Alicia Loxley will be on 3AW Breakfast sometime after 8am this morning to speak about her new role. You can listen live on the 3AW app or website.
Alicia confirmed that her and Tom will start on Sunday January 14 (same day as the Australian Open begins), and then doing Mondays-Fridays going forward.
Alicia promoting the change before Hitch has even had a chance to address his audience?
This is really tasteless. What are Nine promotions thinking?
They might as well of finished Hitch up last Friday and shown him the door. How can the poor guy be expected to return to work after this? How awkward!
The idea that he was blindsided by this all is just silly, heās clearly onboard with it. As has been said, heās 80 years old a bit of free time and a reduced workload is probably just what he wanted.
I wonder if heāll read the national 5pm bulletin?
Reports say he was blindsided though.
Iām divided - definitely sounds like has has been blindsided somewhat but he has also publicly said in the press releases that he supports the new weekday team, plus TVT Davidās comment about Hitch being humble and not wanting to shine the light on himself.
Well heās a gentleman. What he says in public isnāt necessarily what heās thinking or saying at home.
He would be absolutely devastated behind closed doors. Heās too much of a class act to publicly say otherwise. He has no choice but to endorse them.
That is not clear at all.
which would have been pre-written on his behalf by someone in publicity. He may have to give his OK for them to use those words but what choice does he have to say differently? He canāt very well say āWell this sucks, doesnāt itā
He wouldnāt be doing it otherwise. This idea that they announced it and are now trying to convince him is just laughable.
If management makes a decision he can certainly argue his case if heās not happy but at the end of the day itās their call. I suppose he could escalate it to lawyers or whatever to sort out if there is a contractual issue, but I think everyone would agree heās too nice a gentleman to get into that. He may be politely stepping aside but that doesnāt mean he is ok with it.
Thereās literally one person in the world who knows Hitchās real feelings on this and he certainly doesnāt post on this website or comment to TVBlackbox or TVTonight so anything else is just speculation.
Having him on weekends for a year or two is a great ese into retirement, and helps keep some consistency. Plus more chance for him to get out and about to community events which ne seems to love.
that is true. None of us really know for sure. I think itās fair to say that Nine management has treated this announcement/transition badly which has left the door wide open for speculation and second guessing.
I think this will backfire on Nine dramatically and unfortunately Alicia & Tom will eventually be the casualties in all of this.
The truth will probably lie somewhere in between. Hitch is probably not as upset as some reports suggest but things arenāt quite as rosy as Nine is suggesting.
They couldnāt even get her name right.
Aleeseaia. How do you not know how to pronounce Alicia? Itās a very common name.
So, a reduced workload is achieved by presenting 7 days a week instead of 5 ???
Huh? He means the weekend 5pm bulletin.
Oh, ok.
I canāt see anyone doing both 5 & 6pm bulletins either
The network would want a national face presenting the national bulletin & keep Hitch doing the local Melb/Vic bulletin.
Alicia currently presents it. I see no difference if Hitch takes over?
Not wanting to take this any further, but your speaking to my point
Alicia is a national face within the Nine Network, Hitch is not.
Alicia can do both national & local, my knowledge of Hitch is mostly thru MS.
For me, he is not a national face for Nine.
