One wonders what Roscoe would think of Seven News Sydney the way it is at the moment if he was still alive today. But I’m digressing here.
Yep, it took a few years for Peter Overton to resonate with the Sydney market as a newsreader but now I think you’d have to say that he’ll have the position at Nine for as long as he wants it and will probably be rather fondly remembered by this city in many years from now.
Seven News Sydney have made some terrible decisions in relation to their presenters/reporters over the past few years. Just to recap…
*Demoting and later letting go of Chris Bath. Thankfully she’s since found a home at a media outlet who’ll appreciate her talents!
*Not giving Melissa Doyle enough time to build an audience as a newsreader. I think she only had a year or so on Sydney’s Friday/Saturday night news, likewise with the Afternoon News.
*Demoting Jim Wilson in favour of Mel McLaughlin.
*Not taking advantage of Cameron Williams (who started at Seven in the 1990s before going to Fox Sports and building his career at Nine for a decade) being off contract with Nine at a time when Ken Sutcliffe’s retirement wasn’t far off the horizon. Surely this has to be one of Seven Sydney’s bigger regrets in the last year or so?
*Letting go of quality reporters like Matthew Snelson, Damien Smith and Talitha Cummins while more dubious quality reporters remain.
Probably the only good presenter move they’ve made in Sydney post-2014 is the appointment of David Brown and even that is tainted by the fact that Seven made the move while Sarah Cumming (who had been presenting Sydney weather for about 4-5 years or so) was on maternity leave! At the very least I think we should still be seeing Sarah Cumming on Sydney’s Friday/Saturday weather, but the network currently wastes her talents on The Daily Edition!
Dare I say it. If Seven managed to grab Cam while he was off contract, one would probably imagine that Nine will have a tough time at choosing a successor for Ken Sutcliffe. Like I said before, Seven should’ve also considered poaching Yvonne Sampson or even Erin Molan from Nine, but no, they chose Mel McLaughlin. While she is a fine reporter her presenting skills are quite average. And forget about poaching quality reporters and presenters, if Seven keeps chopping and changing stuff, I’m sure they’ll be glad to be even hanging onto 2nd position in Sydney News by a thread.
@SydneyCityTV Michael Usher was also considered to be a very good grab by Seven. However his appointment hasn’t really seen ratings soar, which kind of gives me an impression that he will be the next Chris Bath or Melissa Doyle, while dodgy presenter Fergo remains in the safe. I was actually wondering if Fergo was actually trying to persuade McPherson to keep him on weeknights or he will jump ship…
He would be pleased to hear that after eleven years as a newsreader (and another sixteen or so as a reporter, correspondent, and presenter), he’s finally making progress towards your standards.
I think he always had those qualities in his presentation style and feel they were evident in the days before he joined 60 Minutes. Perhaps he became accustomed to the straight, serious style 60 demanded and it has taken him a while to get his news reading groove back. He really should’ve been considered ahead of Overton for Nine’s 6pm news when Ferguson was ousted.
I’m hoping those qualities and his personality will be able to shine should he be chosen as one of the hosts of the new late evening offering Seven has in the works. Commercial television is in dire need of news and light entertainment to pull viewers back to free to air late in the evening.
I don’t know how I feel about Holty on news, much better suited to weather.
Like Angela Cox for Seven, he has a strange way of forming sentences and emphasises random words. I guess that would partially come down to the fact he isn’t used to presenting news.
