Sam Armytage quits Sunrise to ‘find peace and calm’
Samantha Armytage insists she made an unprompted decision to quit the nation’s leading breakfast TV show.
Outgoing Sunrise co-host Samantha Armytage insists she made an unprompted decision to quit the nation’s leading breakfast TV show and is walking away from the program despite Seven’s best attempts to retain her in the role.
Armytage surprised viewers on Monday morning with teary revelations she would be finishing up at Sunrise this week after eight years at the helm, even though she and veteran frontman David Koch had remained unbeaten in the fierce breakfast TV ratings battleground throughout her reign.
“The time has come for the sun to set on my time at Sunrise,” she said. “I go out of this job at a time of my own choosing and on top of the ratings, which not many people in television can say they do.”
While the announcement caught many off guard, The Australian can reveal the 44-year-old had actually been in secret talks with her bosses for months about her decision to leave Sunrise; and her tightly orchestrated on-air resignation had been weeks in the planning.
A number of Seven insiders said there had been concerns about the amount of personal leave Armytage had taken in 2020 and whether she remained committed to the gruelling timeslot, with rumours circulating her contract – up in October – might not be renewed.
However, sources close to the presenter maintained the issue was never broached with her and that Seven’s TV executives were stunned when she told them she wanted to wind up her time on Sunrise with six months still to run on her contract.
“She had five weeks off with a post-bushfires respiratory infection last March, two weeks off when her dad had a very serious stroke and three weeks off to bury her mother in November,” one well-placed source told The Australian.
“At no stage did they query her commitment and they were shocked when she decided it was time to get out early.”
While sources in both camps denied any “on-set or off-set conflict” had directly contributed to Armytage’s departure, Seven’s TV chiefs were said to be aware of growing friction among the Sunrise cast and were supportive of her decision to leave, believing the show’s brand was bigger than any one person and that there was enough depth of talent across the line-up to avoid any dramatic ratings repercussions.
Either way, Amrytage’s departure had already been locked in by the time she took a parting swipe at the TV industry — and the “sociopaths and narcissists” that she felt pervaded it — during an interview with Stellar magazine a week ago, further exacerbating tensions among her colleagues.
“I don’t think any of us want to do the same thing forever,” Armytage said. “There’s a lot about television that’s all about you and that’s an awful way to live your life. TV isn’t a place that’s necessarily very healthy
“It’s full of sociopaths and narcissists – it can be a dangerous environment, let me tell you.”
It is understood the network considered starting the ratings year without Armytage but opted to hold off announcing her departure until Sunrise had secured a strong, early lead against arch rival Today at the Nine Network.
.@sam_armytage has announced her decision to step away from her role as co-host of Australia’s number one breakfast show, Sunrise. https://t.co/Isjs4IaQg0
— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) March 7, 2021
According to Seven insiders, they were determined to maintain “a smooth transition” after watching Today implode with repeated line-up changes over the past four years, including co-host Lisa Wilkinson’s defection to The Project at Ten in the midst of a gender pay-disparity saga, Karl Stefanovic’s brutal firing and rehiring, and the axing of the show’s first all-female hosting duo of Deborah Knight and Georgie Gardner.
Instead, the network spent weeks planning the first major reshuffle to Sunrise’s hosting line-up since Armytage took over from former co-host Melissa Doyle in 2013 before she was allowed to announce her resignation live on-air on Monday.
Seven is expected to announce this week that she will be replaced by long-serving Sunrise news presenter Natalie Barr, who has impressed while filling in as Sunrise co-host on Fridays alongside Matt Doran this year.
The network’s bosses have been further buoyed in their desire to promote Barr by internal research indicating she is one of the most popular breakfast television personalities in the country.
A visibly emotional Armytage told viewers the death of her mother Libby Armytage in November had been key to her decision to stand down from Sunrise with one year still remaining on her contract, along with her wedding to horse breeder Richard Lavender on New Year’s Eve.
“As many of you know, the last six months of my personal life have been very bittersweet,” she said. “I want to step out of this public world for a while and take time to calm things down, enjoy a bit of slow living and spend some time with my precious family, my husband and (dog) Banjo.”
Armytage, who has worked at Seven for almost two decades, said her husband had made her appreciate the slower pace of country life following her move to his estate in the NSW Southern Highlands.
James Warburton, who runs the broadcaster’s parent company Seven West Media, said Armytage had played an “important part” in the Sunrise team.
He said Armytage, who will record her final Sunrise show on Thursday, would work on “some exciting new projects” for Seven from the end of the year.
Sunrise has averaged 253,000 viewers across the five metropolitan cities since the start of the 2021 TV ratings, comfortably beating Today and ABC’s News Breakfast.
Koch, who has hosted Sunrise since 2002, said he supported Armytage’s decision, and described her as the “rock” of their program.
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