Sharp Shooting: Hamish Macdonald gives ratings week the slip

ABC’s great white male hope has gone AWOL, just in time for ratings week.

ABC local radio’s great white male Sydney hope Hamish Macdonald was also missing from his post this week, a development which is said to have come as a surprise to few given Macdonald’s previous form.

Macdonald’s absence coincided with the release of the first national radio ratings survey of 2025 and the first test of the ABC executive’s decision to replace well-regarded Sydney Local morning host Sarah Macdonald with the former Radio National personality.

The survey results were humbling for Macdonald who took over from the sacked Sarah in January.

Hamish Macdonald was also missing from the airwaves this week.

Despite his considerable national television profile, courtesy of Ten’s The Project and ABC’s Q&A, Macdonald managed to capture just 6.4 per cent of the market.

The result was down on Sarah Macdonald’s last complete survey, survey 7 of 2024, in which she recorded a 7.5 share.

To be fair, that was her strongest result of 2024 but she had been making steady inroads and finding her feet – building an audience – having started the year on 4.7.

An ABC spokeswoman confirmed new morning show anchor Hamish Macdonald is currently (and we’d suggest prematurely) on two weeks leave. He will return to the airwaves on April 7.

Kathryn Robinson has been filling in.

It was similarly bad news for the ABC in Melbourne where it’s new breakfast show line-up of Sharnelle Vella and former Western Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy captured a similar 6.3 per cent of the market, a drop of 1.6.

In Melbourne the ABC lost audience in all four weekday daytime timeslots. In Sydney there were small rises across the day.

ABC Melbourne breakfast hosts Sharnelle Vella and Bob Murphy. Picture: Supplied/ABC

The results will put pressure on the ABC’s head of audio content Ben Latimer, the Adelaide commercial radio boss installed at the ABC by former MD David Anderson in July 2023 to fix the broadcaster’s declining audience share.

We hear he’s on a one-year contract and spends more time in Adelaide than many at the ABC believe appropriate.

As this columnist has previously observed, Hamish Macdonald has a reputation for being something of a “bolter”.

He spent just 18 months in the frame hosting Q&A for the ABC’s TV division following the departure of Tony Jones in 2019, ditched Ten after a brief tenure in 2014 to try his luck in the US and is inclined to get going when the adulation and audience starts to dry up.

Packer moving on after shock model split

James Packer has called off his rebooted relationship with American model Renee Blythewood.

Sources for the billionaire confirmed the couple went their separate ways in February, weeks after being photographed together at a dinner in January at US President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach estate Mar-a-Lago.

Blythewood, it’s believed, may have tipped off the media concerning the private dinner by posting a video showing Packer seated next to a gesticulating Trump to her Instagram account.

She also posted an image of Tesla boss Elon Musk seated at the same table with Packer’s friend and Ratpac business partner Brett Ratner.

Both were later deleted.

James Packer has called off his rebooted relationship with model Renee Blythewood. Picture: Instagram

MORE: Packer hides $400m in secret lucrative deals

According to sources, Packer, who may already be moving on, was exceedingly generous to the Nashville model during their 12-month on-again off-again association.

The former Crown Resorts boss and Blythewood first stepped out together in public in May 2024 when they attended the French Film Festival in Cannes together.

That same week she posted images showing her posing on his mega-yacht, IJE, moored nearby off the south of France.

Blythewood posted a picture of James Packer having a private dinner with US President Donald Trump. Picture: Instagram

In since deleted pictures, she also captured Tesla boss Elon Musk seated at the same table with Packer’s friend and Ratpac business partner Brett Ratner. Picture: Instagram

The single mother-of-one was rumoured to have been introduced to Packer by a member of his circle in late 2023.

A representative for the billionaire subsequently denied Packer’s former wingman and employee, bon vivant Ben Tilley, made the introductions after first having his head turned by Blythewood.

Eyewitnesses report the self-described “model and jetsetter”, who in 2015 was linked to US TV presenter Ryan Seacrest, has on at least two occasions been on Packer’s arm at dinners celebrating Donald Trump.

Blythewood on holiday Capri, in Italy in September 2023.

That was the same year Blythewood was introduced to Packer.

The first of these was in December 2023 prior to Trump throwing down the challenge for a second presidential term.

According to Packer insiders, although the businessman is presently focused on investments and opportunities in the US, he has of late been rekindling a relationship with a former flame.

More on that as it comes to hand.

Nine silent on Karl’s no-show

Karl Stefanovic’s absencefrom Nine’s Today show this week has sparked claims the breakfast show host has started playing hardball with bosses in contract negotiations.

Given it’s only March, it’s a bit early in the year for Stefanovic to be heading off on holiday to Europe one would think.

We put a call in to Nine’s publicists on Thursday to inquire about the absence of their highest paid news star in a big news week when the federal budget was delivered and the election campaign kicks off.

We were told he’s taken leave and will return April 7.

Today Show host Karl Stefanovic with co-host Sarah Abo. Stefanovic’s absence this week has had people talking. Picture Thomas Lisson

The race for Gout Gout

We hear there was some conflict at Seven last week when two rival news programs secured interviews with 17-year-old Australian athletics star Gout Gout ahead of run in the Peter Norman Memorial 200m this weekend.

According to insiders, the youthful boss of Seven’s prime time current affairs program Gemma Williams was none too happy to learn the network’s breakfast show, Sunrise, had beaten her across the line to secure an interview with the runner.

In hot demand – young running sensation Gout Gout with manager James Templeton and coach Di Sheppard. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Seven’s Spotlight executive producer Gemma Williams. Source: Seven.

Spotlight was scooped by Sunrise’s Matt Shirvington.

The teenager (the runner, not Williams, who we gather is about 25) has enjoyed the support of Sunrise presenter and former athlete Matt Shirvington for many years, so it probably seemed fitting that he sit down with Shirvo, a mentor, for a chat.

Same Channel 7 family, right?

Wrong – not in Seven’s newly divisive news division.

It seems Williams, at Spotlight, didn’t think so and gave Gout Gout’s manager James Templeton some furious feedback after learning Sunrise would beat her to air.

Spotlight’s interview, conducted by Bruce McAvaney and co-starring Shirvo, was broadcast on Sunday night to an audience of 637,000 viewers (total national audience + regions).

Under the hammer

Having exchanged Sydney for Melbourne and a grand Pymble house for a converted Fitzroy warehouse, entertainer Todd McKenney will next week auction off his household contents and close a 16-year chapter of his life.

The Dancing with the Stars judge and stage performer is relocating to Melbourne to be closer to his daughter Charlotte, 18, and is packing light for the trip.

Having lost his two beloved greyhounds to old age, McKenney has only an art collection to consider and will take most of it with him to adorn the walls of his new three-storey warehouse.

Todd McKenney is selling up and moving to be closer to his daughter. Picture: David Swift.

Todd McKenney's rosewood Bechstein salon grand piano circa 1897. Estimate $30g to $50g, Lot 21 in the upcoming Lawson's Auctioneers' The Todd McKenney Collection auction

Among personal treasures he’s not packing for Melbourne is a Bechstein salon grand piano, circa 1897, in rosewood, which will be auctioned through Lawsons Auctioneers on April 6 with an estimated value of $30,000 – $50,000.

It is the centrepiece of a 208-lot personal collection that also includes patio furniture, plants, furniture, quirky memorabilia, whitegoods, kitchen appliances and power tools.

Among signature items (and some Ikea staples) in McKenney’s unpretentious and eclectic collection is a poster of McKenney starring in the 1998 musical stage production of The Boy From Oz.

AN isqueez foot massager. Lot 175 in the upcoming Lawson's Auctioneers' The Todd McKenney Collection auction. estimates $80 – $120.

Robin Selleck's portrait photograph of Todd McKenney. Lot 74 in the upcoming Lawson's Auctioneers' The Todd McKenney Collection auction. estimate $600 – $800.

AN opening night publicity poster from The Boy From Oz, 1998 production. Lot 176 in the upcoming Lawson's Auctioneers' The Todd McKenney Collection auction. Estimate $150 to $250

The item has an estimate of $150+.

Lot 74 is an enlarged Robin Sellick photographic portrait of McKenney which is expected to fetch upwards of $600.

It was while starring in recent back-to-back stage productions including Wicked, The Odd Couple and Hairspray that McKenney decided the time had come to sell up and bid Sydney a fond farewell.

He maintains a home on the Hawkesbury River and is toying with the idea of investing in a Sydney flat to give him a local base when the work brings north again.

Originally published as Sharp Shooting: Hamish Macdonald gives ratings week the slip