Mel McLaughlin is back presenting sport in Sydney tonight, much to most people’s displeasure no doubt…
Don’t think " Disgust " is the right word for it, I think i can say, for a fair few people here on the forum that Mel McLaughlin is far from presenter material.
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Bill McDonald just confirmed via his personal Facebook page that he’s leaving 7 News Brisbane.
He posted this earlier:
Some big news for me coming up in the paper tomorrow & I’m very excited about it. Lots to look forward to.
Then:
I’m leaving 7 News to do other stuff and couldn’t be more excited.
The story will be in the courier mail tomorrow and is online already but is behind a paywall, here’s the first couple of lines from what I could see
Bill McDonald bites the bulletin as Seven throws out the anchor
The Courier-Mail can reveal the anchor, who has presented the 6pm news alongside Sharyn Ghidella since 2013, will front his last bulletin for the Brisbane bureau today after six months of contract negotiations. Seven news and current affairs boss Craig McPherson confirmed McDonald would no longer …
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Main points from the article:
The Courier-Mail can reveal the anchor, who has presented the 6pm news alongside Sharyn Ghidella since 2013, will front his last bulletin for the Brisbane bureau today after six months of contract negotiations.
Seven news and current affairs boss Craig McPherson confirmed McDonald would no longer be part of the Seven Network after “some sports broadcasting work for the Commonwealth Games” in April.
However, he denied persistent rumours of tumultuous discussions between Seven and McDonald, saying they had reached an “amicable agreement” to part ways.
Mr McPherson acknowledged the decision stemmed from issues including ratings and money, with Seven Brisbane’s Monday to Friday 6pm bulletin having lost out to Channel 9’s last year. Nine News won 38 out of 40 of the ratings weeks, averaging 202,800 viewers to Seven News’ 185,500.
He also admitted Brisbane was “a tough market” for Seven and the network was focused on overtaking Nine in a “very close race”.
McDonald, 50, confirmed to The Courier-Mail that Seven had “been upfront with where things were at with them” throughout the process.
Mr McPherson said Ghidella would continue presenting the 6pm news Monday-Friday but there would be an announcement regarding the bulletin after a restructure of the newsroom.
“There are no issues with Sharyn. She is a terrific reader and, when we announce the change, I’m sure it will be a very formidable team,” he said.
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It’s got to be Rod & Sharyn on weeknights, surely. Rod offers the sort of gravitas and pulling power that the bulletin has been lacking for the last few years, and he’s the perfect person (alongside Sharyn) for Seven to build a big campaign around. They also need a new set.
The transition to Amanda Abate has already started on the Gold Coast.
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It has to be Rod or Kay as Bill McDonald’s replacement, I would be really disappointed if it was Max Futcher. Either will do a fantastic job over the next few years, allowing Seven do groom a male replacement before they retire. I am not so sure they will want to remove Rod from the GC though, as he is probably their key talent in fighting Bruce Paige on 9 (similar gravitas, experience etc). They know Kay draws a crowd and IMO, it would be an innovative appointment on IWD.
I am not surprised they love Sharyn. They have always groomed her for the anchor chair.
What I find really interesting is the fact that Seven admitted it was a ratings decision, not entirely $ based as a spin-off. Should Mark Ferguson be worried then?
It also surprises me that they are announcing another team member instead of continuing with Sharyn solo.
It wasn’t a tough market for Seven until they messed with a good thing, Rod and Kay, who were easily winning the ratings battle at the time.
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I’m quietly hoping Rob Brough gets the call up to the big league.
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Seven News Brisbane will be extended to 12 hours. I am hoping that Broughie throws to and comes back from breaks with his signature 
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winks at the camera internally
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The obvious question that comes to mind is this: Would Bill McDonald go back to Ten?
In Early 2013, Seven News Queensland made a major presenter change by swapping Rod & Kay out for Bill & Sharyn. In Early 2014, Seven News Sydney made a major presenter change by swapping Chris Bath out for Mark Ferguson.
Will history repeat itself? Only time will tell. What I do know for sure is this: Seven News Sydney hasn’t exactly smashed Nine in the ratings recently and unfortunately, Mark Ferguson has never been a long term audience puller for 6pm news viewers on either network in this market.
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Broughie - be … still … my … beating … heart
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7 Network to make an innovative announcement Friday.
Sharyn will read from Brisbane whilst the MediaSpy favourite, Broughie won’t need to move or face a long commute, he’ll read from Maroochydore in addition to the regional bulletins.
Corridor talk in Maroochydore turned sinister towards the end of the day when it was speculated that Rob ah, Broughie was given an ultimatum by network bosses to agree to the extra duty or leave with Peter Byrne having hassled Rex Clark to a point of almost insanity.
If you hadn’t worked it out, above is simple parody
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Dare I say, I think Sharyn has copied some character traits from Rob… The way she opens “on seven news tonight” makes it sound like it the broadcast is never going to end.
It would be nice for the Seven Network to acknowledge that they fucked up (which is the only way to describe it) by replacing Kay and Rod and that they didn’t listen to the viewers but that will never happen.
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Someone did say on here “A return to Ten maybe” back late last year, at the time where Bill McDonald was suppose to leave the Seven Network at the time.
Pure speculation at best.
Bill told me (I know him personally) that he’s genuinely happy about pursuing other opportunities which he’s wanted to do for a while now - particularly in sport which is evident in that he’s staying on to work on the Comm Games.
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He sounds thrilled
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That would be a ratings winner. Max and Katrina (or Kendall Gilding) can take over weekends and be the next in-line for Seven News Brisbane.
And I agree, a new set is well overdue. I would prefer them to follow the Melbourne set (but better) rather than the Sydney set.
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Good to see credit where credit’s due.