‘An enormous privilege’: Georgie Gardner announces she is leaving Nine

Nine newsreader and former Today host Georgie Gardner has announced she is leaving the network after nearly 25 years behind the desk.

Gardner, who currently anchors Sydney’s 6pm weekend news, will read her final bulletin on April 17.

“I could not be more grateful for the range of opportunities Nine has afforded me over nearly a quarter of a century,” Gardner said in a statement. “Anchoring news bulletins across the day, as well as reporting and hosting roles on virtually every news program at the network, has been incredibly satisfying and an enormous privilege.

“I will be forever thankful for having worked with countless colleagues who are quite simply the best in the industry, and I am humbled by the knowledge that there are viewers who have followed my career.”

Gardner’s resignation comes amid rising turnover in on-air talent as television networks continue to suffer from a weakened advertising market.

Revenue from Nine’s TV division was down 14 per cent when the company reported its half-yearly results last week.

Other on-air staff to have recently departed include Melbourne and Sydney weather presenters Livinia Nixon and Amber Sherlock, Adelaide newsreader Kate Collins and Brisbane sports presenter Jonathan Uptin.

Nine’s TV and streaming boss Amanda Laing told this masthead in November: “We are looking at the remuneration across the entire business, from, yes, people on-air to people involved in production, to people in IT, to engineers, technology, all of these things.”

Gardner started at the network in 2002, presenting the 6pm weekday weather alongside Brian Henderson. Her profile received a national boost once she joined the Today breakfast show as newsreader in 2007 and fill-in host until 2014, when she tearfully resigned live on air, saying it had “not been an easy decision to leave a show that is an Australian television institution”.

However, she rejoined Today in 2018 as host, alongside Karl Stefanovic and then Deborah Knight, in the show’s only female hosting pairing. The latter pairing lasted less than a year and Gardner returned to the Sydney news desk.

Nine executive director of news and current affairs Fiona Dear praised Gardner’s versatility for holding almost every on-air news role at Nine. “It’s a remarkable achievement and during that time Georgie has been loved and respected by audiences across Australia,” she said.

“She has had a front-row seat to some of the most important moments in history, delivering the biggest news stories to audiences first thing in the morning, in prime time at 6pm and late into the evening with Nightline.

“Georgie’s professionalism and composure during breaking news events makes her one of the most talented newsreaders in the country. Georgie’s decision to step away from television news has our full support, and we thank her and wish her well in her future endeavours.”

Nine will be running an internal process to appoint Gardner’s replacement.

With Calum Jaspan

*Nine is the owner of this masthead.

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