Three candidates have emerged as frontrunners to switch Leigh Gross sales because the host of seven.30 – David Speers, Bridget Brennan and Sarah Ferguson – because the ABC prepares its flagship present affairs program for a brand new period.
Speers, the present host of Sunday morning’s political panel present Insiders, and Brennan, the broadcaster’s Indigenous affairs editor, are two contenders the ABC is severely contemplating alongside Ferguson, Guardian Australia understands.
ABC chiefs have approached potential hosts after Gross sales introduced on Thursday she would step down as 7.30’s anchor in late June following the federal election – some 12 years after taking on from Kerry O’Brien.
Speers, who joined the ABC from Sky Information in early 2020 when he was picked to switch longtime Insiders host Barry Cassidy, is known to be seen as a secure choice for the broadcaster.
That is partly due to his twenty years within the federal parliamentary press gallery as political editor of Sky and his popularity as a pointy interviewer.
Nevertheless, Brennan – a former Europe correspondent for the ABC based mostly in London – has already been unofficially approached about changing Gross sales.
A supply says a senior ABC determine mentioned the function with Brennan in latest days and requested her to think about throwing her hat into the ring.
Ferguson, a longtime ABC journalist who has labored as a international correspondent for the broadcaster in addition to distinguished worldwide shops, has additionally been extensively floated as a possible substitute.
Ferguson is with out a everlasting function given she has been unable to take up the place of Beijing bureau chief as a consequence of diplomatic tensions.
Laura Tingle, the veteran chief political correspondent for 7.30 who has develop into a daily fill-in host for Gross sales, shouldn't be presently understood to be a high contender.
Nevertheless, if Tingle stays in her distinguished function on 7.30 with Brennan as host, it may very well be seen to bolster the political credentials of the staff whereas gaining from Brennan’s expertise as Indigenous affairs editor.
A little bit bit speechless at @leighsales information, huge congratulations to you for an unimaginable 12 years at @abc730
Regardless of Speers’s senior standing and the very fact Brennan has not labored in a devoted political reporting function, her expertise throughout varied ABC bureaux – together with masking Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities for greater than a decade – has her well-placed to imagine the place.
Brennan – a Dja Dja Wurrung and Yorta Yorta girl – has been a daily fill-in host on ABC TV’s breakfast program since coming back from a two-year stint with the broadcaster in London.
She first joined the ABC in 2010, when she started a cadetship, earlier than transferring to its Darwin bureau.
Speers is predicated in Melbourne, the place he moved along with his household from Canberra to take the Insiders job. Gross sales has lived and labored in Sydney, the place 7.30 is filmed, nevertheless, it's understood that will not be a deciding think about choosing a brand new host.
Guardian Australia understands the ABC is unlikely to make an official resolution on Gross sales’ substitute till after the broadcaster broadcasts its new director of stories.
The ABC is but to announce who will take over from Gaven Morris greater than 4 months after he resigned after six years within the job.
Guardian Australia requested the ABC if it had a timeframe to nominate replacements for Morris and Gross sales however a spokesperson declined to remark.
Stan Grant, the ABC’s worldwide affairs analyst, and Virginia Trioli, the host of mornings on ABC radio in Melbourne and a former Information Breakfast host, have additionally been touted as potential new anchors at 7.30.
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