Not that long, I don’t think
It was probably on at 4.30
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From memory, Local Edition launched off the back of the olympics and then was gone by the end of the year. So only a few months.
Melissa Downes then went to 9 the following year.
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I remember he and Sharyn Ghidella were suddenly parachuted into the weeknight presenting team, with the top-rating Kay and Rod bumped to weekends.
At the time Seven News was the top-rating news service in Brisbane and had been for six years, before the sudden shake-up of the presenting team. The result - Nine started to close the gap, before overtaking BTQ’s news for the first time since 2006 and remaining ahead of them ever since (with the exception of the years 2018-19).
As someone not from that area… why did Seven do that?
Good question. I felt as though Sharyn was under-utilized on weekends (remembering she used to read the news five days a week on Today, as did her predecessor Ian Ross) and that after six years it was time for her to step up to weeknights.
Bill McDonald had also just been let go by Network 10 as part of a brutal restructure of their news department which also saw the likes of Ron Wilson and Bill Woods leave the network. Seven were thus quick to lure him back to where he began his career.
All the while, Kay and Rod were continuing to perform strongly on weeknights against Andrew and Melissa who at the same time were continuing to gain some traction on Nine News despite the Choppergate hiccup in 2011, before that massive shake-up in 2013 which I feel swung the pendulum back towards Nine.
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I think the launch of the local edition of Today Tonight with Sharyn was a factor. But, essentially, management just wanted a “fresh” lineup, and that bizarre decision cost them dearly.
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I also think reintroducing a Queensland edition, as well as revamp what was previously the East Coast edition (focusing only on NSW and Victoria, with ex-Ten newsreader Helen Kapalos in the chair) was one final attempt to refresh the show against the resurgent ACA.
In the end, TT would be axed on the East Coast nearly eleven years ago to the week, though it remained in Adelaide and Perth until November 2019.
From memory, Sharyn was rating extraordinarily well on weekends. I remember when she started, Sunday nights would often be over 400k. In Brisbane.
So i guess somebody thought it was a good idea to switch her to weeknights.
But it was a mess - particularly with Sharyn doing both Seven News and Today Tonight. Bill would just disappear after weather without a farewell.
Plus, they probably failed to realise that they had such a formidable team, 7 nights a week. Messing with that was just greedy.
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Brisbane viewers would’ve remembered her days as the newsreader on Today, and followed her to Seven, in the same vein that Sydney viewers followed Ian Ross to the station in 2003-04.
Ghidella’s numbers came despite Nine having the NRL (albeit on a one-hour delay) as a lead-in to National Nine News on Sundays, then presented on weekends by Melissa Downes (who now is of course on weeknights).
So I guess Seven’s trick back then was: hire a Today newsreader, and hope for the best.
Sharyn also went on maternity leave very soon after joining 7, albeit only for a few weeks.
In fact if i recall she may have even presented a few times from Sydney, as it was daylight savings at the time.
So it may very well be that Sharyn was availing herself of a role in Brisbane, with a view to relocating back to Queensland to raise a family. And 7 were lucky enough to get her.
She presented at least one bulletin from Sydney due to her being unable to fly back after doing news on Weekend Sunrise (back when it was Sunday only)
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She also started just after Tracey Challenor finished up. Makes me wonder why Seven couldn’t retain Challenor so she could fill in, though I believe she wanted to spend more time with her family hence her departure from Seven in February 2007. I also wonder who filled in for Ghidella while she was off; I do know Colleen Douglas filled in for Challenor a few times in 2006.
From 11 March 2007 - the Sydney set would’ve been reconfigured to replicate the Brisbane set. Producing the Brisbane bulletin from Sydney’s Martin Place studios was made possible at the time due to daylight saving, as you pointed out, with Brisbane one hour behind Sydney.
Courtesy: AM News Videos
I always hold the view that poaching Ghidella and ex-Nine weatherman John Schluter towards the end of 2006, helped Seven to overtake Nine News which had been leading in the south-east Queensland market for two decades.
Kay and Rod were starting to hold their own against Bruce and Heather, who by mid-2009 would be replaced by Andrew and Melissa who took a while to re-establish Nine News as the leading service in Brisbane once again.
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I think, for at least one of Sharyn’s maternity leave, Simon Reeve filled in.
I may be mistaken, but it’s ringing a bell.
Sorry I meant on Seven News Brisbane, but if you were talking about Weekend Sunrise I think you might be right. Either he or Kylie Gillies would’ve been presenting sport at the time.
Nope, he was definitely on Seven News Brisbane… i thought I remembered that.
Actually this was the sydney studio. Dont mind me.
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Nope, that’s definitely the Brisbane studio, which was a near-exact replica of the Sydney/national set, except with a different arrangement of the buildings and a darker sky.
Sydney set, on Ross Symonds and Ann Sanders’ final night. Courtesy: Broadcasting Australia
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Well there you go.
I knew he did a stint in Brisbane at some stage. 22 years ago as it turns out. So perhaps it was Tracy Challenors maternity cover.
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Didn’t they bone her for Sharyn, essentially?
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