Television veteran Mike Munro has today announced he will be retiring from television and leaving the Nine Network at the end of October
Munro’s announcement comes only three days after Nine decided to axe Nightline and Sunday in a rationalisation of the network’s news and current affairs department.
Munro has been hosting Sydney’s National Nine News on Weekends, This is Your Life whilst fronting Missing Person’s Unit. Perhaps Munro could have the buck passed from him to the next This is Your Life presenter by having the roles turned...
But who would that presenter be?
Bert Newton is an obvious chat show host that the network is not completely utilising but no other names from within the network spring to mind.
Missing Person’s Unit could be fronted by another member of Nine’s News department with Michael Usher now out of the Nightline hosting chair who also appears to be Munro’s obvious replacement on the Sydney Weekend edition of National Nine News.
Munro’s decision may have been made by the axing of Sunday and Nightline as Sunday’s host, Ellen Fanning may also find herself without a role at Nine.
Fanning might now regret not jumping ship at the start of the year to front 2UE Breakfast with Mike Carlton, which oddly is where she and Munro could end up, on talkback radio.
Fanning and Munro are both very talented journalists who would be more than capable of presenting programs on radio and the Sydney AM networks should enquire about their availability, if Munro is interested and Fanning does not have another role at Nine after this Sunday.
Nine will also be on the look out for a temporary replacement for 60 Minutes Tara Brown whilst she is on maternity leave. Peter Harvey, Ray Martin and Ben Fordham have been doing the occasional story for Nine’s flagship current affairs program.
Fordham would be the frontrunner for the gig unless the network wants to replace Brown with another female such as Fanning or A Current Affair’s Amanda Paterson.
With the closure of Nightline and Sunday there will be a number of staff that will be repositioned at the network. It is a shame that they have been axed but understandable in the current television climate and the pressures of commercial television.
Audiences can now access news on demand through Australia’s own dedicated news channel, Sky News which also now screens and AM, PM and Weekend version of Agenda, their Political Report meaning by the time that Sunday airs, only, once a week, some of the news is stale.
Internet savvy Australians are also accessing their news online and watching videos on-demand, choosing their own news and accessing it as they want it.
Of most importance now is Public Broadcasting. The ABC is still committed to cutting edge, hard and objective journalism which must be retained as commercial television is driven by profits and ratings, unfortunately Nightline and Sunday could no longer be justified by these measurements, they were no longer rating and no longer profitable.
RIP Nightline & Sunday and Au Revoir Mike Munro.
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