Reading the main ABC news bulletin in a capital city was not even on the horizon when Jeremy Fernandez joined the ABC 23 years ago in Perth.
He had moved to Australia as a 13-year-old from Malaysia with what he describes as a “weird accent” and when he told anyone he wanted to be a journalist they often reminded him of his skin colour and said he wouldn’t succeed.
“There’s always SBS,” a school friend told him.
“It was never really part of the plan, or inside the realm of possibility, because there were very few people who looked like me who did this job when I was growing up,” Fernandez said after the ABC announced he would take over the NSW bulletin next month when Juanita Phillips retires.
Fernandez has big shoes to fill: he will follow three Sydney anchors who each stayed in the job for decades.
Phillips was in the role for 21 years, succeeding Richard Morecroft who read the Sydney news from 1983 to 2002. Before Morecroft, James Dibble fronted the bulletin from 1956 to 1983.
“A number of times I was told to my face by people in the industry that this is not a tree I should be barking up.
“I came into the industry because I loved it. I love getting a chance to travel to meet people, to interview and everything else that’s happened has been a bonus.”
Fernandez is a popular face on the ABC nationally for his anchorage of major news stories as well as fronting events. including the New Year’s Eve telecasts, Australia Day Live at the Opera House, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Sydney WorldPride.
Alongside the bright and beautiful legends Genevieve Lang and Jeremy Fernandez. pic.twitter.com/ptlZO99aqa
— Zan Rowe (@zanrowe) June 24, 2023
He has also been a guest host of The Drum, Q+A, ABC News Breakfast, Weekend Breakfast, Compass and Media Watch and is a familiar calm presence on the ABC news channel.
📺Tonight on #MediaWatch w/ guest host Jeremy Fernandez:
— Media Watch (@ABCmediawatch) August 9, 2021
All aboard the jab train! Media leave scaremongering behind and push the AZ vax.
Are daily court lists public interest journalism?
And the Mafia Don that wasn’t hits the Sunday tabloids.
9.15 @abctv pic.twitter.com/CBIQLXAfcV
Phillips says Fernandez is of the most talented broadcasters she’s worked with. “He has that rare combination of warmth and gravitas that audiences connect with,” Phillips says.
Despite his obvious presenting talent and clear speaking voice, Fernandez says he was always encouraged to be a producer, not an on-air host.
“And most of the people who told me that this perhaps wasn’t a wise choice for a career were in a weird way trying to look out for me and trying to save me from disappointment,” he says.
When Fernandez was anchoring the morning news on the now defunct Asia Pacific service out of Melbourne he was noticed by the late Ian Carroll, an ABC veteran who created Lateline and 7.30 and ran the international TV arm.
“Ian was great champion and created some opportunities for me, for which I remain very, very grateful,” he said.
Ten years ago Fernandez was shaken badly when he was racially abused on a Sydney bus while travelling with his two-year-old daughter.
“I have to admit that I had a bit of a cry after dropping my daughter off at daycare,” Fernandez wrote on the ABC website. “It saddened me to realise that I’ll have to teach her how to be stoic and stand up for herself in the face of an abusive person.”
Fernandez acknowledges it’s a milestone of sorts that a person of colour has been appointed as permanent anchor of the main Sydney bulletin for the first time, but he cautions viewers not to read too much into it.
“I’m wary that saying that just because I read the news that, you know, life has improved for a whole bunch of other people,” he says. “I think we’ve got a long way to go with that stuff.”
And for those people who thinks he swans into the studio at 6.30pm, heads to makeup, and then leaves after reading the bulletin, Fernandez says most of his job is not reading the Autocue but writing scripts, collaborating and researching the news.
“Television is a deeply logistical kind of beast, so making sure that things run seamlessly takes coordination; and the idea is that no one notices, that’s the whole exercise.”
Fernandez takes up his new role on 11 September.
