Does anyone miss the 2 header male/female 10 News? Given the context of today’s “90’s trend” press release from 10, would we welcome a 2 header these days? We lack male readers in each state, I think.
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No. No. I don’t think so.
I always thought that the dual-presenter mode was very Americanised - with 10 being owned by an American company now who knows what’ll happen. I agree though, I think they’ve ‘been there, done that’ and need to move forward.
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Dual presenters ultimately is just a larger investment, given someone is doing the job just fine in each market now, I don’t see any reason they’ll double down on adding extra presenters again with ratings going south. Didn’t last long last time, and doubt it would work again.
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Yup, always prefer dual anchors.
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what have they done?
Ten made a vague-ish reference to 90s nostalgia being a “tv trend” when talking about bringing back Gladiators. Bit of a stretch to connect Gladiators with News, I know 
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oh i knew about Gladiators but when u said today i thought here must have something else come along?
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Former 7 Toowoomba & Mackay journalist Matt Johnston joined the Brisbane newsroom last week, he’s quite good.
https://x.com/10newsfirstqld/status/1714913821322617077?s=46&t=RPKXX3QJ5bwM_6c5rMb0SA
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Dual presentation is very popular and has a long history outside of Sydney and Melbourne. Still the norm for Brisbane and Gold Coast. 10 have had dual presenters in the ‘recent’ past.
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In Sydney, viewers have always preferred having one presenter - a prime example being Brian Henderson, and today Peter Overton.
However I can remember Ron Wilson and Jessica Rowe lasting a decade on Ten, for some mixed degree of success, while Ross Symonds and Ann Sanders (Seven) lasted six unsuccessful years before being moved on and replaced by Ian Ross.
Of course the biggest failure was in Melbourne where David Johnston and Ann Fulwood lasted just sixteen months together on Seven, while Mal Walden and Jennifer Hansen lasted a decade on Ten (and later on Helen Kapalos until the end of 2012, barring that brief period in early 2011 when Walden presented the Evening News and George Donikian was shifted from Adelaide’s 5pm news to Melbourne’s).
Still can’t believe they sacked Georgina Lewis. Such a brilliant presenter. Shame the other networks didn’t pick her up.
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A few brilliant presenters lost during that tough time, Tarsh was also a big loss for the business.
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Melbourne viewers have generally preferred single newsreader line-ups on Seven and Nine. ATV0/Ten of course had double newsreaders as a standard feature from the mid 1970s through until a decade or so ago - including much success with David Johnston and Jana Wendt and later Jo Pearson, then Mal Walden and Jennifer Hansen/Helen Kapalos.
(Apart from that brief period in 1990-91 when David Johnston read solo, and in 1988 where Ten had three newsreaders). Dual newsreaders used to work well for Ten in Melbourne but not so much at Seven or Nine.
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And to just confuse things Seven have dual presenters on the “weekend” in Sydney and Melbourne and a single presenter in Brisbane. Go figure.
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Adelaide is the same as Brisbane, while Perth has dual presenters on both weekdays and weekends.
And there was also once a time when Ten’s weekend news was presented by Matt Doran and Natarsha Belling between October 2011 and December 2012, after the local weekend news was discontinued.
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Mal Walden and Jennifer Hansen certainly didn’t fail - they may not have been the number 1 news service out of the 3 commercials but more often than not won their timeslot.
What I find interesting is that 10 Adelaide dumped the co-presenter model in 2011, almost 2 years ahead of the mass sackings. I often wondered in my teen years who could co-anchor with Bec if they had ever revived it - I suspect it would have been Alan Murrell (is he still around?) or perhaps Peter Sellen.
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I suspect there will be more than a few changes at 10 next year presenter wise, in line with the late news revival and increase in local content (the latter of which I will believe when I see). Here’s just an overview of what I suspect will happen:
- Hugh takes over Sydney 5pm and Sandra moves back to late night
- Queensland local news is reinstated (Lachlan Kennedy could return if he is willing to relocate - not sure what other realistic presenter options there are)
- Lachlan (if he doesn’t do QLD news) or Charlotte Goodlet take over weekends (I really do not want this to happen for Chris’s sake but I can’t really see a future for her at Ten. She’s been notably absent from a number of big events over the past couple of years including the recent referendum - I think this might be due to her contractor status)
To be more exact/precise, I meant the David Johnston/Anne Fulwood combo failed on HSV up against the might of Hitch (currently the longest serving incumbent on Nine News) on GTV.
Of course, Mal and Jennifer were very successful, and even after Helen Kapalos replaced Jen they remained top of their timeslot. Same goes with Ron Wilson and Jessica Rowe/Deborah Knight between 1995-2008, when the decision was made to swap the positions of Wilson and Bill Woods (which came around the same time Peter Overton was appointed chief newsreader on TCN).
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