Live from… well, not Melbourne anymore.

I am outraged that Rebecca Maddern has been replaced as anchor by MIke Amor on 7’s 4.30 News despite that fact she is talented and popular. And to add insult to injury, the bulletin has been shifted from its traditional home of Melbourne’s national bradcast centre to Sydney so Mike Amor can anchor! The bulliten was high rating so the only reason that I can imagine for this move is to appease Mike Amor, the Sydney based networks would not have cared two shits about Rebecca. It was the only national news broadcast on any network to not be made in Sydney! It is ridiculous that Australian TV is SO sydney-centric considering the highest absolute viewer numbers come from Melbourne, the most advertising dollars come from here and Melbourne has the highest TV news viewership in Australia!

Since Mike Amor has taken over, he has made so many mistakes! And they still try and pawn it off as melbourne by using the melb news room back drop even tho it is clearly Sydney’s set, and they still cross to Melb to ge the weather from David Brown, which makes it even more clear it had nothing to do with Rebecca or Melbourne not doin a good job, its just Mike Amor came home from his stint in the US office and said he wanted a job. The networks said sure have Rebecca’s, she is in another city and can’t defend her position! Ridicuous. And now poor Rebecca has been reduced to doin the MElbourne news updates during the day and just regular reporting! talk about your slaps in the face!

I’ve sent a letter to The Age Green Guide, they called to confirm details so I think it will be published, lets hope that drums up some support

Does anyone actually care that much where the bulletin is filmed? It’s in Sydney instead of Melbourne. Big deal.

its true its a bloody outrage at least use the sydney control room set and john could you get some of the win news openers because WA is going to get a win news and i would like to see what it looks like

We all off the point…we want Rebecca Maddern back! Mike Amor has squinty little eyes and is so boring. Bec used to light up the screen with her presence, a really important factor is on screen presence. And its not like she’s some pretty blond air head they pulled off the streets, She has a bachelor of Arts in Media Studies from RMIT, she read news and sports for the melbourne radio stations Triple M, Fox FM and Nova 100 before moving to seven, where, in her first year of reporting, one the prestigious Quill journalism award for her coverage of Victoria’s Bushfires. She has a lot more credentials than a lot of other who present news. For example, Livinnia Nixon on 9 in Melbourne, she presents weather, but has absolutely no qualifications for that.

Oh…poor bec

Samantha Armatage was filling in for Chris Bath for weekends in sydney at 6pm and evening updates while She was filling in for Ian Ross. Back to the 4.30 news sarga… ok the 4.30 news is the highest rating program in its time slot but when u look at what else is on (9) there rip off version with a crap presenter (10) Bold and the beautiful, i mean hello! and its not the top rating news program in the country that goes to sandra sulley and Ryan philan from the (nationl) Ten Late news team also from sydney studios. Rebecca Maddern was a very good anchor, i don’t deniy that but she had little presenting history with 7, where as Mike has been in the US for 5 and a bit years doing the hard yards like been the first reporter from australia live from ground zero on 9/11 and he was there for hurricane Katrenia- the poor guy has done the hard yards and so upon his decision to return home from the US , naturally wanting a job with seven still they rewarded him with an anchor position, because they had already made the dicision to move from melbourne to match other bulletins. Summer Edition Today-Tonight host Anna Corren has taken mikes job in the US as head correspodant, rumrours are that Bec could be offered the summer Position on TT (from sydney) !!! Also i Apologise to Nick Renwick it was Jarrod who made a false statment about Mike takin Annes job. They still cross to the melbourne studios for weather as not to have to many dramatic changes in the bulletin, god can only hope they give David Brown the flick, he is just so dull compared to Nullar Hafenur (sydney and fill in on sunrise) or Grant from sunrise. the guy wears the same crap suit each day!! OMG!! And don’t think Mike doesn’t have a bunch of Credentials!! that guy is smart and has awards too,”Mike Amor has squinty little eyes and is so boring.” is a bit harsh the guy is a little serious but give him time he will adjust in time and be great! Really when u look at it Mike has more right to a presenting Job Rebecca Maddern, but she has skills and will go far so she will be fine!!!

Assuming*

Good god! I am assuming you live in Sydney. firstly 7500 viewers is merely a fluctuation, there have been schoold holidays on and more people are home. Secondly there is no “national news room” as such, in fact Melbourne’s is larger than Sydney’s. Secondly, the show was created in Melbourne for the Iraq war with David Johnstone and so it only seems fair it remain there. There was absolutely no reason to move it. Except to give Mike Amor a job. And from what I have read from people who know Bec, that seems to be the truth. David Brown (and Melbourne’s weekend guy Rob Gell) are the only qualified meteorologists presenting the weather on tv. That means they attended university and trained with the BOM. As done in classic Full Frontal they are not “just rewriting the information fro the bureau to try and pass it off as different from every other weather segment on tv. He is also charming and has a great tv presence. Just because Mike has been at the network longer doesn’t mean he can swoop in and have whatever job he wants, if that were so Chris Bath would have booted out Rosco and Ann booted out Chris. And putting aside the anchor change, the city change is offensive because as I said more people watch tv, and more people watch the news (and read papers) in Melbourne than anywhere else. Also the Digital Broadcast Centre for 7 is here, everything from home and away to commercials for every 7 signal in Australia comes from here. And you can’t trumpet the streamlining as a reason, they are all seven, all with the same sets and news feeds. And either way the news room in every city is staffed in the afternoon for updates and the 6pm news. It was a ridiculous change, and an unfair one. Bec got fired for being a popular and talented news reader, but she wasn’t in Sydney and she wasn’t Mike Amor.

yes well like i said no i don’t live in sydney!! i live in canberra, and i don’t care where tt comes live from aslong as the host is good and deserves the job. i.e – bec for summer editions!!! and i think the sydney 18 story seven centre in sydney is bigger then the melboure one and its refured to as the “news central” in both the national bullitons on 7. And u can’t say that they created a bulliton just for the iraq war, that was just seven filling some air time and having good coverage – later finding that it rated extreamly well and kept it there, it was only shot from melbourne because seven in syndey was moving from epping studios to martin place and thats why they didn’t take it on in sydney. And today-tonight is filmed in sydney and servives nsw, vic and parts of qld the summer edition and regular edition is filmed in sydney each day, not melbourne. And just because David brown has a qualification in meteorology doesn’t give him a good t.v personality. I will side with u on one thing bout mike, its unfair that he gets to do the nightly updates on a wednesday, thursday in sydney while samantha gets the boot back to filling in and according to the latest ratings from seven corporate more people in melbourne watch channel nine then seven, so makes sense to move in to a city where seven is winning all key news demographics!

I never said they didn’t. He was been the chief of their US Bureau for years. Today Tonight is made in Melbourne. It is refered to on air as Melbourne’s Today Tonight, also check wikipedia(below), it also says it is made here. Naomi is a Melbourne personality

“The first East Coast Edition was broadcast over summer from Monday, December 4 2000, until January 26 2001. In previous years, Melbourne and Sydney had run the same summer edition, but in the summer of 2000/2001, Brisbane was included for the first time. For the first three weeks – until Friday, December 22 2000 – the programme came from Melbourne with Naomi Robson, then moved to Sydney with Elise Mooney and Melissa Doyle. The three state based editions returned after summer.

Then in March 2001, Sydney’s Today Tonight host, Melissa Doyle, went on maternity leave, and the Melbourne version with Robson was broadcast into Sydney for the first time during the ratings period, the first step towards the East Coast Edition. This was supposed to last only 12 weeks, but Melbourne’s version rated just as well in Sydney as the local version (despite the fact that for the first few nights they left “Melbourne’s Today Tonight” on the screen behind Robson for all Sydney viewers to see). Doyle returned at the end of 2001 to present the summer edition.

On December 9 2002, Brisbane’s Today Tonight host, Michelle Reiken took her maternity leave, and the Melbourne/Sydney version was broadcast there also. In 2003, when the ratings period commenced, Brisbane continued with the Melbourne/Sydney edition instead of reverting to a local program, with the promise from Seven that a local edition would return when Reiken returned from maternity leave. This never happened, and in May 2003, the month Reiken was expected to return, Seven Brisbane officially axed its local version of Today Tonight, and the east-coast edition was born. This was because the Melbourne based version performed better in the ratings than the local version of the program. To replace the Brisbane version of Today Tonight, Seven did create another show for Brisbane, Local Edition, to compete against Nine’s Extra, shown at 5:30 p.m.. The program was short-lived and axed after only several months.

Due to strong ratings, the local editions of the programme in South Australia and Western Australia have remained, year round.”

So THERE!
Also the 4.30 news was created for the Iraq war, it was initially called Target: Iraq. After the war it was kept, and the reason they made it in melbourne was because David Johnstone is Melbourne based and they wanted him to present. It has nothing to do with the move in Sydney. Also while the corporate HQ for 7 is in sydney at Martin Place, the most important station in the network is Melbourne, because it is the state of the art Digital broadcast centre for the whole country, it is in Docklands.

“During the 2003 Invasion of Iraq Seven introduced an afternoon news bulletin hosted by David Johnston. The bulletin, Target Iraq, covered news from the war. After the war concluded, Seven continued the bulletin, now known as Seven’s 4:30 News. The bulletin is shown across Australia, and is the second highest rating national bulletin, second only to Ten’s Late News. Previously, the bulletin was presented from the Seven Broadcast Centre in Melbourne by Rebecca Maddern, although on 3 July 2006, the bulletin moved to the network’s News Central at Martin Place studios in Sydney, presented by Mike Amor.”

“The broadcast signal for the network arises from the digital broadcast centre in the Melbourne docklands.”

WELL I TAKE IT BOTH OF U WATCH THE 4.30 NEWS STILL?? SO IT CAN’T BE THAT BAD!!!!

No I don’t watch the 4.30 news like I used to. I only occasionally flick it on and half watch, I don’t sit down to it any more like I used to.

After I wrote to Rebecca Maddern, she returned the favour with a hand written note thanking me for my support and expressing her disappointment at her removal from the 4.30 news, and her words “That’s just TV for you!”. She also said she will be filling in for Jen Keyte on holidays etc. And she also said she hoped the small hand written note would suffice. Well it did Rebecca! It breaks my heart!

I sent it to Rebbeca Maddern, 7News Melbourne, GPO Box 4477, Melbourne, VIC 3001

oh and nines 4.30 news doesn’t air in canberra anymore, coz its too shit!!!

The background of the sydney newsroom looks awful! However, Melbournians were lucky enough to get Rebecca doing our 6pm weekend news last weekend which was just lovely.

Because Naomi is on assignment, which we all know now and why. I can’t belive 9’s tactics, I have watched both versions of events and so clearly does tt have facts and logic on their side

no

so has Kelly Connoly on National Nine Afternoon

samantha armytage replaced mike amor. you must be happy with yourself

arent you proud samantha armytage replaced mike on the 4.30 news

i bet she did!

I think you might be stalking her nick!!!!!!