Tony “ToJo” Jones is just three weeks away from departing the ABC’s Q&A for good and heading to China, after 12 years with the show.
But Diary can reveal Jones won’t be lost to the ABC after all. Jones, 64, is close to signing a surprise new deal that will ensure he continues to be heavily involved with Aunty as a roving elder statesman for the ABC in the Asia-Pacific.
Jones will shortly be based in Beijing with his wife, Sarah Ferguson, in China, where she will become the ABC’s new bureau chief. It had been initially thought that ToJo would simply be writing books in China while Ferguson became the ABC’s big presence in the world’s most populous nation.
But contrary to these initial expectations, Jones will now continue in an active role with the public broadcaster: “The ABC wants to keep me connected and on-air in a regional role, rather like (British current affairs presenter) Jon Snow,” Jones tells Diary.
Jones says he will be filing stories for the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent, but could also be deployed extensively across the ABC news and current affairs spectrum. While he won’t be reporting on China because of visa restrictions, he will be able to cover every other country in the Asia-Pacific.
“The ABC has some serious plans for a greater engagement with the region,” he says.
Meanwhile, Jones will stick with his ambitions as a novelist. His second novel, In Darkness Visible — the sequel to his first thriller, The Twentieth Man — is already on its second print run, a fortnight after its release, and he’s planning to write a third instalment while in China.
Jones wants to be Australia’s answer to Frederick Forsyth. And if Miles Franklin award-winning Australian novelist Anna Funder is to be believed, he may have a shot. In launching the book, Funder described Jones’s new book as a “thrilling ball of light”.
We’ll take that as a comment, Tony.
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Olympic-sized junket for ABC
Last week Diary exclusively revealed that ABC boss David Anderson had decided to end 67 years of tradition by not broadcasting next year’s Olympics on radio because of “competing budget priorities”.
But guess what? One of those important “priorities” this week is a business-class junket on the public purse to, of all places, Tokyo, the very home of the 2020 Olympics. The lucky ABC executive going is international strategy boss David Hua.
Think about it. While Anderson bangs the drum about a looming costs emergency at Aunty, a senior ABC executive will be headed, all expenses paid, to Tokyo for the annual conference of something called the Asian Broadcasting Union (ABU), a body vaguely described as assisting “with the development of broadcasting in the region”.
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And it turns out the Tokyo trip is actually the third overseas ABU junket attended by the ABC in less than five months, with delegates sent to two other questionable recent ABU talkfests in Istanbul and Bangladesh.
But the plot thickens. On Friday morning, when we got in touch with the ABC, Diary had established that Anderson was at that point attending the Tokyo conference personally as well. Not only that, but he was also planning to bring his human resources chief Rebekah “Amex” Donaldson.
So until we called, sending three of the ABC’s top executives to the Tokyo junket was considered a higher “budget priority” than covering the Tokyo Olympics for all Australians.
But Diary’s inquiry seemed to have a dramatic effect. A few hours after our call, a statement was issued: “The MD has cancelled his travel so that he can deal with more pressing issues here, including the ABC’s ongoing coverage of the bushfires and the employee bargaining process.”
Fascinating. Donaldson has apparently cancelled her Japan trip as well, so Diary’s call saved taxpayers two return business class trips to Tokyo with all the trimmings. Let’s call it the downpayment on a reinstated ABC Olympics radio broadcast.
Incidentally, Donaldson’s “Amex” nickname among some unkind ABC types derives from the observation that Anderson seemingly won’t leave home without her.
And so it’s now the lucky David Hua who will alone fly the ABC flag, sampling the delights of Tokyo on the taxpayer coin. Will he have time for the “one day trip including a lunch cruise” of the Olympic city organised for gathered media bosses? Let’s hope he can at least make the Tokyo TV Song Festival, a “non-competitive gala event that showcases the music of the Asia Pacific region to ABU (members)”.
Meanwhile, spare a thought for HR boss Donaldson. Instead of living the life in Tokyo this week, she will now be back in ho-hum Ultimo, dealing with unglamorous issues like the underpayment of 2500 ABC casuals, who have so far waited nearly a year to be compensated.
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Pauline pulled
Pauline Hanson has become a fixture on Nine’s Today show ever since she dumped her long-term breakfast TV family at Sunrise exactly eight months ago, over what she saw as unfair questioning from David Koch.
But this time it is the Today show that has yanked Hanson off the air. Diary hears that last Monday, 30 minutes before the show was due to air, Hanson was told she wasn’t required for her regular segment on Today.
Why was Hanson hooked at such short notice? Because of this very column.
The celebration in Diary last week of Hanson’s role in Karl Stefanovic’s return to Nine’s breakfast flagship rubbed up senior Today staff the wrong way.
If you recall, the Hanson camp last week crowed that her “Bring Back Karl” push was just the latest in a list of her demands on the national stage, including a family law inquiry, which have now “come to fruition”.
It all seemed like good fun. But Today insiders have confirmed a phone call was made to the Hanson camp at 5am last Monday to tell her she was no longer required for her regular 6.45am segment with Neil Mitchell.
“For Karl to come back, someone else has to lose their job,” a producer said. “Given the nature of the comments in the paper today, Pauline won’t be required for today’s segment. Let’s leave it at that.”
Sorry Pauline! Interestingly, the main host of Today that day was none other than Deb Knight. If you recall, it was Knight herself who provoked Hanson into her “Bring Back Karl” push by questioning One Nation’s poll numbers. Hanson famously responded: “I’ve actually gone up since the last election, unlike your show, Deb …. Should you hand over your job or should we bring Karl back?”
With dumped hosts Knight and Tom Steinfort keeping the seats warm until Stefanovic and Allison Langdon formally take over, emotions at Today are still a bit raw.
But happily, Diary hears Hanson will be released from Today’s naughty corner in the coming weeks — just in time for Karl to come back.
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Q&A no easy gig
Tony Jones has come out in support of his stand-in Q&A host, Fran Kelly, after Diary published her mea culpa last week about the high-profile feminist episode of the ABC panel show a fortnight ago.
Kelly admitted she should have immediately challenged assertions on the panel that killing men was the answer to violence against women, after a social media storm erupted over the program.
But Jones has told Kelly’s critics to take a “chill pill”, noting Q&A is frequently hard to host. “It can be very tricky,” he says. “It’s a matter of experience — I’ve been doing it for 12 years. I really feel for people who do brief stints. People need to take a chill pill. Fran has been a brilliant broadcaster over many years.”
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Shorten’s final word
Bill Shorten’s camp wasn’t keen last week to shed any light on what had prompted his spectacular “f..k you” outburst at Scott Morrison’s principal private secretary Yaron Finkelstein, right in front of Diary’s eyes in the media-heavy Tabcorp Melbourne Cup marquee.
A spokesman for Shorten told us: “I’m not going to contribute to episode two for you.”
But Diary will have a go anyway. From what we hear, Shorten’s spray wasn’t overly personal, other than knowing that Finkelstein had played a key role in ScoMo’s campaign: “He just hates Tories,” a Labor source said.
But could Shorten’s epic warning to Finkelstein: “Just remember: the wheel always turns” really have been code for: “Watch out for a future Shorten prime ministership”?
Perhaps. But in John Howard’s immortal words, after Shorten’s two failed federal election bids, that really would be “Lazarus with a triple bypass”.
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Sonia signs on
Seven will this week formally unveil the multi-talented Sonia Kruger, who had her last day on Nine’s Today Extra on Friday, as one of the faces of the network, in a deal believed to be worth $1m a year, or $3m over three years.
At that rate, Kruger’s package will surpass the salaries of talent like Seven’s breakfast stars David Koch and Samantha Armytage. But insiders are adamant that she will not be the highest paid on-air personality at Seven, with suggestions talent like Hollywood star Rebel Wilson (who will front Seven’s new reality dog show Pooch Perfect) are on bigger coin.
As you might have expected, with TV networks taking opportunities to squeeze many salaries in cost-straitened times, paying Kruger a seven-figure sum has put the odd nose out of joint among Seven news and entertainment talent.
But Kruger won’t have anything to do with the Seven news empire of her real-life partner, Craig McPherson. Kruger’s morning TV days are over; she will now have the more family-friendly hours that go with being prime-time entertainment property.
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Today twosome
It’s no secret that Nine’s Today show has been going through an identity crisis in 2019.
Apart from its failed all-female hosting duo experiment, Today has at times featured a cast of thousands on-camera, as Nine has tried, unsuccessfully, to find a winning formula for the show. The first day of the new show in January saw it feature an ensemble cast of six people on screen at once at times, with the forced camaraderie leaving viewers cold.
But in 2020, with Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon fronting the show, it will be a very different story.
Nine’s news and current affairs boss, Darren Wick, tells Diary the new Today will revert to a traditional winning formula: focusing on the chemistry of its two main hosts.
“In 2020, we’ll be returning to its roots of what has been traditionally successful. It’s about two stars: the strong partnership between Ally Langdon and Karl Stefanovic,” Wick says.
That means Today’s support players are likely to stay in their chosen lanes, whether it be celebrity reporting, weather or newsreading.
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Closet fan Costello
Is Nine chairman Peter Costello a closet fan of Australia’s most notorious reality show, Married at First Sight?
A show famous for partner-swapping scandals and drunken dinner party fights may seem unbecoming for an ex-federal treasurer. But Nine CEO Hugh Marks let slip that MAFS is appointment viewing for the Costello clan.
“I do understand that MAFS is a program that has some appeal in the Costello household,” Marks cheekily revealed to Costello’s mock horror after Nine’s AGM last week.
For his part, Costello insisted his favourite reality show was not MAFS, but the wholesome Lego Masters. Sure, Peter, we believe you; thousands wouldn’t!
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Brown no Bachelor
It is the persistent rumour that has circulated in the TV industry for years: that one of Australia’s most eligible bachelors, Chris Brown, could finally become the star of Ten’s The Bachelor.
After all, he is already contracted to the right network, and Ten would jump at the publicity and headlines generated by having a real TV star as The Bachelor, much like Sophie Monk fronting The Bachelorette in 2017.
But now, with Ten last week closing the chapter on another year of Bachelors and Bachelorettes, Diary can finally put dating TV’s juiciest rumour to bed: Brown has no plans to front Ten’s marquee dating show.
“It’s not my scene,” Brown confided to Diary when we bumped into him at, of all places, a karaoke bar. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, budding bachelorettes.
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