any value and zero money left in either of its two bank accounts.
Ball warned Levy’s former staff might even have to apply for taxpayer funds through the Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme to cover the cost of “any outstanding leave entitlements” they were owed.
Now, we feel for Levy. We honestly do. Restaurants are a notoriously tough game even for seasoned professionals.
But he is also a high-profile – and highly paid – talkback radio host who claims to fight for battlers and presumes to lecture federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers and other politicians on how best to manage the national economy.
In fact, he even gave Chalmers a particularly big serve in May, while warning: “Jimbo, you can kiss (your plans of becoming prime minister one day) goodbye” if people’s superannuation accounts were adversely impacted by Labor. Funny that.
Ten tanks in ratings
Ten News+ has dropped to a humiliating new low on its final outing in the official ratings year, with the overhyped and underperforming news show attracting just 98,000 viewers across the country on average on Friday night.
The program, which has long played an unhealthy game of limbo with its ratings figures, is now pulling in little more than a third of the promising 291,000-strong audience that tuned in for its premiere back in June when it first replaced axed woke nightly gibberfest The Project.
Worse yet, internal ratings data revealed the prime-time 6pm bulletin, which is fronted by Seven News refugees Denham Hitchcock and Amelia Brace, dipped to just 5000 viewers at one point during its hour-long run in the critical Sydney market.
That’s 5000 viewers in a city of more than 5.5 million people and barely double the number of 1980s hair metal fans that turned up to watch one-time Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach belt out Youth Gone Wild (and the band’s other “hits”) at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney’s inner west on Friday night.
Whether Ten’s decision to hack the show in half and run just half-hour bulletins from January will finally help ease the program’s excruciating growing pains, remains to be seen (or unseen judging by the show’s ratings trajectory) but The Project’s former token conservative co-host Steve Price certainly seems to think it unlikely.
“Network Ten, in their wisdom, decided to axe the panel show The Project and replace it with something called Ten News+, which has been a ratings disaster,” Price wrote in his column in Melbourne’s Herald Sun at the weekend.
“The Project lasted 16 years … and made household names out of Sarah Harris, Waleed Aly, Carrie Bickmore, Pete Helliar and many more.
“That axing for me personally was sad. But it was a clear message that the future of free-to-air TV … was clearly irreversible.”
Given the largely forgotten network has been seeping money, and lost more than $480m over the past two years as advertisers and audiences continue to desert the station, it’s hard to argue with him. But let’s all hope that he’s wrong.
Last word
In the end, Bevan Shields’ polarising reign as editor of the Sydney Morning Herald finished not with a bang but a whimper.
Little more than a day after Diary last week revealed his long-shaky tenure was quickly coming to a close, he sent out an email to staff informing them he had stepped down.
Hours later, he exited his office to zero fanfare – no rousing speeches on the floor, traditional newsroom handovers to the incoming replacement, or rounds of applause – and quietly made for the exit.
The only surprising aspect of his resignation after four years in charge of the Sydney tabloid was that it all happened all so surprisingly quickly and with so little fuss.
Originally, the official announcement Shields was to be replaced by senior writer Jordan Baker had been scheduled for the start of January, but it was brought forward following a deluge of staff queries sparked by Diary’s revelation he was definitely on the way out.
But, the truth is, Shields’ impending departure had been an open secret for yonks.
Diary first heard he was to be succeeded by Baker as far back as November 2024, and whether it was true or not at that time, the transition had all been arranged and paperwork well and truly signed off on months ago, hence Nine’s ability to immediately announce his successor.
Indeed, the masthead’s Europe correspondent, David Crowe, was one of the very few journos so laughably far out of the loop he was seemingly caught off guard by Diary’s prediction.
“When your competitor goes after your editor, you know your editor is doing good,” he argued in a social media post on Monday, presumably straight-faced.
Of course, that peculiar take hadn’t aged so well by the time Crikey’s political editor, Bernard Keane, replied on Tuesday: “Or …. they turn out to be right.”
Enough said.
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