Seven acing it

When it comes to creating compelling television, the trick, they reckon, is to say it with feeling and Seven certainly did a far better job of demonstrating the raw emotion and defining moments only television can truly capture at their annual Upfront last Wednesday than rival Nine’s very corporate affair a week earlier.

The big red channel rolled out its best and brightest names – from Natalie Barr, Matt Shirvington and Kylie Gillies to televet Chris Brown, Larry Emdur and Sonia Kruger – to pitch the power of its network and free-to-air television overall to advertisers in the Winx stand at Royal Randwick.

But it was the star appearance Kruger’s newsman hubby, Craig McPherson, made at Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes’s cherished Telethon on the far side of the country days earlier that had everyone talking down the back at the Upfront.

Particularly after he was spotted deep in conversation with the media proprietor and his hard-hitting editor-in-chief Christopher Dore (who we hear will be hitting the flavoured milk rather hard over the next 12 months after winning a year’s supply of the stuff from Gina Rinehart’s Bannister Downs Dairy operation in the event’s silent auction).

The big question is: Will Seven tap McPherson to make a triumphant return to the network – in some capacity – as it prepares to launch an all-out assault on Nine’s nightly news offerings in what’s predicted to be a very bloody battle for eyeballs next ratings year?

There are certainly whispers he could be asked to help rebuild the channel’s national news dominance following the madcap, short-lived reign of his starry-eyed successor, Anthony De Ceglie.

McPherson notched up an unbeaten decade of rating wins for the network’s news and current affairs division, both nationally and across the lucrative five-city metro markets before ceding control to De Ceglie in April 2024.

He was then forced to watch on from a distance as the television news novice surprised everyone by managing to blow up everything McPherson had achieved in 10 years in just 13 months before showing himself out. Hey, if you’re gonna fail, at least fail fast, right?

Although Ray Kuka is now Seven’s top national news boss, there is little doubt he would be overjoyed for the cavalry to arrive … even in a consultancy role.

De Ceglie cleared out pretty much every Seven news executive with more experience than him (which was all of them … and even a few of the cleaners) before going fully rogue and introducing astrology segments to the channel’s serious prime-time news bulletins, but Kuka has been around long enough to know it’s better to surround yourself with proper news stars such as McPherson when you want to win.

Will it happen? Who knows? All we can say for sure is that the Gold Coast will be the first frontline in the ratings war – after De Ceglie made the baffling decision to shutter Seven’s local news bulletin even though it is one of the country’s biggest audience and advertiser growth markets.

Sources claimed he made the call under the misapprehension his Nine counterpart, Fiona Dear, had covertly agreed to do the same thing … silly boy, that would have been market collusion.