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The day networks prepared for, had finally arrived…

Black attire, pre-recorded packages and broadcast plans were put in action on Friday, as Australia woke up to sad news.

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Seven News sent a press release at 4:30am Friday morning.

HM Queen Elizabeth II had died. Sunrise was on air with rolling coverage with David Koch and Natalie Barr.

It followed a night of CNN International coverage and before that Seven News: The Latest with live crosses to the UK by Angela Cox until 12:30am when there were still ‘concerns’ for her health.

By 4:30am presenters were in black attire to reflect the sombre news, confirmed around 3:30am Australian time that the monarch had passed.

Seven News boss Craig McPherson told The Guardian,“Our long-term planning included prerecorded obituaries, right down to the finer details, like mourning dress for all our on-air talent and special breaking news graphics.”

Nine had late night updates on Thursday night and broke in with BBC News at 3:30am with the Today Show hosts Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon on air in blacks at 4:30am.

ABC News also had late night live updates on Thursday, including beyond midnight.

News Breakfast hosts, Michael Rowland and Lisa Millar were also in blacks for live coverage. Memorial packages had been prepared in advance.

“We had packages ready but as the news broke just before we came on air we actually didn’t go to many packages. We just focused on live pictures from Balmoral Castle, live pictures of the people streaming to Buckingham Palace and live interviews. We wanted to give our viewers a flavour of the fast-moving events,” Rowland said.

10’s Sandra Sully also fronted an early morning 10 News First update, with Charlotte Goodlet covering rolling news from 5:30am then Sarah Harris from 7am.

Already on the ground in London (or en route) are Angela Bishop, Tracy Grimshaw, Michael Rowland, David Koch, Natalie Barr, Leila McKinnon, Tracy Vo, Sandra Sully, Jennifer Keyte,  Edwina Bartholomew, Charles Croucher, Chris Reason, Hugh Whitfeld, Ashlee Mullany, John Paul Gonzo and more.

A funeral is now confirmed for 8pm AEST Monday September 19.

7 Responses

  1. Nines coverage has been outstanding. I was unfortunate enough to catch Kochie and Mel this morning and they were just awful by comparison. A young girl got the better of them in an another Kochie was asking basic questions about the Monarchs authority in Australia. What? Something I would think any journalist would know.

    1. Mel hasn’t been on Sunrise for a decade now. Something I would think any tv critic would know….
      Perhaps your views aren’t objective, due to your preference of Nine

  3. Seven News boss Craig McPherson – “Our long-term planning included…. special breaking news graphics.”
    If only he had dropped those hideous smack-in-the face bright red ‘Live’ transitions. Even used when switching between Seven cameras at the same location. We do know it’s live, but if it isn’t we really don’t care.

      1. Yet the Americans and the British can manage without any garish smack-in-the face transitions. What’s wrong with a simple “Live” super? Then again, SBS was playing a piece labelled “live” when in fact it had been first broadcast five hours earlier.

    2. It’s a technical reason. Yes they are both in the same location but the cameras are most likely not being switched on location but back in the control room in Australia. The graphic allows the journalist to be cue’d mid transition so they talk straight away and remove the awkward delay. This is why you see it in the nightly news coverage; especially as the news rooms are using technology like TVU, Dejero and LiveU which are cellular or internet based delivery of signal and have a slight delay

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