Hitch rises above technical hitches
Nine News presenter Peter Hitchener rose to the challenge when the teleprompter went down during a live read.
- Published by David Knox
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Melbourne’s Nine News presenter Peter Hitchener rose to the challenge yesterday when the Teleprompter went down during a live news read.
The Teleprompter failed during the very first item but the experienced Hitchener managed to switch to his notes mid-sentence. Just as he had done while being upstaged by a seagull on screen in 2009, he saved what could have been a disaster.
The technical hitch even lasted all through the news items for the night, not being rectified until the Sport segment.
“Thanks for your patience tonight during a couple of our computer problems,” Hitchener told viewers, “and now I’m going to hand the baton over to Tony Jones with Sport.”
But while Teleprompters can fail without notice for the best of them, more concerning for Nine was yet another glimpse of the Sydney News, with Peter Overton’s voice telling Melbourne viewers about the lead Sydney stories at the top of the bulletin.
This is the fourth error in weeks, not counting a visual glimpse of the Sydney team packing up at the end of last night’s bulletin, before A Current Affair began.
Nine’s technical crew needs to better support its on-air team who are clearly soldiering on in the face of too many challenges.
And the lesson for all news presenters: never go on air without your notes.
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27 Responses
I didnt see it but switching mid sentence would not be easy.
And if you wanna see how some handle it how about Bill O’reilly
keepbusy.net/play.php?id=bill-oreilly-vs-teleprompter
Stupid story!
I work in TV and no presenter ever goes on camera without backup scripts – for this very reason!
Nice of you to blame the people behind the scenes too… Who do you think makes these talking heads look good in the first place!
@Keeping it real… If it were that easy, it wouldn’t have stumped so many before him!
@Keeping it real
….Infront of 300,000+ people. But hey I suppose you’d know all about it. He did well, there’s nothing wrong with praise buddy.
Good on ya Pete. People may be commenting here that him switching to his notes is not news but you’d be surprised how easily flustered some newsreaders get during technical difficulties like that. The reason he commands respect is that he’s professional.
Big deal…. I can’t believe people think Peter did something fantastic… It’s not that hard or stressful with or without an autocue. All your doing is reading… It’s not that hard!
Good on you Peter, the consumate professional. They could throw anything at Pete and he’d get through it.
its a script. not notes and i hardly thinks its news that he did his job.
In australia we usually use the term “autocue”
The best newsreader ever!!
Peter Hitchener should definately replace Peter Overton in Sydney.
Peter Hitchener is much warm & welcoming than Peter Overton.
You are lucky Melbourne to have such a lovely newsrearder.
Tracy Grimshaw read her notes at the start of ACA last night. The auto-cue mustn’t have been working for ACA either.
I love the way Mat can fit exactly a week’s worth of Channel 9 technical errors into the spelling of one sentence.
Are problems with openers occurring with the Brisbane news as well? Or is it just Melbourne? If it’s just Melbourne, it would seem to be tied in with the Docklands move. If it’s happening in other places then the problem would seem to be the Sydney playout centre.
All done from Sydney.
Melbourne should have Sydney’s news, unless underworld figures are shooting each other, nothing important happen there.
there seem to be lots of technical hiccups on 9 news melb, another is very loud innapropriate music playing over the stories that are obviously a mistake because the music has been jerked off mid-sentence twice this week. there are also times when they go live to a reporter and it takes 10seconds for sound to come out their moving lips.
I thought it was funny how Peter blamed the move to Docklnads for the incorrect opners. TCN9 in Sydeny is at fault and thats why it shouldnt be from Sydney.
Probably just part of the move from Bendigo St. to Docklands. Sometimes the gremlins can attack. With regard to Hitchener, No big deal, on his salary ($800,000?) he should be able to read notes or autocues forward or backwards or even underwater if necessary without a hitch. (excuse the pun)
Hitch is the utmost pro at his game! Your awsome Peter.
Petes been a newsreader for decades,he is a true professional.I have watched Nine News myself for decades and to me there news service is the best,but of course technical hitches do happen sometimes.Its not the end of the world,nothing or no one is perfect in life 24/7.Also love how Peter always has a giggle with Livinia Nixon (Weather) at the end of bulletin.
And This is why I don’t watch Nine news
Do you think a swear word would pass Hitch’s lips? Surely not!
he did a great job last night. Unfortunately those tech probs are getting quite frequent as you said. The move to the new studio perhaps?
Onya Pete! 😀
It must be funny to see newsreaders looking down at their notes. I bet some viewers are surprised they don’t remember all their scripts ‘ like they normally do’!