Former 7.30 host Leigh Sales last week sprinkled some of her celebrity stardust in an apparent attempt to help the ABC’s bosses to recover from a swag of negative publicity about their job cuts: including its decision to axe Andrew Probyn and slash its arts team.
While some have lashed the cuts, Sales popped her head above the parapet to back management’s decisions and give them some positive PR, in comments that went anything but unnoticed among many of her ABC colleagues.
Sales granted an exclusive to the Nine papers last week, to deliver her public backing to the cuts fronted by David Anderson, and her former boss at 7.30, and now ABC news chief, Justin Stevens.
Speaking just after she’d walked the red carpet after being nominated for a Gold Logie, Sales, one of the ABC’s highest-paid personalities, told Nine of the ABC restructure: “It’s change or death basically in the media landscape.”
Sales noted in the interview that redundancies – including the move to eliminate the position of political editor – were inevitable. “It’s always really sad because you see good people go, so it’s always upsetting,” she said. “But the reality is that I know the way I consume media has changed so drastically … we have to keep adapting and evolving and changing if we want to remain relevant to the audience.”
But as the ex-7.30 host herself acknowledged to the Nine papers’ “culture and lifestyle reporter” Nell Geraets – who she also gave a second story on her Gold Logie nomination – it has been a quiet time for Sales at the public broadcaster. Her only ongoing on-air role at the ABC since quitting 7.30 last year has been recording a short introduction of less than a minute to each week’s edition of Australian Story.
“It’s also giving me pause that this is the least amount of (time) I’ve been on television in a couple of decades and that has coincided with a rise in my popularity – like the less people see me, the more popular I apparently am,” she told Geraets.
Referencing the Gold Logie nomination, Sales joked that someone “wrote down Sales when they meant to write down Sonia Kruger”.
Sales also gave some glimpses into her life after 7.30 at the ABC. She revealed in the interview she was “enjoying working” with the Australian Story team on its “digital strategy”, as well as “mentoring” other journalists: “After so many years of being so prominent on TV, I love that I’ve got a role that allows me to have more time to actually work with other colleagues,” Sales told Geraets. “I find it super satisfying.”
And unlike Probyn and others included in the redundancy program, Sales appears to be more than secure at the ABC.
Asked by the Nine culture and lifestyle reporter if her role would stay the same given the restructure, Sales replied: “I haven’t heard any different.”
The Project turns on Labor over voice
The Project was once a program that leftwing politicians felt they could rely on for a sympathetic hearing. The likes of Lisa Wilkinson routinely used the show as a platform to both fire off stern and frequent critiques of the conservative side of politics, while simultaneously lavishing praise on policies from the progressive side.
But change is in the winds at Ten’s flagship panel show. Amid dwindling ratings that now regularly see the show bobbing around 170,000 weeknight viewers in the five cities for its 6.30pm half-hour, and around 270,000 weeknight viewers for its 7pm half-hour, it seems The Project is no longer only looking to appeal to its traditionally progressive viewer base.
Maybe it’s something to do with the departure of Wilkinson (who, incidentally, is not looking like returning to Ten’s screens anytime soon, despite continuing to collect an eye-watering salary while on long-term leave).
Anthony Albanese looked taken aback as he jousted with The Project’s co-host Hamish Macdonald on Tuesday night, as Macdonald unexpectedly put the PM through the wringer over the lack of detail he has provided about the voice to parliament.
The Project has long been seen by Labor as one of its go-to shows for a sympathetic interview. But as his chat with Macdonald progressed, Albanese had the appearance of a man who’d wandered on to an alien show, having seemingly expected a sympathetic reception for his latest broad platitudes about the voice.
Macdonald’s patience wore thin when the PM gave longwinded answers to a series of his specific questions, including: “How many people will there be sitting on the voice”, “How would people get on to the voice?” and “How would it be chosen?” Finally, Macdonald became exasperated after yet another verbose answer to the latter of these questions by Albanese, in which the PM gave a state-by-state analysis of parliamentary treatments of Indigenous people, calling out the existing South Australian voice with the odd quote: “It might be that it‘s that voice to parliament elects people to the national voice structure.”
At this point, Macdonald visibly lost patience: “PM, I‘m trying to keep this as simple as possible. I’m trying to keep this as simple as possible, with respect, Prime Minister. If the voice disagrees with the government of the day on something, who has primacy there?”
At this point, the PM finally gave a succinct answer: “The government!” before adding “All this (the voice) is, is an advisory group.”
Macdonald looked unconvinced before being interrupted by another panellist’s question.
But Diary hears the interview could be a marker for a more politically agnostic version of The Project moving forward.
‘Just nuts’: Journo’s speech lashes Probyn axing
The ABC’s axed political editor Andrew Probyn may have understandably been absent from the Canberra Press Gallery’s midwinter ball at Parliament House, despite having previously forked out good money from his own pocket to attend the event.
But while he wasn’t there in person, Probyn was very much the elephant in the room at the national capital’s night of nights: with everyone from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, and a host of onstage members of the fourth estate unable to ignore the biggest story of the past week in media circles.
It was Dutton who went hardest in his criticism of the ABC, claiming Aunty should be “ashamed of its actions” in axing the position of political editor and making Probyn redundant. Even Albanese parodied the fact that the ABC seemed to have “no money for a political editor” and “no money for an arts division”.
But the strongest emotions from the gathered crowd came when a couple of Probyn’s fellow Canberra journalists delivered their tributes to their now-former press gallery colleague.
Freshly crowned gallery journalist of the year David Crowe won spontaneous applause when he used his off-the-cuff victory speech to launch a furious take-down of the ABC’s decision to make redundant Probyn and Brihony Speed, the ABC’s lead Canberra producer, describing it as “just nuts”.
“The word redundancy is such an awful word,” Crowe pointedly told the audience. “And that’s a terrible thing with somebody like Andrew Probyn, somebody like Brihony Speed, who’ve done so much great work. They’re not unnecessary. It’s just mad, what’s happened … I can’t be on this podium and not point that out. It’s just nuts.”
Earlier, press gallery president Jane Norman had also won a partial standing ovation from the media section of the crowd, when she also name-checked Probyn and Speed when honouring “colleagues who have left involuntarily in this past year due to the rapidly changing media environment”.
Apart from delivering on the Probyn drama, the midwinter ball also delivered on its primary purpose: donating money to good causes, with the $362,500 pledged taking the total amount raised by the ball since its inception past the $5m mark for the first time.
David Anderson a late scratching from Ball
Last week, Diary mentioned that ABC big boss David Anderson was hosting the public broadcaster’s table at Wednesday night’s midwinter ball. But it turns out that Andrew Probyn wasn’t the only ABC late scratching from the event, with Anderson pulling out early last week.
Anderson’s absence prompted some media types to surmise whether it had anything to do with criticism in the Canberra press gallery of the ABC’s Canberra cuts.
Or alternatively, some asked, could it have instead been about seemingly pointed comments a day earlier in an internal Labor Party meeting by the minister responsible for the ABC: Communications Minister Michelle Rowland?
Rowland – who was present at Wednesday night’s ball – had told colleagues in a Labor caucus meeting on Tuesday: “The ‘B’ in ABC stands for broadcasting.” It seemed like a response to the ABC’s claims it was transitioning to a “digital audience” such as TikTok users (although Rowland later clarified that the ABC had “operational independence” to “structure the organisation within its funding envelope to meet the changing needs of audiences”).
But an ABC spokesman has assured Diary that Anderson’s absence had nothing to do with the fallout from the broadcaster’s restructure: “David Anderson had commitments on the day that meant he couldn’t travel to Canberra. The ABC was well represented by senior staff, with a mixture of on-air talent – including Leigh Sales, Sarah Ferguson, David Speers and Patricia Karvelas – and its two most senior news executives, Justin Stevens and Gavin Fang.”
Among other big media CEOs, News Corp’s Michael Miller attended, but Nine’s Mike Sneesby had obligations at the NRL’s second State of Origin in Brisbane, while Seven’s James Warburton was a late withdrawal.
In Anderson’s absence, it was Stevens and Fang who held court on the ABC table. But those watching the ABC pair closely at the ball suggested they kept a low profile: not straying far from their table throughout Canberra’s biggest social event, and departing quickly when the night’s formalities ended around 10pm.
Stefanovic calls ‘best chance’ to beat Sunrise
Karl Stefanovic is back on Nine’s Today show on Monday, for the first time since David Kochhanded over the Sunrise hosting baton to former sprinter Matt Shirvington just over a fortnight ago.
The returning Today show host has privately been bullish about his prospects against the new-look Sunrise.
Diary hears Stefanovic told acquaintances at a recent function that the handover to Shirvo at Sunrise was Today’s “best ever chance” of knocking off the historically dominant Seven breakfast ratings juggernaut.
But gleeful Seven executives believe Stefanovic may have already lost Today’s big shot at getting the jump on Sunrise.
Instead of going head-to-head with Shirvington during his first two weeks in the Sunrise chair, Stefanovic jetted off to Paris with his wife Jasmine for the society wedding of their close friends, chicken dynasty heiress Tamie Ingham and celebrity chef Guillaume Brahimi. In the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, plenty of shots of the ritzy wedding have already been posted on Instagram.
Nine has defended Stefanovic’s “long-scheduled” decision to head to Europe just as a major transition took place on Sunrise. But there’s no doubt that it was unfortunate timing for Today to have its big-name host missing.
Shirvington fronted a particularly busy fortnight of news on Sunrise while Stefanovic was away, with the deadly Hunter Valley bus crash, the Titanic sub disappearance and implosion, Lidia Thorpe’s explosive allegations against David Van, and Australia’s unlikely Ashes win in the first Test.
It was left to Nine’s political editor Charles Croucher and Sydney sports anchor James Bracey to keep Stefanovic’s seat warm until he returned.
Shirvington has had a winning start to his Sunrise tenure in Stefanovic’s absence, with the breakfast TV juggernaut winning every day last week. On State of Origin day on Wednesday, Sunrise’s winning margin shrank to just 5000 capital city viewers, before blowing out to 71,000 viewers on Friday. Will Stefanovic’s return change anything?
Nine’s big dilemma amid Ashes triumph
What a difference a win makes. The thrilling two-wicket victory by the Australian team in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston on the last afternoon has left Nine with no choice but to elevate the first day of the second Test to its main channel nationally.
The coverage of the Ashes opener had surprisingly been kept on Nine’s secondary channel GEM despite huge ratings. The two-hour first session of the third and fourth days of the Test managed a whopping 634,000 average capital city viewers on Sunday night and 618,000 capital city viewers on Monday night on GEM – well beyond expectations and GEM’s highest ratings of the year.
Diary understands the huge ratings on Nine’s secondary channel prompted a hastily arranged meeting behind the scenes last week among Nine executives, who seemed to have been caught unawares by the huge viewer interest in the Australians’ battle with England’s freewheeling new “Bazball” approach.
The meeting apparently canvassed whether the final day of the Edgbaston Test should have been telecast on the main channel on Tuesday night. But we hear the last-day telecast stayed on GEM when it became clear that the first session would be washed out by rain.
But the famous Australian victory – with captain Pat Cummins hitting the winning runs and the Aussies going 1-0 up while most of us were asleep in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, local time – has seen a rethink by Nine ahead of the second test.
For the crucial opening day of the second Test at the home of cricket, Lord’s – which starts in prime time on Wednesday evening – Nine has finally bitten the bullet and moved the Ashes from GEM to its main channel.
Meanwhile, the network’s popular Travel Guides has been rested for a second consecutive week, after it also made way last week for the second NRL State of Origin.
From here, it seems Nine will attempt to screen as much of the Ashes on its main channel as possible.
But Nine’s loyalty to the NRL in NSW and Queensland on Thursday and Friday nights has created a snag, which will see the cricket return to GEM during footy telecasts. Expect more similar programming dilemmas as the Ashes series progresses.
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