Mike Dalton gets peed on by a Lion…
Poor Mike - no reporter deserves that!
Wow. I never knew that Climpson and Seven led through part of the 70s. When I was old enough to realise what news was (the mid 80s), I think Brian Henderson and NNN were number 1.
Brian Henderson was number one in Sydney throughout most of the 1980s. Eyewitness News with Katrina Lee and Tim Webster was the highest rating news in Sydney in 1984 thanks to the Perfect Match lead in and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Eyewitness News peaked at 33 three times during the year- during the Olympics, the night of Elton Johns wedding and during the Sydney floods…
-SMH, 18 Nov. 1984.
Nine found success in 1985 when they moved National Nine News to 6pm in order to stop viewers sticking with Ten at 6pm. They also moved Willesee to 6.30pm. It had been airing at 9.30pm the previous year.
1 Like
His dominance went unmatched through the 90s up until his retirement in 2002. Jim Waley then held the ratings for the two years that followed, before being unceremoniously dumped in favour of Mark Ferguson in 2005. It was then, Nine News Sydney’s ratings dominance had diminished, something which would not have happened had Waley been retained for 2005.
Debatable. I think Waley would’ve been more competitive than Ferguson was against Ian Ross but the Seven bulletin was a better product at that time and was clearly attracting attention from viewers.
2 Likes
In 2004 the Sydney news battle finished 27-13 in Waley’s favour (the previous year Waley won in a landslide).
I would have thought, Nine execs were not happy with the falling ratings and while they invested hard to ensure they finished 2004 strongly, it was clear the writing was on the wall.
On the flipside, Mark Ferguson impressed during the non-ratings period, which was dominated by the south-east Asian tsunami, and was therefore promoted to weeknights for 2005.
But pitting him against the might of Ian Ross was always going to backfire (in 2005 Nine News only won one week in Sydney) and by 2009, he’d be replaced by Peter Overton, who in his first year suffered worse - being wiped out 40-0 by Ross who was in his final year.
1 Like
Yep, I agree. If anything, one could’ve argued that Ian Ross was the newsreader that Nine should’ve chosen (especially after years of building up Roscoe’s profile on Today - while Jim Waley did both Nightline & Sunday, I don’t think he showed his personality on-screen as much) to succeed Brian Henderson.
Whether Seven News Sydney still would’ve rose to the top without Ian Ross, one can only speculate but I doubt Ann Sanders would’ve been able to achieve it. Perhaps Chris Bath might’ve been able to do it.
Either way, I think it’s likely that Jim Waley would’ve retired around the same time as Ian Ross did (Late 2000s) if he wasn’t pushed out in favour of Mark Ferguson. I also think Peter Overton was long destined to become a lead anchor of a Sydney 6pm bulletin, either on Nine or another network.
To be fair to Nine, Ian Ross had kind of put himself out of the running for the main job when he semi-retired in 2001. His career was coming to an end and Nine probably thought there was more longevity with Waley in the role. He had to be lured to Seven with a mighty big carrot to take on the challenge of propelling Seven News to the top of the ratings.
There were reports that Peter Overton had been appointed to 60 Minutes because they saw him as a possible successor to Waley and wanted plenty of footage of him interviewing world leaders and influential people for promos when his time came.
It took a while for me to warm to Overton in the role and I’m still not convinced Nine made the right choice particularly now that I’ve seen Usher in action anchoring big events on Seven.
1 Like
A young David Gyngell barracked for Overton from the get go as Brian’s replacement- it was inevitable. @NewsWeary Why was Waley dumped? I thought it was for poor ratings- but a post above suggests otherwise?
Yeah, fair point I guess.
Now that you mention it, I seem to recall reading an article from the mid-2000s which suggested that Seven were paying Ian Ross $1 Million a year (same figure that Brian Henderson was earning at Nine for years, if I’m not mistaken)?
One would imagine that Peter Overton and Michael Usher are doing a lot more for the same, or perhaps even less money than Hendo & Roscoe got with the amount of cutbacks both newsrooms have gone through over the past 10-15 years.
I’d guess that another reason why Peter Overton is so popular may be because the general public has gotten to know him extremely well over the years, remembering that there’s been numerous articles/interviews about him and Jess in the media. Can’t really say I’ve seen as many profile pieces about Mark Ferguson or Michael Usher.
1 Like
Seven was getting too close and Nine panicked. Waley was still competitive but Ian Ross had started to win the odd night. Ferguson had rated strongly over the summer of 2004-2005 and they saw him as the future and Waley as yesterday’s man.
I think the days of newsreaders earning one million a year or more are over. The 6pm newsreader isn’t the respected “voice of God” the likes of Henderson, Naylor and Dibble were and the networks don’t draw the audience at 6pm they did 20 years ago. There are so many more sources of news and information.
1 Like
Wednesday 19 June -
Peter Overton is back presenting in Sydney tonight.
7 Likes
Friday 21 June -
Vanessa O’Hanlon is presenting Early News.
3 Likes
Jo Hall was congratulated on her 40 years at the network on Victorian bulletin last night with flowers and tribute video at the end of the bulletin,followed by a network celebration party for this career milestone .
Saturday 22 June -
Mark Burrows is presenting in Sydney.
6 Likes
…and although this wasn’t ever really in doubt, everyone’s favourite* Nine News Sydney reporter made the trip West for (obviously Blue-eyed, as we’ve come to expect from this reporter and bulletin) State of Origin coverage for Nine News Sydney:
*Well, almost.
1 Like
4 Likes
Sunday (23.06.2019): Wally Lewis presented Brisbane sport tonight, live from Perth for the State of Origin.
4 Likes
An idiot had the idea to put a Maroons scarf on this Blue-blooded reporter:
Someone else had the right idea later on during the live cross though:
1 Like
