Sharyn Ghidella upbeat about move to Ten following axe from Seven

Sharyn Ghidella reveals the highs and lows of the past four months, following her sacking by Seven’s news boss while she was at a hairdressing appointment for a TV promo shoot.

Channel 10 Brisbane newsreader Sharyn Ghidella. Picture: David Kelly

Sharyn Ghidella says the past four months have been a “rollercoaster ride”, having endured a brutal sacking after 38 years in the media industry only to be hired by a rival network weeks later.

Speaking exclusively to The Australian, Ghidella said being given the axe by Seven Brisbane news director Michael Coombes — when she was midway through a hairdressing appointment for a TV promo shoot for the station — was one of the most challenging moments in her long career.

“It was emotionally exhausting — the upheaval that it creates — it happens to people every day, they lose their jobs,” she said.

“It was a terribly difficult time for me, at my age, 58. You never know what the future is going to be in the media if you lose your job at that age.

“Thankfully Ten understands that experience counts so they saw the value in someone like me. But initially I thought it was probably the end of my media career and I wasn’t ready for that.”

Sharyn Ghidella reading her final news bulletin for Seven in Brisbane on Tuesday, July 9.

Ghidella had been at Seven for 16 years before she was shown the door in July.

Soon after, she was recruited to front Queensland’s 10 News First bulletin from the network’s Mount Coot-Tha studios, taking over from Sandra Sully who was reading both Ten’s weekday Sydney and Brisbane news, and continues to read weekday Sydney news bulletins.

The mother of two boys, aged 17 and 13, Ghidella said when she started working in television at the age of 20 the industry was far less accepting of older women.

“You can’t hide your age,” Ghidella said.

“When I first started in television I didn’t see too many women that were over the age of 40. Once you got to a certain age as a woman your career was pretty much done.

“Thankfully we’ve had these wonderful role models like Tracy Grimshaw, Liz Hayes, Jennifer Keyte, Chris Bath, Sandra Sully, Jana Wendt … these women are powerhouses, they are all around my age, some older.

“They have proven to television executives everywhere that you don’t lose your value when you get to 40 as a woman in television.” As for luring Queensland viewers across from Seven to Ten, Ghidella concedes that drawing new eyeballs to watch the news on a different channel is always a challenge.

Sharyn Ghidella, far right, on Channel 9’s Today show in 2006 alongside Richard Wilkins, Steve Jacobs, Jessica Rowe, Karl Stefanovic and Ross Greenwood.

“We would love a whole heap of new viewers, we’ve had some of those who are probably familiar with me at other networks who have come on-board,” Ghidella said. “Each month we’ve built on our audience, so we couldn’t be happier with the results so far, but I know from the feedback I’m getting that viewers have followed me across.

“I’ve been in their lounge room for a long time, it’s what you get used to.”

Latest OzTAM data shows the average total TV weekday audience this year for the nightly news in Brisbane shows Nine ahead with 189,000 viewers, followed by Seven with 165,000 and Ten with 41,000.

As for appointment viewing, Ghidella says while the days of watching TV at a dedicated time are over for most viewers, she warns against relying solely on short clips on social media for a daily news diet.

“In terms of watching news in snippets, that always worries me because I always feel there’s a problem with context. If you’re not watching the full bulletin things can be taken out of context,” she said.

“But I do implore people to look for credible, mainstream news services if they are trying to get their news because we’re the ones doing the fact checking.”