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Kellie Connolly speaks up

Former Nightline presenter Kellie Connolly makes some startling claims on network attitudes to women that she encountered at Nine.

Former Nightline presenter Kellie Connolly has spoken about her years working for the Nine Network and despite some startling claims says she leaves with “no regrets, no enemies and no bitterness.”

Writing for The Sunday Mail, she even says she wanted out.

“In fact I’d even asked for a redundancy eight months before and had been rejected,” she claims.

“Nine’s newsroom is a younger on-air mix these days. The style of 6pm news is more like the A Current Affair of five years ago. But, in between the live crosses and all the razzle dazzle, there’s less space for important information. The 6pm News has become fast food. They’re easy to digest, but short of nutrition.

“I make that generalisation with a waiver. Nine’s experienced journalists could still teach many ABC reporters a thing or two about story-telling, speed and delivery.”

But she also says young women in the industry are still being told they could lose a kilo or two.

“A gorgeous wannabe reporter recently told me she’d been given the card of a cosmetic surgeon to plump up one side of her lip because it seemed a bit smaller than the other side.”

Connolly notes of her first role as host of the network’s Money program her journalistic talents were not nearly as important as appearance.

“I returned early from a shoot one day to find the camera crews discussing how to film me in a more flattering light. The bosses on the third floor thought I was too fat. It was humiliating.

“I was an average-weight girl – a size 12 and quite tall – but, in lifestyle television back then, that was huge.

“It was decided I would be shot from the waist up and that perhaps I should join a gym.”

In one startling claim, she writes: “The advice bordered on ridiculous at times. For the Logies, we were all told to remove our undies, because Nine girls were classy and had no VPL (visible panty line).”

It should be noted that Connolly’s stint on Money was some time ago.

After working for the ABC, Connolly joined Nine in 1997 as a reporter for both A Current Affair and Money. The latter aired as a regular weekly series from 1993 to 2002 and as occasional specials from 2002 to 2006.

Connolly, who left Nine last month when Nightline was axed, says her on-air collapse while hosting the Today show in 2007 followed a miscarriage.

She was given notice by Mark Calvert on the same day she discovered she was pregnant.

“Mark Calvert is the network’s director of news and current affairs. A formal meeting was unusual. A phone call to his PA confirmed the meeting was to be on the third floor in the small boardroom. I knew then exactly where I stood.

“We jokingly referred to that place as the “boning room”. Sure enough, as I walked in, I saw the HR official and the faces of my two bosses.

“They told me my show, Nightline, was being axed and I was being made redundant. They were sorry. I asked about my colleagues. They would be kept on.”

You can read more of her feature at the Sunday Mail

16 Responses

  1. I will really miss you Kellie… I used to look forward to my fix of Kellie on nightline every night. By far, the most beautiful and classiest woman on Australian TV…. and with a brain. Well and truly under rated. Forget Jennifer Hawkins, I would rather see Kellie. I sorely miss those eyes and slight mischievous smile.
    Nine.. what were you thinking.

  2. Good on you Kellie for telling it like it is, Ch 9 and also other channels all disgard women as quickly as changing your undies! I think its about time the Old guys on the telly get the some treatment !!! After all we are only human and no one should loose there job if there is no good reason to warrant there dismissal !!!

  3. Kellie is saying exactly what I have been saying about Nine News for some time. It certainly does seem like it has turned into what ACA was five years ago, while ACA has become a cross between Entertainment Tonight and the old Midday Show.

  4. @chk chk, I guess you could say that. It’s a bit of a generalisation but in Sydney the North Shore is a more affluent area than say the west, so you could say in the North Shore they sound more posh than in the west where they have more Aussie accents. Hope that answers your question.

  5. Really strange that Kelly isn’t still at nine – she very much comes across as a nine personality. She would make a.good sunrise/ morning show/ seven news fill in….

  6. Kellie was a great newsreader much better than Wendy Kingston and I miss Nightline as well, what happened to their commitment to news, shame on ch 9 for letting her go.

    @ Bob I didn’t know north shore people had different accents…

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