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Jim Wilson joins wife Chris Bath in Seven News revamp

Update: Changes coming to Seven News Sydney, with speculation about its Melbourne bulletin too.

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Sports presenter Jim Wilson is set to join wife Chris Bath as part of a revamp of Seven’s Sydney news with Tony Squires to shift to Sunday Night.

The Daily Telegraph reports the changes will take place post-Olympics in a bid to compete with Nine News. It is believed to be the first time a married couple has anchored an Australian news bulletin.

“I’m excited about working with someone who’s equally as passionate about news. Chris is an incredible talent and gets live TV and news,” Wilson said.

“She’s down to earth, funny and cares about the viewer.”

The couple, who married in January, are both in London during the Olympics.

But Nine News is due to claim the year in weeks won on Saturday, and has already claimed the same win in Melbourne.

Meanwhile The Australian speculates that Seven News Melbourne director Steve Carey may move to a new role with former Herald Sun editor Simon Pristel a potential candidate to replace him.

More boldly, it also hints that change may impact on presenter Peter Mitchell. Update: A Seven spokesperson told TV Tonight, “The reference to our primetime newsreader is categorically wrong. There is no basis in fact.”

11 Responses

  1. “She’s down to earth, funny and cares about the viewer.”

    She’s a talking head for heavens sake.She’s not a reporter, she reads whats written for her.

  2. The reality is that the main difference between Nine and sevens news is the newsreader. We have not had either station dominate since the 2 Brians. When Nine poached Brian Naylor from seven Melbourne years ago they dominated for 20 odd years.Nine or Seven do not have a true star newsreader in either Sydney or Melbourne. If Chris and Jim work in Sydney maybe Nine could get Jessica Rowe to co read with husband Peter Overton.

  3. I don’t really watch commercial news but Seven want to replace Steve Carey with The Sun guy who has been pushed out for being too tabloid? Don’t really get that at all unless they want to take Melbourne news in that direction…..dumb it down.

  4. I couldn’t be happier that Tony has been given the boot. He drags the bulletin down to an idiots level – very unprofessional for a news bulletin…

  5. David, Do you know if this means Jim / Chris will co-anchor in Sydney on weeknights (and Saturdays, too?) or will it mean one of them with solo-anchor split between Mon to Sat, with Tony covering Sundays? Be interested to know – and sorry if it’s obvious and I haven’t picked up on it yet.
    As for 7 News in Melbourne – I think whoever is calling the shots there would be wise to think Very carefully before messing around too much with the current presenting mix, with Peter Mitchell at the helm and to my mind doing a more than solid job. As you’ve covered this week, Nine News have already taken the official ratings year over 7 News for the first time in a few years but a) I believe it’s a pretty close race and b) if the preceding show was a clear ratings winner in the 17.30 slot then I think the 6pm battle would be ever tighter…

  6. “It is believed to be the first time a married couple has anchored an Australian news bulletin.”

    Although there was newsreader Jo Pearson and weather man Rob Gell during the golden days of Eyewitness News in the ’80s.

  9. I like Tony Squires reading sport, he brings a cheeky humour and charm to the bulliten. I think it’s going to take a lot more than a change or sports presenter to fix Sydney’s Seven News.

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