“I’ve done it probably a little bit differently to Tracy”

Since Ally Langdon has taken the chair behind the desk at A Current Affair she has maintained the show’s winning ratings inherited from longtime anchor Tracy Grimshaw.

In the fickle game of Television, that isn’t something she takes for granted.

“It’s always nervous when you when you’re coming into a role like this and you look at the greats who sat in that chair before you,” she tells TV Tonight.

“That was Tracy’s chair for 17 years. The audience love her and for a very good reason. So you want to come into that chair, and as she said, to me, in the lead up to it, ‘You’ve got to put your own stamp on it, but always listen to the audience. It’s their show.’ She and I feel very strongly about that.

“I’ve done it probably a little bit differently to Tracy, but the show is still the viewers’ show and most of the stories we get are stories that they email into us.

“I really love being in the role. I love being back out in the road again, because that was tricky for the last three years, working those mornings, because you’re tired when you’re up so early, and it made it pretty tricky when you couldn’t really travel and do much with COVID. So it’s probably the part of the job I’m loving the most. It is a great team, but I’m also getting to do lots of interviews and being out on the road again, which almost reminds me of my old 60 Minutes days.”

Amongst recent field stories was speaking with the family Esra Haynes, a 13 year old who fell victim to ‘chroming’ during a sleepover with friends.

For Langdon covering a powerful story entailed a tight schedule to their home in country Victoria.

“I think we were on a 10pm flight on the Tuesday night, we hit the road about 6 o’clock in the morning so we could spend half a day with them filming, and then get back to the airport and back in the chair Wednesday at 7pm here in Sydney. But we make it work.”

She also notes recent key interviews with helicopter crash and domestic violence survivors.

“There’s been so many wonderful stories I definitely couldn’t pick one.”

Yet A Current Affair has also made its own news, of sorts, with a recent ACMA breach for a 2022 story with staff directed to be trained on the privacy requirements of the broadcasting code.

Understandably, Langdon is reluctant to speak to the story specifics, but I ask if all ACA staff are now versed in the Code?

“I think so. Absolutely. Yes.”

A Current Affair screens 7pm Monday – Saturday on Nine.