Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Natarsha Belling and Tim Bailey all axed as Ten cuts across the network
Ten has embarked on a number of talent cuts across its business, including Studio 10 presenters Kerri-Anne Kennerley and Natarsha Belling, and weatherman Tim Bailey.
Joe Hildebrand is reported to be in talks about his future, according to documents seen by Mumbrella.
Kennerley is one of the big names Ten has axed in the latest cuts
Mumbrella understands at least 25 roles will be impacted by the cuts. In a statement from Ten, the network confirmed staff had been advised of a restructure of its news and operations department today.
The restructure will see Sydney and Melbourne as the central locations for the weekday 10 News First bulletins, with Sydney, Brisbane and Perth all hosting their bulletins out of Sydney, and Melbourne and Adelaide taking place in Melbourne. Sandra Sully and Matt Burke will host the Sydney and Brisbane news. A new team will be announced to host the Perth news. Jennifer Keyte and Stephen Quartermain will host Melbourne and Adelaide.
Ten will also move to a national weekday weather model. A new national meteorologist will be announced soon to replace Bailey. Mike Larkan, Georgina Lewis, Josh Holt, Rebecca Morse, Will Goodings, Kate Freebairn, Michael Schultz and Monika Kos will all leave the network.
Kos joined Ten in December after being axed by Seven when it cancelled Today Tonight in Perth.
10 News First bulletins will remain locally produced and will continue to employ local reporters, news crews and operations staff in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
The changes to the Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth weekday news bulletins are expected to be effective from Monday, September 14.
National weekend bulletins will not be affected and The Project will also not be impacted by the changes.
Studio 10 will continue to air weekdays from 8am to midday, but Kennerley and Belling will be leaving. The other presenters, Sarah Harris and Angela Bishop, will stay on, Denise Drysdale, Denise Scott and Jono Coleman will continue as contributors, Narelda Jacobs will still present the news. Ten has advised more changes will come to Studio 10 in the coming weeks.
The Studio 10 is getting a shake-up
Kennerley is no stranger to controversy and has been cleared by ACMA in the past for inflammatory comments she has made on air.
Ten’s network director of news content, Ross Dagan, said: “The decision to make these changes was a very difficult one and I want to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to our friends and colleagues who will leave the network.
“It is in no way a reflection of their talent, contribution or passion. They are exceptionally gifted people. We are incredibly proud of them and their work. There is no doubt they will be missed.
“These painful changes reflect the state of the media industry in recent years and the need for all media companies to achieve new efficiencies.
“While our viewers in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth will see some on-air changes, we will continue to produce local news and employ local reporters, camera operators and production staff in those cities,” he said.
Beverley McGarvey, chief content officer and EVP, Viacom CBS Australia and New Zealand, said: “These decisions are not being made lightly, however, they are essential to future-proofing our business.”
A redundancy program has commenced in Ten’s news and operations department and it isn’t yet clear how many roles will be impacted.
Ten also made a number of cuts earlier this year when it merged its sales team with that of parent company ViacomCBS. The network posted a $226m loss earlier this year and warned the worst was still to come considering the stresses of COVID-19. But the network says it has been happy with the performance of its content and that the second half of 2020 and 2021 would be focused on growth.
Ten CEO Paul Anderson stepped down earlier this year and won’t be replaced. The network also closed its digital platform 10 Daily.
A new multi-channel, 10 Shake, is on the horizon for the network with September earmarked for its launch.
topics
Joe Hildebrand
Kerri-Anne Kennerley
Natarsha Belling
redundancies
Studio 10
television
Ten
Tim Bailey
TV
They’ve come for Tim Bailey. This is a step too far, Channel Ten.
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Wow. Surprised Hildebrand is still “in discussions”. I would have thought 10 would take any opportunity to let him go. Perhaps he thinks his payout isn’t big enough.
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History shows that every 4-5 years Ten will gut it’s news department and centralise to Sydney or Melbourne to save money, then after a few months, once the audience in the regional markets like Brisbane, adelaide and Perth have collapsed and they have no lead in audience for Peak, they panic and try and patch together a local service again.
Once again another sad day for local presenters, jobs and content.
Unfortunately News has never been really taken seriously by Ten so has always been poorly resourced and run on the smell of an oily rag. They have only done it because they wanted to look like a grown up network. They should just bite the bullet, send Sandra Sully to Sky News and then let them produce a bulletin to run on Ten instead…..
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Not a surprise – can networks finally move away from weather being about entertainment? What annoyed me about Sydney’s weather is Bailey promoting his photo segment, and rushing through the actual weather so the graphic was the 7 day forecast was shown for 2 seconds……I am glad 10 are finally moving away from this and can actually focus on content.
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COULD NINE SIGN THOSE TEN PEOPLE THAT WERE MADE REDUNDANT FROM TN
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News is an area where the networks should be increasing their investment given Covid. Channel Ten for a long time had the Adelaide news presented out of Melbourne and the same for Perth if my memory serves me correctly. To also cut the Brisbane news is taking it a step too far.I’m sure they could find the savings elsewhere away from news.
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Tim Bailey has been on ten forever sad too see him go good luck for the future
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This is a huge mistake, Ratings will suffer & viewers will switch off Channel 10 in protest. Ten Management only have themselves to blame. Huge Mistake It is like 1990, 2012-18 All Over Again, This is absolutely terrible. Feeling for all of those who lost their jobs, A very sad day for Australian Television.
One wonders what Former 10 News Presenter Mal Walden has to say about all of this?
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Any job cuts are regrettable, and having been on the end of a redundancy myself, I feel for those affected. But to be brutally frank, it makes more sense to let a relatively small number of highly-paid presenters go (some of whom are realistically past their use by date), rather than a much higher number of lower paid journalists, camerapeople , editors and other news staff who actually create the content. Yes, it’s a very tough call – but FTA and the rest of the media sector is in a very tough place , with the situation not likely to improve anytime soon, if at all.
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Surely if you were going to take an axe to News & Current Affairs it would be to The Project? Talk about ‘non-essential’ garbage
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This is devastating. So much experience and talent just cast aside.
Even more sadly, many of those made redundant are women who, in my view, have only just been allowed to step out of the shadows of the stereotypical male anchorman in the last couple of decades to prove once and for all that they can deliver the news just as well (or even better) than their male counterparts.
The likes of Georgina Lewis, Monika Kos, Rebecca Morse and of course Natarsha Belling have all been tremendous assets who brought much needed journalistic credibility to the network. Their respective departures will clearly be noticed by viewers.
As for the network withdrawing studio production from the smaller metro markets and centralising in Sydney and Melbourne (surprise, surprise), it’s just handing their competitors in each of those markets ammunition to claim Network 10 has abandoned their viewers, and to claim that their own talking heads actually live locally, where they’re seen on television each night
I can see the promos now, with the all Nine and Seven newsreaders standing in front of local landmarks, parroting a “we live here” mantra…
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As usual the people in charge believe that Australia consists of two state only – Sydney & Melbourne.
Why werent the Sydney & Melbourne journalists given the boot & those shows produced & anchored in Adelaide & Perth???
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All I need for the weather report is a number representing the top temperature and a picture of the sun, clouds or rain. Not a three minute segment outlining the location of every high and low air pressure cell within 10000kms. I don’t even need to know when the sun rises or sets – I can predict that myself. As for the timing of the high tide – I live in Surry Hills.
I definitely don’t need an outside broadcast with some guy yelling at me. No offence.
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Getting rid of The Daily Bailey???
Why not just shoot Bambi live on TV?
You don’t get rid of national treasures, Ten.
Things must be REALLY rotten over there.
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I would say 10 was watching the performance of Masked Singer closely, as they probably sunk a small fortune into the talent.
It does not look like that gamble paid off: https://mumbrella.com.au/tens-the-masked-singer-drops-30-for-the-premiere-of-its-second-season-638278
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its all just a little bit of history repeating
Except this time the knives are sharper
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Will miss Tim Bailey he is such a fun personality will miss his ‘knee knocking’ weather comments. Good luck Tim.
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It’s a shame for all those job losses some skills will be lost forever but unfortunately at the end of the day like all big companies it’s all about money viewers will switch off Channel 10 in a protest they’re discuss shame on you Channel 10
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Past their use by date says who? Skilled people with 25 years of experience over the latest hiring Yeah seems to be working out well for ten….
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it is always the same old story .it is all about making Money at the expense of the workers who put their Heart @ Soul into their job without getting acknowledgement from their Bosses at the Top. Is it not about time that people at the helm started to look at themselves?You know the saying Where Money Talks People Listen. I know myself what it is like to be without a job.Good luck to KAK.Natasha and the others.
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I am so very sad to see Natarsha Belling axed. Natarsha is one of the brighter personalities on the show and is very believable when serious as well as lighthearted. It is such a shame that other reporters who have not been at Channel 10 as long or are as credible as Natarsha have managed to keep their jobs
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