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Roscoe’s final week

As Ian Ross hands over the reins to Chris Bath in Sydney, retirement is surely a much easier PR job than boning your newsreader.

ian rossEarlier this year Nine News in Sydney unceremoniously dumped Mark Ferguson from its 6pm weeknight news to install Peter Overton.

It was so poorly handled that the audience backlash has been ricocheting with the network ever since.

Seven is determined not to make the same mistake as Ian Ross exits his chair this Friday night.

On Thursday, full-page ads marking the transition from Ross to Bath will run in the Sydney papers. On Friday Bath will be in the studio to take the baton. Of course, for Seven it has the luxury of a retirement rather than boning someone from their current role. As PR tasks goes, it’s far more do-able.

‘Roscoe’ as he  is fondly known, told The Australian he was satisfied to be leaving now after being lured back to television in 2003.

“I just think the time is perfect now for me to go and let Chris take over,” he says. “I wanted to go on my terms. I wanted to go while we were still winning, and I have no reason to think we won’t continue to win. I wanted to go while I feel fit and healthy and strong. I’d rather go now than hang around too long and have people say ‘poor old Roscoe has lost it’.”

He also indicated his salary hit $1m after Seven News beat Nine News in 2005. For every year he stayed on it kept going up.

Bath will also take a five week holiday after just two weeks, leaving it highly likely that Mark Ferguson will go head to head with the 6pm weeknight news on Nine.

Source: The Australian

7 Responses

  1. Does Roscoe live on/near the Gold Coast? Would love to bump into him he is amazing! He deserves the biggest send off 7 has ever given anybody (cant remember the last?) as 7news is indebted to Roscoe.
    Bring on Chris! Just wondering why she would take her break a few weeks into starting her new perm. gig? And right when the Tennis is on giving her an inflated audience? Sounds like a stupid move but what would I know, television executives know what they are doing.

  2. Retirement… As far as I know, Roscoe’s still got a year to run.

    Seven have recently also opened new facilities on the Gold Coast, with plans to introduce a GC service in the future. It’d be funny, if Seven convinced Ross to anchor any new Gold Coast bulletin, after all, wouldn’t a job that’s closer to home suit Ross better?

  3. Mr Ian Ross , is Awsome , He has been great , He has been great for seven news and channel 7 , He has done a great job since takeing on seven news , I wish Ian all the best , I will miss seeing him on tv , Ian Ross is awsome ,

  4. Ian Ross was/is an awesome news reader, and my fav, it’ll be sad not seeing him on my tv screen at 6pm. But Chris Bath is just as awesome. As long as Sara and Alex stay on, im happy 🙂

  5. The thing I don’t like about Chris Bath is that she’s been overexposed on tv. She’s on practically every day and sometimes twice when she does the 430pm news aswell. Plus she also hosts sunday night. If she wasn’t on tv so much I might not mind her taking over the reigns as 7’s sole weekday news reader, but I’d much prefer someone else like Ann Sanders, or Chris Reason.

  6. at least they are giving him a good send off. he most certiantly deserves it.

    interesting that chris will take 5 weeks off. thats the start of the tennis (???) when she returns. sydney knows her so not a big worry but 5 weeks seems a ong time to be away. sayingt hat peter overton must be owed about 3 months of annual leave so he wont be there at all.

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