Amazing that Ann Sanders remains in her current role as of today, though I have a feeling she will call it a day soon.
Reporters Paul Kadak, Chris Reason and Chris Maher are, to my knowledge, the last remaining Sydney-based reporters from the Ross Symonds/Ann Sanders era. There’s also Beretts, who presented sport on the bulletin between 2002-04 before moving to Sunrise in June 2004.
Ahhhh right- I never knew Chris did weekends back then! (I knew she did from 06-09)
August 25, 2000 newsbreak + Lotto.
The best news? Not so, if the ratings back then were anything to go by.
Seven News’ ratings in Melbourne were so dire back then, it virtually became the forbidden news bulletin in that market. Can anyone remember if it was even being beaten by “The Simpsons” on Channel 10 in that timeslot?
We all obviously know Nine News was miles ahead at the top.
Ratings were awful 20 years ago with the lack of AFL or a domestic sport save for the Rugby and the Melbourne Cup when 7 lost the AFL rights
“best” is a measure of quality. Ratings are not.
citation needed
A misleading promo. I did remember the Simpsons out-rating 7 News at times from 2002-2006 in the Melbourne market with Hitch on top
Well they’re hardly going to promote it as the worst news.
I think this might need a citation, too.
From memory I don’t recall the Simpsons ever beating 7 News in Melbourne but as I stated the other day, 7 News Melbourne often fell into 4th place (when comparing total numbers) against 9 News, 10 News and the ABC.
It’s important to remember though, that some positive changes were implemented during the early 2000s.
Sunrise, The Morning News, 4.30 News, Today Tonight and 7 News Sydney we’re all rebuilt and became number 1 in each time slot.
7 News Melbourne followed soon after in 2005.
DJ was brought in during early 2003 to present the 4:30 news during the Iraq War and after May that year the 4:30 news became a staple lifting ratings and helping 7’s early evening slot.
If I remember correctly, Peter Meakin was the first person Seven poached from Nine to revamp its news oeprations. He was never going to sit back and watch magic happen in an instant; he was always going to take the task head-on.
I know I’m repeating myself in some instances here, but here goes…
First was Sydney, where Hendo retired from the Nine newsdesk after nearly four decades. Ian Ross was semi-retired by the time he was approached by Seven to replace Ross Symonds and Ann Sanders as their chief newsreader; then-weatherman Adam Digby also departed and was replaced by then-Adelaide weather presenter Nuala Hafner.
Mark Beretta was the only presenter from the 2003 weeknight line-up to survive into 2004, but he would be replaced by Matthew White (who was presenting Sports Tonight on Channel 10 on weekends) midway through the year.
This meant that, by June 2004, 7NEWS Sydney’s line-up had been overhauled, except for Nick McArdle presenting sport on weekends (Sanders replaced Chris Bath); he then left Seven at the end of 2006, by which point Bath returned to weekends.
Of course, Sanders took on her most prominent role at the network, the Morning News, in 2006 where she remains (at least on the East Coast), and later took on the Sydney afternoon news when it was made local in 2017.
The Melbourne history is well-documented where they persisted with Peter Mitchell on weeknights; he is currently the second-longest serving presenter of any of the five metro bulletins (behind only Rick and Sue), having been in the chair since November 2000.
In Brisbane it took a while for Kay and Rod to overtake their rivals at QTQ, where there were some significant appointments including those of Shane Webcke (weeknight sport), John Schluter (weeknight weather, after he suddenly quit QTQ just short of his 25th anniversary there) and Sharyn Ghidella (weekend news). The latter’s move to Seven was quite similar to how another ex-Today newsreader, Ian Ross, “made the switch” so to speak.
Adelaide and Perth remained mostly untouched, though I do wonder how Seven News in those markets was already performing strongly prior to the noughties.
Yes I think you have made the same points many times before. We are well aware of your analysis.
David Leckie was dismissed by Nine in 2002… he was the brain child of this resurgent Seven. I believe he helped poach Peter Meakin (head of News) and John Stephens (head of programming) from Nine in 2002/3.
All three set out to destroy Nine. And hey it clearly worked.
Ahh yes, that name had escaped me.
While the success in Sydney was instant (due in part to Nine suddenly axing Jim Waley in favour of Mark Ferguson in 2005), it took a while in Melbourne and Brisbane which remained Nine strongholds until 2007.
Also, if I remember correctly, wasn’t Ian Cook once the news director at Seven News Sydney? I remember he was axed in the early noughties, as was Rob Olney in Melbourne (where he was replaced by Steve Carey) and another news director in Adelaide whose name I’ve forgotten.
I also forgot Ian Johnson (ex GTV9 station manager) who came on board a bit later in 2005 to run Seven Melbourne. No doubt he was involved in improving the stations numbers.
This also resulted in a lot of journalists moving over from nine to seven. I believe Nick McCallum was one of them.
Correct.
Rob Gell was another, quitting Nine News at the end of 2003. I remember at the time they (GTV) wanted to refresh their already-strong rating bulletin but for what reason I don’t know.
Lucky Seven picked up his services, presenting the weather on weekends and filling in for David Brown (who gained a national profile on the 4:30 news the previous year) whenever required.
Another Nine personality to “make the switch” was Leith Mulligan, though after he left GTV in 2006 he spent two years at Foxtel before joining Seven in 2008, eventually spending four years there.
You could write a book on this.
did he quit or was he pushed?
