Monty moves on as Nova breakfast changes again
Nova Sydney’s breakfast show has gone through its fifth change in just over three years with the departure of Katie ‘Monty’ Dimond from the Merrick, Dools & Monty lineup.
The show has gone from one of the most stable breakfast lineups in the country to one of the fastest changing.
The original lineup of Merrick Watts and Tim Ross began with the launch of the station in 2001. In 2008 Kate Ritchie was added to the lineup.
Rosso announced he was going to leave the show in late 2009, with Ritchie also departing.
The show was then rebooted with Watts joined by Ricki-Lee Coulter and Scott Dooley from the start of 2010.
Coulter was then dropped the following October and replaced by Monty who started in the slot about five months ago.
After being off air with what was first thought to be ill health, Dimond later revealed that she was pregnant.
In a statement, Monty said of her move to the weekend slot: “ This is the perfect opportunity for me right now, to continue with Nova on my own national show and have lots of time for my new family.”
David Borean, Nova 969’s GM, said: “This move allows Monty to enjoy her pregnancy whilst still fulfilling her passion for radio, and remain part of the Nova family during this time and beyond.”
The station said that the Merrick & Dools show will be back on air at the end of the month.
Despite the instability over the lineup, the show has had a high profile year, driven by Dools’ friendship with actor Charlie Sheen.
In the last survey of 2009 Merrick and Rosso rated 10.5%. The breakfast show now rates 6.4%.
What’s going on at Pyrmont?
Is there something in the pellegrino?
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Ahh, I love that argument SoundsSimilar but what you fail to mention as this was the only survey for the year that they rated a 10 and was probably on the back of the announcment that it was all over. The rest of the year they were stale and in the 8’s.
Nova want to be number 1 and they will tweak that brekky show until it is. They may have taken a little step backwards in ratings but it’s all so they have a chance of taking a big step forward.
Remember Judith Lucy rated a 4 on 2day before they managed to get it right with Kyle and Jackie. Watch that nova space me thinks.
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The fact is Merrick doesn’t work well without Rosso, it’s a little bit awkward…and not as good.
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