Cruising for a bruising <\/p>\n
Move over Tom Cruise because Nine\u2019s bumbling bosses have finally just about finished assembling their Mission: Impossible cast and are about to issue them the daunting task of saving the network\u2019s imperilled Today show after months of diabolical mismanagement \u2013 and not so surprisingly, it looks like Samantha Armytage and Tom Steinfort are all but locked in to lead the new-look line-up.<\/p>\n
Of course, the daunting task need not have been quite so daunting. Diary can reveal Nine had the opportunity to screen-test all the real, viable hosting combos to take on fronting Today \u2013 and even director of television Michael Healy\u2019s good friend and close neighbour<\/a> Mike Willesee Jr \u2013 over the course of one weekend, only for the channel\u2019s bosses to refuse to do the sensible thing and instead insist on conducting a series of unedifying \u2013 and completely unnecessary \u2013 on-air trials in a bid to alienate as many viewers as possible.<\/p>\n Well, mission accomplished on that front, with even the show producers admitting they were struggling to keep up with all the chopping and changing and whether their hosts were Arthur or Martha (we suspect it was actually Willesee Jr on that occasion because it certainly wasn\u2019t Joel Dry after he got vetoed by Armytage<\/a>) as ratings tanked.<\/p>\n But, hey, it\u2019s not like Today is at the heart of a morning TV schedule that brings in $100m a year for Nine or anything \u2026 oh wait, it is.<\/p>\n Mercifully, Armytage and Steinfort sent the show\u2019s spiralling numbers back in the right direction after clicking on air last week, with Today\u2019s audience growing by almost 10 per cent from a lacklustre 265,000 viewers on average across the country on Monday to finish the week with just shy of 290,000, sending a clear message to the station\u2019s bosses about what could actually be achieved if only they settled them in for the long haul.<\/p>\n Even then there remains much work to be done behind the scenes before the show mounts a serious challenge for the timeslot\u2019s ratings title, with Seven\u2019s all-conquering Sunrise somehow scooping Today last week by securing an exclusive breakfast television interview with former Qantas boss Alan Joyce \u2026 even though Tracy Grimshaw had only just filed a book report on his boring, new memoir while interviewing him for 60 Minutes the previous night. Yikes.<\/p>\n As it turns out, we will have to sit through yet another Today show hosting upheaval, with Armytage disappearing from the program for the next two weeks \u2013 with sources suggesting she\u2019s jetting off to Thailand for a pre-existing media commitment \u2013 while Sylvia Jeffreys is pulled back into the fray to keep the human headline\u2019s seat warm until she returns on August 24.<\/p>\n For crying out loud<\/p>\n It\u2019s their party and they\u2019ll cry if they want to \u2026 and, make no mistake, One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson and her chief political strategist, James Ashby, are both still crying long and hard about the grilling she copped on Seven\u2019s Spotlight almost a month ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n In fact, Diary\u2019s sources claimed the duo were even crying foul just last Friday and blaming the show after some rather embarrassing details emerged about their recent summer sojourn in Europe, with Nine\u2019s tabloids revealing One Nation was left to foot the bill for their $900-a-night hotel rooms to sit vacant in London while they flitted off to Italy to meet up with billionaire businesswoman Gina Rinehart.<\/p>\n And wouldn\u2019t you know it, within hours of that news breaking we were reading \u201cleaked emails\u201d that showed the team in at Spotlight had discussed taking Hanson to visit a refugee camp in Syria as part of its months-long road show with the flame-haired firebrand pollie and had even contracted a professional outfit, GM Risk Group, to conduct a detailed risk assessment ahead of the proposed trip.<\/p>\n What has any of this got to do with party-funded, luxury hotel rooms sitting empty? Well, absolutely nothing \u2013 and it\u2019s hardly earth-shattering to learn a current affairs-style show came come up with a confrontational, current affairs-style idea for the episode. Heaven forfend.<\/p>\n Besides, Hanson had long since put the kybosh on the idea and the show instead simply filmed her making a visit to an Islamic college in Brisbane, which might not have been quite as exciting for viewers but would have at least had Seven\u2019s embattled bean counters salivating over the drastically reduced cost.<\/p>\n Hilariously, the \u201cleaked emails\u201d only succeeded in making a mockery of One Nation\u2019s ridiculous claims Spotlight cajoled Hanson into meeting<\/a> with convicted thug Tommy Robinson against her better judgment. If she could say no to one thought-bubble, why couldn\u2019t she have said no to that too?<\/p>\n Well, because, as we keep hearing, it was actually One Nation\u2019s idea, and was done as a deliberate \u201cf..k you\u201d to Nine for sacking Karl Stefanovic for performing the exact same stunt. Classic.<\/p>\n Nine lives for Stevo<\/p>\n Breaking up is hard to do \u2013 just ask ARN\u2019s unlucky-in-love chief executive Michael Stephenson.<\/p>\n Just four months ago, the rookie radio boss was dumping the country\u2019s biggest \u2013 and best-paid \u2013 personalities, Kyle Sandilands and Jackie \u2018O\u2019 Henderson, and busting up their popular KIIS FM breakfast show in a move that looks destined to cost the company tens of millions of dollars in payouts<\/a> and its long-held dominance in Sydney\u2019s fiercely competitive FM timeslot. <\/p>\n Now, Stephenson has found himself on the receiving end of a good, old fashioned dumping, with Sandilands and Henderson\u2019s long-time newsreader, Brooklyn Ross, walking out on the station on Friday after agreeing to join the new Kyle Sandilands Live program ahead of its launch on Monday.<\/p>\n Not to worry, Stevo will surely have little trouble replacing Ross given he boasts one of the biggest contact books in the business \u2013 who cares if it only contains contacts for people he used to work with at Nine during his former life as the channel\u2019s top sales boss? Not Stevo that\u2019s for sure and certain. <\/p>\n Just last December, he hired one-time nine.com.au director Kerri Elstub as his chief content officer in what ARN described as a \u201cpower play\u201d \u2013 even though it came just two weeks after the Daily Mail revealed she hadn\u2019t had the best of break-ups with Nine and was taking the network to the Fair Work Commission over alleged \u201ccontraventions involving (her) dismissal\u201d.<\/p>\n Then, in May, he hired one-time Nine star Karl Stefanovic to host a weekly podcast even though he was clearly in the midst of a very messy and public break-up with Nine, claiming the signing was \u201can excellent example of our strategy coming to life\u201d at ARN, only to kill Karl off after just two outings<\/a>. Quite the lively strategy, that one.<\/p>\n And, of course, he also hired one-time Nine game show host Eddie McGuire to talk over Stefanovic on their blink-and-you-will-fortunately-miss-it podcast, only to have to scramble to find something else for him after the show was canned.<\/p>\n With Ross\u2019s seat now sitting empty at KIIS, Stevo might want to look to one-time Nine weather presenter Amber Sherlock to fill the void. After all, she\u2019s going through a bad break-up with the network and is currently suing it for unfair dismissal<\/a>, so she seemingly ticks just about all of his hiring criteria.<\/p>\n Sunrise, sunset<\/p>\n There\u2019s an old adage that insists \u201ca bad excuse is better than none\u201d. We\u2019re not sure about that, but the excuse Sunrise has been busy peddling since its leading lady, Natalie \u2018Boomer\u2019 Barr, was caught surreptitiously screenshotting pics of small-screen rival Samantha Armytage sure is funnier than none.<\/p>\n The latest development in the saga comes after we last week revealed Barr had suffered a \u201cboomer fail\u201d<\/a> when she accidentally uploaded a shot of her photo reel while trying to flog a few cardigans on Instagram; before hastily deleting the post when she realised it showed she had been taking sneaky pics of Armytage hosting Nine\u2019s Today.<\/p>\n Since then, the network has apparently been at pains to stress that Barr wasn\u2019t bagging her former colleague but rather she was simply still trying to copy her style \u2013 and had sent the screenshot to Seven\u2019s wardrobe department in the hope they could rustle up a similar outfit for her to wear on Sunrise. Lol \u2013 we\u2019ll keep an eye out for that.<\/p>\n Still, even as Barr was concerned with dressing up for Seven\u2019s breakfast show, one of its popular talking heads, Amanda Rose, was giving it a dressing down.<\/p>\n A regular fixture on the show\u2019s Hot Topics segment opposite 2GB radio presenter James Willis, Rose revealed she\u2019d quit the weekly spot (after what we hear was \u201can explosive row\u201d with executive producer Jake Lyle) when she was asked to can her rival media appearances and become exclusive Sunrise talent in exchange for, well, nothing.<\/p>\n \u201cEssentially I was told: be exclusive with us \u2013 unpaid \u2013 or we will pull back your appearances,\u201d Rose fumed. \u201cThe audacity \u2026 wanting me to be exclusive (for nothing).<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was my reaction when I first read the email \u2013 which was probably one of the most unprofessional emails I\u2019ve ever read (it looked like a fifth-grader wrote it actually)? I said, \u2018Sure, you can have your exclusivity \u2026 with someone else. I quit.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n And, hey, we couldn\u2019t agree with Rose more. Why should any show expect professional journos and talking heads to help fill their airtime for free? We\u2019ll start doing that the day the hosts start rocking up without getting paid too.<\/p>\n Dan\u2019s still the man<\/p>\n Ten\u2019s ironically named 10 News+ went out not with a bang, and nary even a whimper, with the overhyped and underwhelming current affairs show attracting so few viewers it failed to make any noise at all when it made its final weeknight appearance on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite launching amid much grandiose fanfare and unchecked hubris, the nightly news flop attracted just 118,000 viewers on average across the entire country for the inauspicious outing, having lost almost two-thirds of the 291,000 people who tuned in to watch its debut little more than a year ago.<\/p>\n The show\u2019s meagre audience, which works out to be a distinctly commercially unviable 0.42 per cent of the population, was bested by such non-ratings powerhouses as The Bold and the Beautiful, Find My Country House Australia, a repeat of Deal or No Deal and even Win News (even though that doesn\u2019t air in any of the nation\u2019s densely populated capital cities).<\/p>\n The only real plus to the whole sorry 10 News+ affair was that it revealed fledgling executive producer Dan Sutton as one of the industry\u2019s rare \u201cnoble\u201d newsroom leaders after he insisted on signing all the show\u2019s new recruits \u2013 including wooden anchors Denham Hitchcock and Amelia Brace \u2013 on watertight deals, ensuring most of them will survive even though the program has gone from an hour-long run six nights a week, to just half an hour on Sunday evenings.<\/p>\n \u201cDan insisted every new hire on 10 News+ get a two-year contract instead of a run-of-show one,\u201d one source said. \u201cHe knew (the show) would be another Ten shit sandwich and wanted to protect them.<\/p>\n \u201c It wasn\u2019t popular with his bosses but it was a rare noble act in the world of commercial television. He\u2019s one of the best blokes around.\u201d<\/p>\n Sutton made an even nobler sacrifice last week after he put his hand up for a voluntary redundancy and walked out of Ten after more than two decades, with sources claiming he hoped his departure would free up enough cash to spare some junior staffers the chop.<\/p>\n His gesture may prove in vain, with Ten\u2019s ailing 5pm bulletin<\/a> to be extended by half an hour from Monday to fill the gap. The move will see it go head to head with Seven and Nine\u2019s 6pm offerings for a third of its airtime, and its ratings go down the gurgler accordingly.<\/p>\n Albo finds his voice<\/p>\n Prime Minister Anthony Albanese might have had his hopes dashed when it came to being remembered for ushering in an Indigenous Voice to Parliament but, on the upside, he will always be remembered for ushering in a new era for conservative news voices<\/a>.<\/p>\n After all, News24 has just put up a plaque note just that \u2013 and memorialising the fact that Albanese and his NSW Labor counterpart, Premier Chris Minns, officially opened its new, state-of-the-art television studios earlier this year.<\/p>\n That the nation\u2019s two most powerful Labor leaders united for the proverbial ribbon-cutting back in February speaks volumes about the channel\u2019s growing prestige and audience, both of which have continued to increase unabated following its rebrand from Sky News Australia a couple of weeks ago; much to the chagrin of the alarmist Henny Pennies over at the Grauniad\u2019s dour Aussie newsroom who have spent months clucking on about how the sky would fall in and the station suffer a disastrous ratings collapse in the wake of the relaunch (note to subs: insert side-splitting snort of derision here).<\/p>\n Interestingly, the studio opening came 35 years after late Labor prime minister Bob Hawke cut the ribbon on the public broadcaster\u2019s then-state-of-the-art ABC Ultimo Centre. At the time, Hawke recognised that, under managing director David Hill, \u201cthe ABC\u2019s strength, and the basis for the enormous reservoir of goodwill that exists in the community for the ABC, is its non-commercial style \u2013 its capacity to be an independent provider of news and information\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIn an industry where broadcasters are too often blamed for appealing to the lowest common denominator, the ABC is still the quality alternative,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd what is just as important, this quality alternative does not mean that the ABC is forever locked into serving a narrow elite of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Sadly, somewhere along the line that changed and the ABC developed a defensive, siege mentality when it came to accepting any criticism from its stakeholders (that would be us, the taxpayers, who foot the astronomical bill for the whole operation) while allowing a select few activist journalists to run rampant and trash the public\u2019s trust in the institution by pursuing their own personal and political agendas. Thank goodness current managing director, Hugh Marks, is prepared to make the tough calls and mop up the mess.<\/p>\n Going wild out west<\/p>\n Things are about to get wild out west, with Perth\u2019s most notable independent mastheads expanding their operations and looking to duel it out with The West Australian in a bid to break the paper\u2019s stranglehold on the city.<\/p>\n Diary hears the \u201cLittle Newspaper That Could\u201d, The Post, is steaming away with plans to expand its footprint, currently encompassing the city\u2019s wealthy western suburbs, by creeping into the Perth\u2019s northern reaches, as editor Bret Christian looks to make the most of the company\u2019s new high-speed printing press<\/a>.<\/p>\n Business News is also about to scale up, though its eyes are firmly looking east, with managing editor Sean Cowan and reporter Gary Adshead heading to the nation\u2019s capital this week to recruit a couple of federal political gun-slingers for its soon-to-launch Canberra bureau and also lobby for some primo real estate in Parliament House.<\/p>\n The increasing competition comes as The West continues to cut back on staff; though the team shouldn\u2019t get despondent because we hear that media mogul Kerry Stokes\u2019 heir apparent (and the new sheriff in town at Southern Cross Media), Ryan Stokes, has developed a new-found fondness for the publication and is particularly committed to its ongoing success.<\/p>\n In fact, any unwitting SCM execs who dare even think of suggesting the media giant should consider selling off its publishing division might soon find themselves OK Corral\u2019d out of the company \u2026 if they haven\u2019t been already.<\/p>\n Hypocrites in frame<\/p>\n We were forced to do a quick double-take when the Kennedy Awards announced freelance photographer Banjo McLachlan had been named a finalist heading into next week\u2019s gala ceremony for his world exclusive images of gunmen Sajid and Naveed Akram as they carried out their evil massacre at Bondi Beach \u2026 not because the pictures were up for two prizes, but to double-check which outlet had actually submitted them.<\/p>\n As the Diary faithful will recall, McLachlan was working on another job for the Daily Mail when the father-and-son shooters went on their hate-filled attack, and risked his life to capture frames of the accused terrorists in the midst of all the carnage and chaos<\/a>.<\/p>\n His work was immediately picked up by news outlets around the globe after the Mail published the pics online, and they were even splashed across the front pages of just about all of News Corp\u2019s mastheads, as well as getting a run on Nine\u2019s television news bulletins and in its tabloid newspapers.<\/p>\n While News promptly acknowledged the Mail\u2019s copyright and paid up for the right to run the frames, the pictorial kleptomaniacs at Nine did not. Indeed, almost eight months on, the multibillion-dollar media company still insists it had the right to pilfer McLachlan\u2019s pics and publish them without paying a single, solitary cent.<\/p>\n And yes; we\u2019re talking about the very same sanctimonious Nine that spends most of its time sermonising about its ethically superior approach to journalism, and which is run by chief exec Matt Stanton, who just last week was out castigating the government for allowing big tech to loot and pillage his own company\u2019s content. <\/p>\n And no; the hypocrisy is not lost on us. That\u2019s why we were so pleased to see McLachlan and the Mail are both recognised as finalists in the Outstanding News Camera Coverage and Outstanding News Photography categories.<\/p>\n Not only that, the snapper is even a chance of walking away with a hat-trick of prizes after being short-listed for The Power of the Lens, People\u2019s Choice Award.<\/p>\n If McLachlan wins even one of the awards, hopefully the hypocrites running Nine will finally concede it\u2019s time to do the right thing \u2013 and that his work is actually worth paying for \u2026 because it is.<\/p>\n Read related topics:Media Diary<\/a> Steve Jackson writes The Australian’s Media Diary. Boasting an unrivalled contact book and network of sources forged throughout a quarter of a century working on the most-watched programs and most-read publications in both Australia and the United Kingdom, Jackson delivers the latest, exclusive insider mail before it hits the news sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diary can reveal Hadley has been advised he is likely to be called to testify in Jones\u2019 long-running…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[89838,89860,89807,89815,89840,89852,89793,89832,89836,89797,89794,89787,26435,89845,39152,89839,89850,89835,37330,39217,37929,87853,89873,76039,89825,89829,89865,89791,89790,77832,22,21,89822,46327,89812,89851,89800,89804,63332,21189,40384,89864,89806,89803,10485,4870,89878,48934,39762,89856,89871,11832,89801,71028,89848,39373,45611,89795,89788,89834,89808,89827,89811,89784,89805,89786,89818,89782,89857,89802,16417,89869,89816,89828,39087,64630,37392,89867,89821,89847,89843,44489,89870,69161,89798,37045,39122,89877,89868,89810,89814,89785,3121,89833,89855,38257,89861,32887,89796,89854,89849,53524,89853,89102,45069,40602,247,89862,16862,89820,33695,14160,36486,89817,80627,89858,89792,42872,89874,36676,41633,39856,40672,89872,89799,39261,47672,89783,47745,89837,36865,37640,37772,39620,89844,89831,40224,89826,89819,89789,42322,89859,47592,52154,89813,41006,89875,89863,54627,89823,89866,89841,38964,89842,7444,36894,31666,89846,19675,38738,8357,89824,89809,89876,89830,12200,41689],"class_list":["post-68306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-jones-and-hadley","tag-s-alleged-victims-the-man-one","tag-s-bosses","tag-s-bumbling-bosses","tag-s-circular-quay","tag-s-criminal-trial","tag-s-good-friend-and-close-neighbour-mike-willesee-jr","tag-s-imperilled-today-show","tag-s-impromptu-reunion","tag-s-internal-elevator-the-employee","tag-s-pyrmont-studios","tag-6m","tag-2gb","tag-4bc-breakfast-sofie-formica-and","tag-a-bid","tag-a-bruising-move","tag-a-lunch","tag-a-melbourne-show","tag-a-number","tag-a-room","tag-a-series","tag-a-sock","tag-a-walk-in-robe-backstage","tag-accusers","tag-all-the-chopping-and-changing","tag-all-the-real","tag-an-8m","tag-an-explosive-second-week","tag-an-ongoing-advertiser-boycott","tag-another-employee","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-better-things","tag-colleagues","tag-complainant-c","tag-completely-unnecessary-on-air-trials","tag-dean-miller","tag-diabolical-mismanagement","tag-diary","tag-donkey","tag-each-day","tag-each-weekday-the-alleged-victim","tag-even-director","tag-even-the-show-producers","tag-evidence","tag-eyes","tag-former-ally-alan-jones","tag-four-days","tag-glory","tag-hadley","tag-hadley-and-jones","tag-health-reasons","tag-her-opening-statement","tag-her-throat","tag-his-affection","tag-his-exit","tag-his-experiences","tag-his-final-chore","tag-his-former-colleague","tag-his-harbourfront-apartment","tag-his-one-time-2gb-rival-jones","tag-his-one-time-2gb-station-stablematealan-jones","tag-his-penis-in","tag-his-show-wrapped-it","tag-hit-2gb-breakfast-program","tag-impossible-cast","tag-inappropriate-encounters","tag-innocence","tag-its-golden-age","tag-its-once-popular-rugby-league-continuous-call-team-show-cruising","tag-jones","tag-jones-home","tag-just-a-week","tag-just-last-month","tag-just-weeks","tag-last-monday","tag-last-week","tag-legal-sources","tag-listeners","tag-long-running-indecent-sexual-assault-case","tag-many-viewers","tag-may-2020","tag-media-diary","tag-michael-healy","tag-mission","tag-monday","tag-months","tag-neither-man","tag-new-zealand-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern","tag-off-site-broadcasts","tag-one-weekend","tag-our-enduring-scepticism","tag-part","tag-partial-disclosures","tag-paths","tag-person","tag-possible-well","tag-program","tag-prosecutor-georgina-wright","tag-radio-station-colleagues","tag-ray-hadley","tag-reference","tag-samantha-armytage","tag-six-complainants","tag-six-months","tag-sources","tag-sydney","tag-talkback","tag-talkback-radio","tag-talkback-titan-ray-hadley","tag-tapt","tag-tapt-media","tag-television","tag-that-front","tag-the-100th-anniversary","tag-the-2gb-studio","tag-the-40th-anniversary-festivities","tag-the-boot","tag-the-channel","tag-the-city","tag-the-course","tag-the-court","tag-the-courtroom","tag-the-daunting-task","tag-the-encounters","tag-the-event","tag-the-first-time","tag-the-first-witness","tag-the-former-broadcaster","tag-the-greatest-titans","tag-the-latter","tag-the-man","tag-the-moment","tag-the-network","tag-the-new-look-line-up-of-course","tag-the-one-time-colleagues","tag-the-opportunity","tag-the-outlet-upwards","tag-the-presumption","tag-the-same-network","tag-the-second","tag-the-sensible-thing","tag-the-size","tag-the-stand","tag-the-stand-unlike","tag-the-station","tag-the-top-rating-show","tag-the-young-employee","tag-the-young-man","tag-their-hosts","tag-their-mission","tag-these-brief","tag-this-week","tag-three-kilometre-trips","tag-thursday","tag-time","tag-today","tag-tom-cruise","tag-tom-steinfort","tag-two-decades","tag-two-year-contract","tag-unedifying","tag-unwanted-attention","tag-various-points","tag-viable-hosting-combos","tag-video-link","tag-wright"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\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<\/a><\/p>\n