Alex Cullen has confirmed he is making a return to TV presenting, eight months after being sacked from Channel Nine.
In January, Alex was axed from the network after he accepted a $50,000 gift from The Block billionaire Adrian Portelli for calling him ‘McLaren Man’ live on air.
On Wednesday, the 44-year-old revealed on his Gold 104.3’s The Christian O’Connell Show that he is set to host a new afternoon news program on Channel Seven.
‘It was a significant day yesterday with me, signing a contract with Seven, which was really exciting,’ Alex began.
‘I’m going to be the Afternoon Host on Channel Seven. So we’re going to be taking you through the afternoon. We’re going to have a show at three o’clock.’
He also shared details about the show’s target audience and launch date.
Alex Cullen has confirmed he is making a return to TV presenting, eight months after being sacked from the Channel Nine network
‘We’re going to get all the nannas, the pensioners, the stay-at-home mums! We’re going to do something a little bit later in the month. Commercial TV moves at a glacial pace and we want to get this right,’ he said.
Host Christian O’Connell then joked that Alex’s program would be facing some stiff competition, in the form of the Channel Nine game show Tipping Point, hosted by Todd Woodbridge.
However, Alex said he was confident that his new show would thrive in the 3pm timeslot: ‘They are doing well… but not for long!’
It is somewhat of a homecoming for the veteran journalist, who was a presenter on Seven’s current affairs program Sunday Night from 2010 to 2019.
Alex will be working dual roles, as he will be continuing his position as sports presenter on the top-rated Melbourne breakfast radio show.
Earlier this year, he was axed from the Nine Network after he accepted $50,000 from The Block billionaire Adrian Portelli.
Today host Karl Stefanovic announced that Alex had left the network live on-air.
‘As most of you are well aware, our colleague Alex Cullen has not been on air with us this past week,’ a solemn Stefanovic told viewers.
In January, Alex was fired from Channel Nine after he accepted a $50,000 gift from The Block billionaire Adrian Portelli for calling him ‘McLaren Man’ live on air
On Wednesday, the 44-year-old revealed on his Gold 104.3’s The Christian O’Connell Show that he is set to host a new afternoon news program on Channel Seven
‘There has been widespread reporting on the circumstances surrounding this. What I can say is that last night, Alex and Nine agreed he would finish with the network.
‘Alex has, of course, been part of the Today family for five years now. He’s always ready with a smile and a laugh, and without hesitation, speaking for all of us here, we can say that we are going to miss him terribly.
A Nine spokesperson told Daily Mail: ‘Nine has agreed with Today presenter and journalist Alex Cullen that he will finish with the network following a review into a recent incident.’
The scandal kicked off when Portelli had grown tired of his long-used nickname ‘Mr Lambo’ and offered the cash reward to the first person to use his new moniker on air, with Alex obliging on the Today show.
The Block entrepreneur then posted what appeared to be a bank transfer of $50,000 to the presenter on Instagram.
Accepting cash, gifts or benefits to undermine journalistic independence, and improperly using a journalistic position for personal gain, are both breaches of the journalism code of ethics as defined by the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance union.
The ill-advised stunt led to Alex being suspended by Nine and he did not appear on the show while the network investigated the payment.
Nine’s parting of ways with Alex went ahead despite Portelli’s claim that the journalist intended the money to be paid to charity all along.
Portelli first received the unwanted nickname ‘Mr Lambo’ after turning up to a 2022 auction of popular house makeover show The Block in a yellow Lamborghini.
