Word from the ABC’s Southbank studios on Friday was that there was some very lively backroom interplay after an interview Trioli conducted with Andrews that morning, which addressed the emergency flood situation that had developed in the state on Thursday night.
It is understood that a late deal was done by Andrews to appear in the studio with Trioli off the top of her Friday show, on the proviso that the interview was to be singularly focused on the Victorian floods.
Andrews, we’re told, only agreed to the interview on the basis that the ABC is considered the default “emergency broadcaster”.
But late in the interview, Trioli dared to move the conversation beyond the emergency. Adopting a stern tone, she scolded the Premier for not appearing on her show for “almost a year” — at the same time as she appeared to admit she’d agreed to not talk about “politics” as a condition of her interview.
“Now look, Premier, you’ve requested not to be asked about policy or politics today, you say, out of respect to those who are dealing with the floods,” she began. “But it has been, I just checked, almost a year to the day when you were last in this studio or on this show for an interview. Can you give an assurance to the listeners that you will be back here for a proper, in-depth interview within a couple of weeks?”
An audibly surprised Andrews allowed himself a long pause, before pointedly not committing to a campaign interview with Trioli.
“Ah, well, I can’t give you a time, Virginia,” he started. “But I’m always happy to sit with you.” Unperturbed, Trioli tried again: “You could (give me a time) if you’d like to.” But Andrews continued the stand-off: “Well, I could, but it might not mean much because I might have flood issues to deal with, or something else to deal with.”
Trioli had one more go at guilting the Premier into accepting the interview request: “We do keep requesting, Premier.”
Diary imagines that last question would have particularly riled Andrews’s office, given how tightly controlled his one-on-one interview requests are. Andrews shut down the line of questioning for a final time by replying: “Today’s not a day for politics.”
Luckily for Trioli, she won’t have to worry too much about Andrews granting an interview elsewhere in Melbourne talk radio.
We’re told there is zero chance of the Premier ending his five-year boycott of Trioli’s chief competitor, 3AW morning king Neil Mitchell, before the upcoming Victorian election, after he again smashed Andrews in his new Sunday Age column on the weekend.
–
Cash and Carrie: Bickmore’s $1.1m Ten deal
Ten may have been the most surprised party of all last week when its star host, Carrie Bickmore, decided to walk away from her lucrative role on The Project.
Why? Because it would be fair to say that Bickmore was on an exceedingly good wicket on Ten’s flagship panel show.
Plenty of Ten insiders have been claiming to know exactly how well paid Bickmore is. That’s because of what is said to have been the accidental internal leak of a draft contract for the star, shortly before she sealed her last deal.
Diary is assured that details of that particular draft contract got out when it was accidentally sent to another Ten department during Bickmore’s last round of contract negotiations.
Those who claim to have sighted the details are adamant that they showed an offer to Bickmore of $1.1m a year to host the show from Monday to Wednesday nights during 2021 and 2022. That sort of number would put her well clear of marquee TV network talent like David Koch (who earns about $800,000 a year), Natalie Barr, and Tracy Grimshaw, for just three nights a week. Nice work if you can get it!
Only the likes of Karl Stefanovic and Sonia Kruger (who both work full-time and make around $1.5m a year) are on better wickets than Bickmore in TV.
Bickmore’s reputed $1.1m number also lines up with claims by other insiders that earlier in her 13-year stint with The Project, she was paid between $1.3m and $1.4m a year to be the main female host of Ten’s flagship panel show for four nights a week, from Monday to Thursday. We attempted to reach Bickmore’s management to confirm those numbers last week, but our calls went unreturned.
Meanwhile, all the signs point to Ten being caught off-guard by Bickmore’s decision to walk away from The Project.
Diary got wind of her possible departure five days earlier, and called Ten to ask, but got little insight at that point. Then, we called Ten shortly before 3pm last Tuesday, the day of her resignation, to again ask what was happening with Bickmore — but again couldn’t get any clarification.
The rumours persist that Bickmore’s shock departure was down to Ten no longer being willing to pay a three-day-a-week host a seven-figure salary. But Ten is adamant that money wasn’t the issue, and it was simply down to Bickmore wanting to spend more time with her family, particularly after her much-publicised three-month sabbatical in the UK earlier this year.
Whatever the reason for her departure, the question in TV land by the weekend was: who will be willing to stump up $1.1m a year for a part-time gig for Bickmore?
–
Why Wilkinson won’t win Carrie’s role
The Project has been left without its main female host after Carrie Bickmore announced her departure last week.
But the big question on the lips of many at Ten: will the flagship panel show’s other big-name female host, Lisa Wilkinson, take Bickmore’s place from Monday to Wednesday?
The answer is a no. The key to why Wilkinson won’t get the job lies in the ratings from Monday to Wednesday, compared with the Friday and Sunday editions – when Wilkinson is co-host.
Diary’s analysis of the 2022 ratings shows the Friday and Sunday editions, hosted by Wilkinson with Hamish Macdonald, have averaged 218,953 viewers in the five capital cities. That is 40.9 per cent below the average of 308,460 viewers who watch the Monday-to-Wednesday editions of The Project, hosted by Bickmore and Waleed Aly.
It is a similar tale on a national basis, including regional areas. Wilkinson and Macdonald have attracted an average of 295,053 viewers this year – 38.9 per cent below the 409,959 viewers who watch Bickmore and Aly.
Defenders of Wilkinson will claim Friday is a slow viewing night across the networks. But the same argument cannot be mounted on Sunday, traditionally the strongest night of the week.
Indeed, total free-to-air viewing is only an average of 6.6 per cent higher on Monday-to-Wednesday nationally vs Friday and Sunday combined.
With the odds lengthening on Wilkinson replacing Bickmore, Diary hears the usual suspects are lining up for the gig: with the field including key Ten personality Chrissie Swan, The Project’s recently signed talent Georgie Tunny, Studio 10’s respected co-host Sarah Harris, and former Bachelor contestant Abbie Chatfield.
But insiders suggest some other names who have been widely touted, including regular Project panellists Jan Fran and Susie Youssef, are drifting in the bookies’ betting markets and highly unlikely to win the gig.
Sportsbet has already posted a betting market listing Tunny as an odds-on favourite to win the role at $1.90, ahead of Wilkinson ($3.25), Harris ($4) and Swan ($6).
–
Credlin investigates the ‘Cult of Dan’
Who could forget the sight of a fully masked Peta Credlin going head to head with Daniel Andrews during one of his record-breaking 120 consecutive press conferences in the first year of the Covid pandemic?
Now it’s looking like there’ll be a round two between Credlin and the Victorian Premier in coming weeks.
Diary hears that the Sky host is preparing a fresh “special” about Andrews ahead of the upcoming state election.
The documentary, we’re told, has the working title of: “The Cult of Daniel Andrews”, and will run in the last couple of weeks of the election.
Our Melbourne sources have informed Diary that Credlin has been in the field in recent days, conducting interviews with a cross-section of prominent political and media identities.
In light of her special, the big question is whether Credlin will once again go head-to-head against Andrews at a public event.
Her first direct confrontation with Andrews was the media equivalent of a tennis match, with reporters’ heads turning repeatedly between the pair as the Sky host took centre stage with a dozen questions of a visibly irritated Premier about the state’s hotel quarantine failings.
The intense exchange in October 2020 in the first wave of the pandemic formed the basis of a Credlin special titled Deadly Decisions, which was one of Sky’s highest-rating programs that year
The word is that Credlin’s special on the “cult” of Andrews will be a big-picture offering that looks at the relationships that helped him rise to power, and once he became Premier, retain his grip.
The show will apparently also look at some of Andrews’s headline-making hurdles during the last term, including his handling of Covid and his infamous holiday house fall that saw him break several vertebrae in his back. There’s also talk of interviews with “whistleblowers” on the infamous “red shirts” affair.
But as Credlin is set to acknowledge in the special, it is looking all-but certain that Andrews will win a third consecutive victory in a landslide over a faltering Victorian Opposition on November 26.
The bookies agree with Credlin, putting the chances of a Matthew Guy victory somewhere between Buckley’s and none.
–
Go West: Aunty heads for Parra and beyond
We already know about the ABC’s plans to move 300 content-makers, including radio presenters, to Parramatta in 2024.
But David Anderson clearly has bolder ambitions. In an address for key western Sydney business figures — and even NRL team CEOs — on Wednesday, the ABC managing director surprised some present by outlining a plan to move beyond Parramatta for two of Western Sydney’s other growth areas: Penrith and Liverpool.
“Centres like Parramatta, Liverpool and Penrith will become home to future generations of legendary storytellers, journalists, presenters and operations specialists,” Anderson told the gathering.
“ABC Parramatta is just the first step in deepening our commitment in the Greater Western Sydney area.
“We are currently looking at our options for an additional small bureau in either Penrith or Liverpool to strengthen our presence here.”
The ABC’s first move west in 2024 will see prominent Sydney radio personalities, including breakfast host James Valentine and drive presenter Richard Glover, relocated to an ABC “show” studio on the Parramatta promenade.
Anderson also confirmed to the Parramatta gathering that he would “rent out space in the ABC’s Ultimo headquarters” to help fund the move, as well as use the proceeds of Aunty’s recent sale of its last Gore Hill studios on Sydney’s north shore.
The ABC boss also couldn’t resist a wry shot at fellow public broadcaster SBS over its tardiness in making a similar move, after PM Anthony Albanese announced in recent days that he would conduct a ‘feasibility study’ on SBS’s behalf about the viability of moving it to western Sydney.
“I should make it clear that we are not seeking any additional support from the government to facilitate the establishment of ABC Parramatta. We did our own feasibility study,” Anderson said, in a point that wouldn’t have been missed by Communications Minister Michelle Rowland or the high-profile Member for Parramatta, Andrew Charlton, who were both present.
Meanwhile, ABC chair Ita Buttrose used her address to the Parramatta Square function to talk up the importance of Greater Western Sydney, noting it represented a return to her “old stomping ground” from her days as the one-time morning presenter on 2KY.
–
Chris Kenny quizzed on the ABC
Last Tuesday night, Sky News host Chris Kenny made a surprise appearance on the airwaves of his avowed media adversary, the ABC.
Yes, you read that right. The man who brought his loyal Sky viewers “Your ABC Exposed” popped up with his least favourite broadcaster for a colourful cameo last week: announcing he had found a “big fat diamond ring” in a jeweller’s box on the streets of inner-city Sydney five months ago, which no one had yet claimed.
The Sky host was initially announced right off the top of Sarah Macdonald’s ABC Radio Sydney 7pm Evenings show on Tuesday night only as “Chris from Bondi Junction”. But it didn’t take long to become clear who was on the line.
“I’ve tried everything I can to find the owner,” the exasperated “Chris” told Macdonald. “So I went to the jeweller. (Then) I went to the police: no one had reported it missing. I have a little TV show on Sky, I mentioned it there as well. I got Ben Fordham to do it on his radio show on 2GB.”
At this point, the penny finally dropped for an audibly shocked Macdonald: “Is this Chris Kenny?”
“Yes it is Sarah,” the Sky host replied. “I’m doing a bit of moonlighting on the ABC.”
But the ABC host wasn’t about to let Kenny off the hook without a bit of ribbing: “So your last gasp is to try the ABC?,” Macdonald asked.
“It’s like, you’ll stoop so low, Chris – to come on the ABC to find the ring’s owner?”
Kenny diplomatically replied: “Long-time listener, first-time caller.” The Sky host went on to make Macdonald an offer she couldn’t possibly refuse. “I’ll tell you what, if you find the owner of that ring, I’ll be giving the ABC only good reports for at least a week!”
Macdonald responded: “That would just be fabulous. Then I could say: 2GB couldn’t do it. Sky News couldn’t do it. Can the ABC do it?”
After making his diamond appeal to listeners, Kenny tried his hand at opening the show’s nightly quiz. He correctly answered “Charles Dickens” to the first question: “Who wrote Great Expectations?” – but came a cropper second-up in the quiz’s news section (allegedly his strong suit) when he was asked which country had just opened to tourists. He incorrectly guessed: ‘Hong Kong’.
For the record, ‘Chris from Bondi Junction’, the correct answer was Japan. Meanwhile, in breaking news, the ring remains unclaimed.
Why I will miss Q+A: a conservative’s lament
Where else could I trade barbs with John Pilger, raise ethical dilemmas with Peter Singer, learn the finer points of polyamory: and engage in obscure theological bets with Malcolm Turnbull?
ABC news docos to fill Q+A void
The ABC has announced plans to increase its investment in news documentaries, signalling a shift in editorial priorities under recently appointed managing director Hugh Marks.
Six weeks out from the Victorian election, significant tensions have emerged between Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and ABC Radio Melbourne’s marquee host, Virginia Trioli,over a perceived on-air “ambush” of the Premier.