EXCLUSIVE
Channel Nine’s biggest stars are facing a brutal ‘Hunger Games-style’ fight for survival as the embattled broadcaster braces for the worst ‘talent purge’ in the network’s history – and absolutely no-one is safe.
Nine insiders have revealed the contracts of every single on-air personality are ‘under review’ – including those of long-serving network icons Eddie McGuire, Liz Hayes and Tracy Grimshaw – as the network desperately tries to rein in costs.
‘The reality is that those on the biggest paycheques now have the biggest targets on their back,’ one network executive familiar with the audit told Daily Mail Australia, with Hayes understood to be facing a particularly severe haircut.
‘This isn’t a matter of ‘the evil bean counters’ trying to cut costs. This is a serious problem: we’ve got too many stars and not enough shows to put them all on.
‘The good old days of ‘warehousing’ highly-paid ‘talent’ and wheeling them out for one or two specials a year are long gone. Every dollar of every deal needs to be justifiable to the shareholders and the market.
‘The financial controllers and the executive team have been locked in heated meetings for months frantically trying to figure out how we can afford to keep all of our big names on the books; and the sad truth is: we can’t.’
The dire warning comes just months after Nine boss Mike Sneesby took an axe to the network’s budget in June, revealing about 200 jobs would be chopped from the company’s print and broadcasting empire as part of $30m worth of cuts.
While that round of redundancies was being finalised this week, sources warned there were more retrenchments on the way – with the channel’s ranks of respected, high-profile female television presenters predicted to bear the brunt of the pain.
‘Nine has a real women’s problem at the moment,’ one senior Nine source said. ‘We’ve got too many white, blonde women on too much money, with too little for them to do.’
Network execs are said to be particularly perplexed about how to juggle the roles of its three heaviest hitters: Liz Hayes, Tracy Grimshaw and Tara Brown. Although all three are highly revered household names, sources said the extreme cuts had forced Nine’s bosses to consider ‘releasing’ one of them.
‘It’s been an ongoing headache for them. Sneesby doesn’t want to lose any of them – why would you? They are all amazing talent,’ one insider said.
‘The problem is: how do you pay for all of them?’
Questions have been raised internally at Nine about whether Eddie ‘Everywhere’ McGuire is still popping up on enough programs to justify his multi-million-dollar salary at the network
Channel Nine icon Liz Hayes is facing a massive $250,000 pay cut after her true crime series was canned
Nine icon Liz Hayes faces $250k salary haircut
Daily Mail Australia last week revealed that Hayes’ eponymous true crime series, Under Investigation with Liz Hayes, had already become a victim of Nine’s budgetary bloodletting.
Long-time staffers were shocked by the decision, particularly given Hayes is nominated for a prestigious Silver Logie for her work fronting the series at this Sunday’s television industry awards night.
Nine has intimated Hayes will stay on in the wake of her show being culled, with the move simply freeing her up to return to her regular full-time reporting duties on 60 Minutes.
Still, it will come at a hefty cost.
‘It’s not just as easy as saying, ‘OK, Liz, just focus on 60 now’,’ one well-placed insider said.
‘Liz is on $500,000 with 60 Minutes … but she was given a $250,000 top-up for her work on Under Investigation, putting her on a $750,000 deal overall.
‘There’s no way 60’s budget can absorb a salary that big, so she’s already looking at copping a massive pay cut to say the very least – and $250,000 equals a lot of producers.’
Rising star Amelia Adams has impressed bosses since joining 60 Minutes last year
Dimity Clancey is being touted as one of the network’s most versatile and valuable talents
Hayes also faces increasing competition for air-time on 60 Minutes, with the next generation of strong, female journalists rising through the network’s ranks.
Since turning her attention to her own crime series, the channel’s flagship news and current affairs show has seen its line-up bolstered by another two accomplished female reporters: rising stars Amelia Adams and Dimity Clancey.
‘Liz was only on 60 Minutes two or three times last year, meanwhile you have the next generation coming through – on a fraction of the money – really establishing themselves on the show,’ one network executive told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Amelia has repeatedly proved herself in the past year and Dimity has made an immediate impact since she joined over the summer. Then to top that all off, 60 has Tara Brown on the books as well.
‘Tara’s a rare talent and one of the best interviewers in the country – and she has only just re-signed on a three-year deal 12 or 18 months ago, so she’s safe.
‘The problem they have is: ‘How does 60 Minutes cover the cost of four big female stars?’
‘And, at the end of the day, the show just doesn’t have the budget for that – even in its heyday it couldn’t have afforded that.’
What to do about Tracy Grimshaw and Georgie Gardner
Execs are equally troubled by what to do about Tracy Grimshaw.
The Nine legend has been on a six-figure year-by-year deal with the network since her shock decision to stand down as the host of A Current Affair after 17 years in September 2022.
While that prized position has since been entrusted to the highly regarded Allison Langdon, Grimshaw remains one of the channel’s most popular faces and this year presented the well-received four-part medical series, Do You Want To Live Forever?
‘Tracy was amazing in that series but the question the executives have been weighing up is whether the network can afford another special series, or whether they should move Tracy to 60 Minutes,’ one insider said.
‘She’s so well-loved by Nine’s audience that she would be a massive draw card for 60, but then, who would you lose?
‘It’s like playing musical chairs – they want everyone at the Nine party … but someone is going to be left without a seat.’
Elsewhere, the broadcaster’s financial controllers are also said to be taking a long look at Georgie Gardner’s $400,000 deal with the channel.
‘Again, there’s just so much strong female talent. It’s an embarrassment of riches actually from a talent perspective, but embarrassingly Nine is no longer rich enough to keep them all on these mammoth salaries.’
Much-loved Nine star Tracy Grimshaw is currently on a year-by-year deal with the network
Georgie Gardner is among an ’embarrassment of riches’ of strong, accomplished female journalists at Nine
Eddie McGuire in the Hot Seat over massive salary
Ironically, for a network often labelled ‘a boys club’, there are fewer ‘big name’ leading men at the channel, with many of Nine’s top male stars already considered ‘safe’.
One exception is said to be Eddie McGuire.
Once labelled ‘Eddie Everywhere’, sources said questions were being asked about whether the broadcaster’s biggest male star was still popping up on enough programs to warrant his multi-million-dollar salary.
Eddie McGuire’s long-running Millionaire Hot Seat has been ‘on hiatus’ since the end of January
Former tennis star Todd Woodbridge has made the successful transition to game show host
Speculation has only intensified since his long-running Millionaire Hot Seat quiz show went ‘on hiatus’ at the end of January, and was successfully succeeded in the critical 5pm timeslot by Tipping Point with former tennis star Todd Woodbridge as host.
‘If we had the AFL, it would make sense to still have Eddie on big money,’ a source said. ‘He’s a hard worker and loved by our audience – look, again, it’s just one of those things we have to review.’
The source said that did not necessarily mean the axe was hovering over McGuire’s head, just that Nine could look renegotiate his overall network deal.
A Nine spokesman said the broadcaster would not comment on its stars’ contracts nor the ongoing audit.
Choosing between three stars: Liz, Tara and Tracy
As brutal as the looming purge sounds, former television executive Rob McKnight said TV bosses had been left with no other option in the face of dwindling profits.
‘The TV industry is going through tough times at the moment, there’s no doubt about that,’ the TV Blackbox editor said.
‘Once, owning a TV station was a license to print money, now the commercial networks are just trying to stay afloat.
‘When we hear about redundancies in the media, it’s usually the faceless people behind the scenes.
‘Now, big names are facing the chop. The days of stars being on the payroll full-time just to stop them going elsewhere are over.
‘Nine having to choose between Liz, Tara and Tracy is a real ‘Sophie’s Choice’. Each one of them is a legend and has brought great success to the network.
‘It will not be an easy choice to make, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t like to be the executive making this decision, it’s almost like the Hunger Games – who will survive?’
Who is definitely safe
With Nine’s breakfast show, Today, on the ascendency this year, execs are wary of messing with the recipe.
They are particularly keen to avoid any repeat of the error of judgement that led to Karl Stefanovic being ‘rested’ from the program in 2019, only to be hastily recalled following a ratings nosedive in his absence.
Karl Stefanovic and Nine boss Mike Sneesby take in the sights at the Paris Olympic Games
Melbourne news duo Alicia Loxley and Tom Steinfort have proven a huge ratings success
Sources said the dynamic between Stefanovic and newly minted co-host Sarah Abo was ‘clicking’ and that they were both safe in any upcoming talent purge, as was the equally well-regarded Today Extra host David Campbell.
Hardworking, high-profile former 60 Minutes reporter Tom Steinfort is also safe, given the spectacular success of his partnership with Alicia Loxley fronting Melbourne’s 6pm news bulletin.
‘When you’re winning by that much, there’s no way you’re going to change that formula,’ an insider said.
A rough road ahead
Questions about the network’s big-ticket TV salaries are sure to feature prominently when Sneesby releases the company’s latest financial year results at the end of this month.
The Nine boss has been keeping a relatively low profile since courting unwanted controversy throughout the Paris Games, following a series of well-publicised ‘tone-deaf’ blunders.
They included opting to carry the Olympic torch and stay at an opulent five-star hotel in the heart of the French capital while the company’s modestly paid newspaper staff were striking over a fair pay increase back in Australia.
But McKnight predicted the harsh realities of the softening television advertising market were unavoidable and meant the days of massive TV salaries at Nine’s ‘star factory’ were well and truly over.
‘Unfortunately, that seems to be the way the industry is going,’ he said.
‘Previous success and loyalty don’t mean as much as it used to. Now it’s all about the bottom line and finding cheaper replacements.
‘The industry is trying to cut its way just to survive, and no business has ever cut its way to success.’
