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Extra ideas at QTQ

Nine's Heather Foord, who is leaving the Brissy newsdesk, may wind up at Extra.

Despite her departure from QTQ9’s newsdesk, Heather Foord could return as presenter of Brisbane’s 5:30pm Extra next year with its host Jillian Whiting redeployed to Nine News.

With Extra being pre-recorded, the set-up would suit Foord (pictured), a mother of four, who wants to spend more time with her daughter.

Last week Melissa Downes was announced as Foord’s replacement for the weeknight bulletin, didn’t News boss Lee Anderson didn’t rule out the speculation about Foord taking over Extra next year.

“At the moment, the main thing for Heather is being home with the kids after school,” Mr Anderson said. “We’re tossing a lot of things around and hopefully in the course of next week, we’ll have a few things finalised.

“With regards to Jillian, again we’re sorting through all the positions. We’re having a look at everything, basically, and we’re certainly trying to find something for Heather in the mix.”

QTQ’s summer line-up will see Rob Readings and Eva Milic present news Monday to Friday, and Lisa Backhouse doing weekends.

Despite being beaten by rival Channel 7 for the seven-day news ratings battle, Mr Anderson said he was pleased with Nine’s official end-of-year results, to be announced today.

Extra continues to defeat Deal or No Deal in Brisbane while Sydney and Melbourne stations are looking at new ideas for the 5:30 timeslot in 2009.

Source: news.com.au

8 Responses

  1. Craig here’s some figures.

    September 12 2006 (week of John’s departure from 9)
    7 News- 309,000
    NNN- 322,000

    Then a year later, about nine months after John signed with 7.
    September 11 2007
    7 News- 280,000
    NNN- 218,000

    This year…
    September 9 2008
    7 News- 325,000
    NNN- 266,000

    Now do you see the corralation?

  2. oh please, Kuttsywood, you cant seriously explan sevens news dominance this year based on the weather presenter, hes good, but hes not responsible for 7 news dominating the year…

  3. The 40 week streak, is referring to the 6pm news.
    I remember hearing from a friend early last week, that 9 was still leading in Brisbane (minus the Beijing Games) and was actually tipped to win the year, with the confirmation being Lee Anderson being pleased with the results.
    As for Rob, I expect that he’s only there so the older demographic of viewers can turn back the tide.
    People aren’t watching 7 for Kay or Rod. They are watching for John…
    (If you were a Brissie resident, you would understand.)

  4. If the success of Extra in Brisbane tells us anything it is that lead in arent the be all and end all, while Extra may win the 5.30pm slot on Nine, Brisbane is probably sevens second strongest market (after Perth) at the moment, so a lot of those extra viewers are changing channel to 7 news at 6pm it would seem

  5. Not a bad lurk for Rob Readings.

    He got boned by Eddie in 2006, got a nice payout (I assume), did a bit of freelance (popped up on Seven at one stage doing a week of special reports) and now appears to have got his job back.

    No wonder PBL has debt issues when they are making redundancy payments and then rehiring the supposedly redundant.

    Unfortunately Rob has autocue issues. i.e. reading sentences with full stops where there aren’t any, adding full stops unexpectedly and often reading the wrong word completely. OK for a minor local bulletin, but I wouldn’t have thought it would be good enough for the state bulletin.

    I’d let Eva go solo.

    Evan :->

  6. mmm, Seven bet nine in Brisbane all 40 weeks this ratings year and the nine news boss is “pleased” with the performance…interesting…he’ll be down there giddy if they actually win a week next year.
    Interesting goings on at Nine in Brisbane at the moment, I think Jillian will end up on weekends, I wouldnt be surprised if the annoucement in the next week that is referred to is that Bruce Paige is stepping down (ie. being pushed) from his weeknight position, somethng tells me Andrew Lofthouse who Nine have poached from the ABC will be in Bruces’ chair next year..

  7. Given that Extra is doing so well in Brisbane, wouldn’t that be a solution for their 5.30 dilemma in Sydney and Melbourne? I know Sydney Extra and Melbourne Extra were tried some years ago, but the longevity and popularity of the Brisbane show would indicate the format might not be a lost cause down south.

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