But what does raise the question is how Seven always nails onto Musher for these special bulletins. Why not Fergo?, He is your main anchor in Sydney. You also have Hugh Whitfeld, who would also nail this. You could get it done in Melbourne with Mike Amor.
What is Seven’s obsession with using Michael Usher, the guy who is the backup presenter on the Sydney 6pm news?
Because he is a nationally recognised figure who has hosted national programs numerous times in the past, as well as a long stint reporting on 60 minutes.
Also likely helps justify whatever they are paying him if he does extra things like these specials.
The fact they always go with Musher tells you everything you need to know. This is his role.
He does breaking news and election coverage. Has since he joined the network.
It would be more odd if he wasnt fronting their coverage.
Well, Mark Ferguson was already busy doing the Sydney evening news so Michael Usher was available to do the late bulletin. Obviously.
Fergo is a local anchor mainly and Musher is more national, pretty simple.
Fair point, But if Mark is your main 6pm presenter in Sydney, wouldn’t it be smarter to use him?
I mean, Nine rolls out Peter Overton when major events occur, Ten rolls out Sandra Sully when major events occur & even the ABC sometimes rolls out Jeremy Fernandez when major stories break.
So it just begs a question as to why they have no faith in Mark holding rolling coverage.
He nailed the Bondi Beach coverage when it broke.. But they didn’t have the faith so they got Musher to take over 
To be fair, 10 usually use whoever’s that state presenter.
Jen covered the mushroom trial, Sandra did the IT outage, Narelda/Sharyn did Alfred and Sandra covered Bondi. Getting off topic though
Also she is much more known nationally than Fergo. Well in Queensland and NSW.
All three have a record of hosting or reporting for major national programs (Overton - 60 Minutes, Sully - Late News, Frenandez - was a regualr presenter on the News Channel during it’s early years).
Ferguson’s only national profile is filling in on the odd national bulletin, and hosting that ill-fated ThisAfternoon program.
Once again, it’s Musher’s role. He does breaking news.
Mark covered Bondi initially because it was a Sunday and it happened while he was on air.
The fact Musher took over has everything to do with the fact that is Musher’s role, and nothing to do with them not having ‘faith’ in Fergo. They clearly have faith in Fergo, given his longevity in his role.
Musher is popular. They do polling on this sort of thing all the time. If audiences didn’t connect with him they wouldn’t use him
Musher imo is the go to anchor in these situations.
All fair points I’ve read. I’ll stand down.
Honestly would be best for Fergo aswell, being 60 now would make that quite hard to keep up (Hence why they rarely use Rick & Sue for live coverage)
Yes, I’m sure that’s the reason.
Some presenters just don’t have the chops for long rolling national coverage. I mean Brian Henderson never did it.
Age wouldn’t have anything to do with them not using Rick and Sue as a first option to front live coverage - like Fergo, Rick and Sue don’t present or report on national programs - they are local newsreaders.
In fact, any decision to use Rick and Sue would most likely be made on if the crew in Sydney has gone to bed and Perth are still running (and these days you’d also expect Tim and Angela to do a bit more of that now they are doing Monday-Wednesday), or due to extrodinary circumstances such as the Sydney Siege.
Did Sue anchor the telecast when the Martin place seige happen as it was very late on the east coast
Yes, Sue was on nationally for around 4 hours of the Lindt Cafe siege.
Rick and Sue are not often shown nationally but it has happened.
The national news flash about the death of Prince Philip came from Perth because it happened just after the 6:00pm news finished so they were still on set.
I remember another national news flash with Rick about a couple of Australians being executed by firing squad in Indonesia in 2015.
Seven has always used Perth as a last resort option. If there’s someone available in Sydney or Melbourne they will generally use them but if not they go to Perth.
Sue is good, Rick not so much
I was really interested in this as we had rarely seen Sue (lr Rick) do more than the 6pm news read for a long time, but she was doing incredibly well given how dire the situation was and assuming she hadn’t done that sort of thing nationally for a long time, possibly ever.
I’m sure if Rick and Sue were a bit more out and about in the last decade or so, it wouldn’t have seemed so unfamiliar but they were largely relegated to the studio desk for years.
I’m sure Rick would have been equally good if it was him that night.