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Carrie Bickmore to leave network, but Tracy, Leigh staying put.

Project host will be free to swap networks from December, but not so other current affairs hosts.

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Carrie Bickmore will leave Network 10 when she wraps at The Project on November 30.

10 told TV Tonight she will depart after 17 years with the network, including 3 years on Rove Live and 13 with The Project.

“Yes, Carrie is leaving 10, but we hope to work with her again,” a spokesperson confirmed.

Bickmore has also indicated she is not leaving TV. This leaves her available to pursue new opportunities with another network, given she is not being kept on a network retainer.

2022 sees three high profile news and current affairs presenters departing long term roles.

Tracy Grimshaw will depart A Current Affair in late November.

Last week she indicated, she will take 2023 off air, adding, “After that, I think probably I’ll be bored enough to want to come back, I reckon.”

Nine confirmed Grimshaw is not departing the network but declined to comment on whether she would be kept on a retainer.

Meanwhile in June, ABC’s Leigh Sales stepped down from 7:30 after 11 years as anchor and also plans to return to the broadcaster.

She remains an ABC employee, recently telling TV Tonight, “I am coming back next year, but I have literally not pitched anything and not been offered anything. I absolutely need a break. I’ve got to use that to refuel and work out some ideas. I’m so exhausted after 12 years of daily current affairs.

“I’m going to make a list about what I like about my job and not like. Once I’ve got that I can come up with some ideas that tick all the ‘like’ boxes.”

She also has fiction book Any Ordinary Day being adapted by Jungle Entertainent.

7 Responses

  1. I don’t think Carrie has any interest in going to ACA. It’s a high profile and easy money job but the work would be very dull and monotonous trying to care about the daily dodgy builders or neighbours from hell stories. There’s zero personality required and she would rarely be able to give her opinion which is what she seemed to enjoy at The Project.

  2. I personally feel if Bickmore moves to ACA she may find it hard to retain the ratings. Not only that you are the focus solely and the spotlight will be on her not the content. Her radio rates okish but not brilliantly. The Project is not centered on her as such.

  3. Nice wrap David of three fascinating and high profile anchors.

    Reading between the lines (all this observer can do) I would hazard a guess by her declining to comment and that she has been a Nine mainstay for decades, that Tracy is being retained monetarily. Interesting though that Carrie is set to depart Ten and that rather than it be left vague, it seems clear she will either appear on another network or have a definite break from television. And Leigh, no surprise that the ABC needs and wants to hold onto her – an invaluable journalist and presenter; whether it be for elections, special assignments or a future format.

    1. Nine recently celebrated 40 years of service for Tracy so she’d have a few months of long service leave up her sleeve. She might get bored after that or have figured out by then what she wants to do next at Nine.

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