Nine News Sydney

Nine News Sydney is the weeknight, flagship news bulletin of the Nine Network. It is screened in Sydney, and across New South Wales each night.

Nine News
GenreNews
Presented byNews:
Peter Overton (Sun-Thurs)
Georgie Gardner (Fri & Sat) Sport:
Cameron Williams (Sun-Thurs)
Erin Molan (Fri & Sat)
Weather:
Amber Sherlock (Sun-Thurs)
Belinda Russell (Fri & Sat)
Theme music composerFrank Gari
Opening themeCool Hand Luke: The "Tar Sequence" by Lalo Schifrin
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
Production
Production locationsSydney, NSW
Running timeOne hour (including commercials)
Release
Original networkNine Network
Picture format576i (SDTV)
1080i (HDTV)
Original release1956 (as Channel 9 News)
1970 (as National Nine News)
1976 (as 9 Eyewitness News)
1980 (as National Nine News)
2008 (as Nine News) 
present
External links
Website

Like all Nine News bulletins, the Sydney bulletin runs for one hour.[1] from 6pm every day. It covers the day's latest local, national and international news, as well as sport, weather and finance.

History

Reporter Laura Tunstall interviewing a rail officer at Sydney Olympic Park.

The Sydney bulletin was presented by Brian Henderson from 1964 until his retirement in November 2002,[2][3] with then-Sunday presenter Jim Waley[3] taking over in early 2003.[4]

In 2005, despite the fact that National Nine News Sydney continued to retain its long-standing ratings lead over Ten Eyewitness News Sydney and Seven News Sydney in the 2003-4 ratings seasons, Waley was replaced with then-weekend presenter Mark Ferguson. In 2004, National Nine News Sydney won only 27 out of a possible 40 ratings weeks.[5] Following this, the 6pm bulletin started to lose its long-time ratings lead to the rival Seven News Sydney.

Mike Munro was the previous weekend news presenter, until he resigned from the Nine Network in July 2008. He presented his last bulletin on Sunday 26 October 2008. He was replaced by Michael Usher.

In January 2009, Mark Ferguson was replaced as weeknight presenter by Peter Overton. Ferguson returned to his weekend news presenting position, which he previously held during Jim Waley's stint as weeknight presenter.

In July 2009, it was revealed that weekend news presenter Mark Ferguson would move to Seven News from October. Ferguson, who had been with Nine for 17 years, was removed immediately from the Sydney weekend bulletin and was replaced by Georgie Gardner. Ferguson continued to present Nine Afternoon News bulletin on until his contract expired in September 2009.

Mike Bailey presented weather forecasts on Fridays and Saturdays, until he was sacked in early 2009. Jaynie Seal, who had previously presented weather from Sunday to Thursday, returned to weekday weather presenting. In February 2010, Nine announced that Natalie Gruzlewski will be presenting the weather from Monday to Thursday and also filing lifestyle and entertainment reports for Nine News with Seal presenting weather on Friday to Sunday.

Nine News Sydney is also broadcast to southern and central New South Wales & the ACT in addition to local Nine News bulletins. It is presented from the Nine Network's TCN-9 Studio 1.

On 6 January 2014, all Nine national channels permanently extended their 6pm news service to one hour pushing A Current Affair into the 7pm timeslot.[1]

In November 2017, it was announced that Georgie Gardner had been appointed co-host of Today replacing Lisa Wilkinson. Deborah Knight has been announced as Gardner's successor presenting Nine News Sydney on Friday and Saturday nights.

In January 2019, it was announced that Deborah Knight had been appointed co-host of Today replacing Karl Stefanovic.

In January 2020, Georgie Gardner returned to front the weekend bulletin, replacing Deborah Knight who went on to hosting the radio drive show on 2GB.

Current presenters

Current presenters
Role Bulletins
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
News Peter Overton (since January 2009) Georgie Gardner (July 2009 - December 2017 & since January 2020)
Sports Cameron Williams (since December 2016) Erin Molan (since February 2016)
Weather Amber Sherlock (since April 2011) Belinda Russell (since 2013)

Fill-in presenters

The weekend (Friday and Saturday) team are generally the predominant substitutes for the weeknight bulletin. Mark Burrows and Jayne Azzopardi are the main fill-in news presenters. Julie Snook is the main fill-in sport presenter, while Natalia Cooper has presented the weather on various occasions if neither Amber Sherlock or Belinda Russell are available.

Previous presenters

Note: The current roster for the presenters on Nine News Sydney is the main team present Sunday-Thursday (classified as the Weeknight team below) and the secondary team present Fridays and Saturdays (classed as Weekends below). This was not always the case.

Weeknights

Weekends

Sport

Weekend Sport:

Weather

Weekend Weather:

Reporters

News

Sport

  • Jelisa Apps
  • Luke Dufficy
  • Jake Duke
  • Danika Mason
  • Danny Wielder

Ratings

The bulletin was traditionally by far the most popular service in New South Wales. However, when long-serving anchor, Brian Henderson retired at the end of 2002,[3] and Nine heavyweight Ian Ross defected to Seven at the end of 2003, ratings quickly declined; this is despite Nine outrating Ten and Seven during Jim Waley's tenure in 2003–04. This showed with Nine winning only 27 out of a possible 40 weeks in 2004.[5] Nine replaced Jim Waley with a much younger presenter, Mark Ferguson, then aged just 38.[4] Whilst ratings were starting to slightly increase, the bulletin slipped to third, behind both Seven News and ABC News. Following a dismal 2008, not winning a single week in Sydney (a far cry from five years ago when it won every single week), Ferguson was relegated back to the weekend position and replaced by Peter Overton. For his first month, ratings slipped to fourth, behind Ten News at Five, before quickly catching up to trail ABC News.[6][7][8] However, towards the end of 2009, Nine's ratings started to improve, with this surge in viewership coinciding with the retirement of Ian Ross as the anchor of the rival Seven News Sydney.[9][10]

In July 2020, Nine News Sydney claimed victory in the ratings for the tenth consecutive year.[11]

References

  1. Kalina, Paul; Ellis, Scott (6 January 2014). "Nine quietly switches to hour-long news". The Age. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  2. Knox, David (24 November 2014). "New cancer battle for Brian Henderson". TV Tonight. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  3. Tabakoff, Jenny; Peatling, Stephanie (22 October 2002). "That's the way it is - Hendo to call it a night". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  4. Mascarenhas, Alan (21 January 2005). "Nine dumps Jim Waley". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  5. "Life after Jim Waley at Nine". Crikey. 23 January 2005. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  6. "Dumped anchor Mark Ferguson 'loathes' replacement Peter Overton". News.com.au. 15 January 2009. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  7. "Peter Overton is bad news for Channel Nine's ratings". News.com.au. 16 January 2009. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  8. "Overton has to lift Nine ratings". News.com.au. 12 April 2009. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  9. "Peter Overton's ratings finally paying off for Nine". News.com.au. 30 September 2009. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  10. Byrnes, Holly (3 December 2009). "Seven's Chris Bath lags behind Nine's Peter Overton in latest TV news ratings". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  11. "Simon Hobbs - Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
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