Matt Tinney presented the Morning News in Perth today.
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Surprised he doesn’t do it more to be honest.
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Did Benny present sport today
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No
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According to The Daily Telegraph, Mark Ferguson will be off air during the Paris Olympics as Seven is forcing staff with excess leave to take holidays due to ongoing cost cuts. Insiders suggest people to take Ferguson’s chair include the usuals such as Michael Usher and Angela Cox, but also weather presenter Angie Asimus and Sunrise’s Edwina Bartholomew. It’s understood Ferguson has a large bank of leave and won’t be the only Seven star across the country being told to get their holidays under control.
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Don’t think she’s been seen on Seven News at 6:00 since at least 2010 or 2011, at which point she joined the Sunrise team as its Sydney correspondent.
Natalie Barr has also presented Seven News Sydney in the past; 2014 is the last time I could recall her presenting it.
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Maybe Eddy will do weekends if Musher and Angela Cox do weekdays.
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Writing on the wall where this is going.
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Isn’t this similar to what they did with David Brown. Suddenly disappeared with no significant announcement except taking an “extended break” but never returned …
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How much leave would he actually have? Journos get six weeks a leave so probably a balance larger than most, but doesn’t he take at least six weeks off over summer each year?
Definitely not. Mark usually stays until roughly Xmas eve then is back the third week of January so only really 3/4 weeks off.
All I will say is that you don’t ask your main presenter to take leave to cut down on your leave balance. More to come on this one that is for sure.
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Mark finished 21 Dec last year and returned 21 Jan so 4 weeks.
Wouldn’t you want your main team on during the Olympics?
EDIT: Oh I forgot they’re on 9 not on 7. Maybe this makes sense then.
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Angie definitely is a good choice and I assume Chris will be reporting on the Olympics. But, using Eddy over regulars like Sally Bowrey or Paul Kadak or even a fresher/younger choice like Amelia Brace seems odd to me. From Sunrise, I would say Nat or Monique are better newsreaders than Eddy too.
Recent leadership changes may be a factor here.
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I was thinking that too. Even though the Olympics are on Nine it still doesn’t seem wise to have the main team off. There are plenty of people who aren’t interested in the Olympics and that is the time to try and get them to switch.
Assuming the report is true, forcing people to take time off isn’t uncommon (standard practice for most businesses with long term employees) but timing is important in TV and the Olympics seems like a strange time to do it.
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Unless they want to make sure they take as many as possible during the Olympics so they don’t take them when things are back to normal and they want to increase their ratings again…
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I’m sure there’s more to come. Maybe they are testing new presenters at 6pm?
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Seven are probably like “we are going to get murdered during Paris 2024 anyway and we used to have the Olympics for decades it’s embarrassing”. Lumping it big time I’d say.
I agree with a couple of others above, you should have your nightly news anchor on, not off, during such a major event, especially after already trailing in the ratings and for over 13 years now. Just gifting viewers to Nine, 10, ABC and SBS.
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