Melissa Downes


Melissa Downes (born 17 September 1973)[1][2] is an Australian broadcast journalist.

Melissa Downes
Born (1973-09-17) 17 September 1973
Brisbane, Queensland
EducationUniversity of Queensland
OccupationNews presenter
EmployerNine Network
TelevisionNine News
Spouse(s)DJ Wendt
Children2

Downes is currently a co-presenter of Nine News Queensland alongside Andrew Lofthouse.

Career

Downes first worked with Seven Brisbane where she was a reporter, fill-in presenter and also co-hosted a live 5pm local magazine show.

After joining Nine Brisbane in 2001, Downes reported on the road and acted as fill-in weekend presenter before assuming that role full-time in 2006. She has also worked as a reporter for local magazine show Saturday Extra and a presenter of QTQ-9's Nine Gold Coast News bulletin.

In November 2008, Downes replaced Heather Foord as presenter of Nine News Queensland weeknight bulletin alongside Bruce Paige (and later Andrew Lofthouse from June 2009 onwards).[3] Her appointment came at a time in which the bulletin had lost its long-standing ratings lead in the Brisbane market, Nine News Queensland having finished second behind the rival Seven News Brisbane for the second year in a row, as well as losing all 40 ratings weeks in 2008.[4] However, in recent years Nine News Queensland has regained the lead locally, winning 21 out of 40 weeks in 2013.[5]

Personal life

Early life

Born and raised in Brisbane, Downes graduated from Somerville House in 1988.[6] She moved to Sydney to model for two years before returning to Brisbane to complete an Arts Journalism degree at the University of Queensland.

Family

Downes is married to DJ Wendt, owner of music group The Ten Tenors. The couple have two daughters.

References
  1. "Melissa Downes". The Who's Who of News. National Nine News. Archived from the original on 5 October 2006. Retrieved 17 March 2008.
  2. "Thank you for the all the birthday wishes and thanks to this woman Carole Haddad Corcorz Hair who's about to hide the evidence of how old I really am!!!". Facebook. 17 September 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  3. Shearer, Geoff (17 June 2009). "Broom sweeps through Channel Nine as Bruce Paige quits". news.com.au. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  4. Knox, David (28 November 2008). "Melissa for weeknights on Nine". TV Tonight. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  5. Knox, David (19 November 2013). "Nail biter in Brisbane news battle". TV Tonight. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  6. "Melissa Downes, Presenter Brisbane News Team - 9News". www.9news.com.au. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
Media offices
Preceded by
Jillian Whiting		 Nine News Queensland
Weekend presenter
2006 – December 2008		 Succeeded by
Andrew Lofthouse & Eva Milic
Preceded by
Heather Foord		 Nine News Queensland
Weeknight presenter
with Andrew Lofthouse
January 2009 – present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent


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