Sadly most people will be switching to Seven News now with this change. I will still watch Nine News.
Iâve no doubt this may cost Nine some viewers, Peter Hitchener is an enormous asset to the Nine News brand, but I donât think it will be the type of viewer revolt that we saw when Mal Walden was axed from Seven all those years ago.
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He shouldnât have been made Europe Correspondent in the first place. Then he couldâve been co presenter with Alicia.
Shafting Chris Bath for Mark Ferguson made no difference. Ratings dropped even more
Maybe Brett will come back into the weekend role when Hitch retires.
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Nine will have options now with Tom on the team.
If things donât work out next year, they can shaft Tom to weekends with Brett on weeknights (if Brett returns in 2025), Dougal on weekends etc.
Interesting PR strategy to make the announcement so early. I wonder why they thought that was a good idea to make a combined demotion/promotion announcement . I would have gone with a âreduced workhoursâ announcement first as a lead into summer; possibly on the last day of the ratings period and announced by Hitch himself at the end of the bulletin. Follow then with a period of speculation about the unnamed replacement. Then the surprise dual anchor reveal at an appropriate time probably during the AO - catch everyone including opposition by surprise.
It will be interesting to see the PR campaign they come up with from now until January.
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I agree, if anyone deserves to announce their own demotion/retirement it is Peter Hitchener. Heâs a part of the furniture at 9 and the way have announced this is extremely disappointing.
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Slim chance, but could Nine have possibly moved forward/rushed the announcement after they were spot doing the photo shoot yesterday?
Beat the press to the punch given Dailymail are now known for reading MS?
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Could we also see Hitch nationally for First at Five on weekends?
Assume Dougal or Stephanie will read the weekday edition of the Afternoon News.
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Will we see a new set and graphics too?
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If anything they might just freshen up the set with a new desk to match Sydney? Doubt the graphics will change.
If they do change the graphics, the titlecards need a more local feel.
Hopefully they are willing to become a bit more experimentative with angles/use of the set with the fresh team.
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We might possibly see a change considering 9 updates them every 4 years⌠but after this years earlier refresh maybe not? Or if they do maybe around the time the Olympics start or maybe when 9 does their on air presentation refresh?
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Yep - without wanting to put the boot in, itâs probably been apparently for the last 12-24 months that Hitch is no longer quite at the top of his gameâŚwhich is completely understandable too given his age etc.
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For wooden Mitch? I wonât be switching. But when Bec and Mike take over, thatâll be the game changer.
I wonât move to Seven for the news, Peter Mitchell does nothing for me, seems too stiff. Also I find that Jane Bunn sings the weather.
Perhaps Nine could actually give us news, not some of the things they are serving up at the minute masquerading as news
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I think it likely accurately sums up whatâs happened though. If one end of the scale is Hitch deciding to scale back his workload and the other end is Nine deciding to demote him (letâs not beat around the bush about what this is), it seems like the latter is what has occurred.
If this was Hitchâs decision, the whole framing of the announcement of the transition to Alicia & Tom would have been different from Hitch being the person to have made the announcement to the messaging being about celebrating Hitchâs 25 years as the lead anchor and the installment of Alicia & Tom as the new weeknight anchors being about building upon Hitchâs standards/professionalism.
Thatâs the thing I really donât understand about Tom becoming the co-anchor alongside Alicia. If Nineâs plan has been for the two of them to succeed Hitch, why havenât they gotten him to do some fill-in stints when Alicia wasnât available or even do some special reports so that not only he started being part of the Melbourne team but viewers can become familiar with him.
I donât think itâs a slim chance but rather what has happened. Nineâs plan probably wasnât to make this announcement at 11am on a Saturday morning but felt they needed to bring it forward because as they now acutely know:
Despite that though, I still think this announcement would have unfolded differently had this been Hitchâs decision to pass the baton to Alicia & Tom and nonetheless, should have been better handled.
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Nat Yoannidis presenting sport in Melbourne tonight. Is it her first presenting gig for GTV besides reporting?
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Natalie Yoannidis is presenting sport in Melbourne tonight. This is her first time presenting sport on the 6:00pm bulletin as she has presented sport on the afternoon news bulletin.
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Historically, Nine News have refreshed their graphics every leap year since the turn of the century, but not necessarily at the start of these years, though the exception came in 2016 when the graphics were refreshed in September/October, while there were two refreshes in 2008; the first being (IMO) a downgrade of the 2006-08 graphics though returning to the traditional Cool Hand Luke theme, and the second being when they dropped the âNationalâ from Nine News.
If anything, I think the graphics refresh (if it is planned) will occur after the Australian Open ends, and coinciding with the launch of Tipping Point Australia.
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