Finding the right host for 7.30 will be no easy task. Just ask the ABC executives who stumbled momentarily when they replaced the towering figure of Kerry O’Brien with not one, but two, journalists in 2010.
They also decided to change the name of “The 7.30 Report” to just “7.30”, something that still irks viewers.
Such a pleasure and a privilege to have worked with @leighsales over the years. Consummate professional, first-rate journo and a very fine human. 💐🙏 pic.twitter.com/MK0t9plx2m
— Sally Neighbour (@neighbour_s) February 11, 2022
It’s a distant memory now, but Leigh Sales was not given the job of solo host initially. She was one half of a double-header with Chris Uhlmann, then an ABC political reporter. At the time, the Age called it “an unwieldy hosting policy that looked like a plot from Australian newsroom satire Frontline”.
It didn’t last. Uhlmann eventually returned to being political editor while Sales hosted alone and a new executive producer, Sally Neighbour, was brought on at the end of 2012.
A footnote to this is that Sales is being talked about as a replacement for Uhlmann, who has indicated he will retire after the election as Nine’s political editor. But given she wants to spend evenings at home with her two boys, 10 and 8, and she would have to live in Canberra, it seems unlikely.
Successors
While it is too early to say who will succeed Sales, the ABC only has to look internally to find a rich list of contenders.
She’s new to television, but viewers seem to love political editor Laura Tingle. The show requires a Sydney or Melbourne host and Tingle is based in Canberra.
Another one to watch is investigative reporter Sarah Ferguson, who returns from the US this year. She has been reporting from the States since her posting to China was aborted when she couldn’t get a visa.
Ferguson hosted while Sales was on maternity leave, and has established herself as a tough political interviewer.
While she seems to prefer radio, Fran Kelly, who stood down from RN Breakfast very recently, can’t be ruled out. Kelly was once the show’s political editor.
Virginia Trioli seems to be thriving in the morning radio shift at ABC Melbourne. But she is a formidable interviewer and could also be a good fit.
Then there is David Speers, Insiders host, and Stan Grant, the ABC’s international affairs analyst and presenter of China Tonight.
Highlights
Sales says interviewing Paul McCartney and getting a hug from him was “one of the best days of my life”, and viewers certainly shared in her joy. “In all the years I’ve anchored, I’ve never had more viewers come up to me in public than after that interview to say how much joy it gave them, and it was so beautiful that people felt as if they had shared in that experience with me.”
Very proud of @leighsales. If this chick were any tougher, she'd rust. Have watched her in awe as she's steered @abc730 through five PMs, personal challenges, public health crises, you name it. I've never seen her wobble. A truly extraordinary woman. ❤️
— Annabel Crabb (@annabelcrabb) February 10, 2022
Her interview with John Laws in 2012 was another standout, although she left it out of her list of memorable moments when announcing her decision to leave on Thursday. The legendary radio broadcaster agreed to come on 7.30 and talk about his old rival Alan Jones, but ended up flirting with Sales as he nursed a glass of whisky.
“I did enjoy it. Did you?” said Sales at the end of the interview.
“Yeah, I loved every minute,” Laws said.
Sales had big shoes to fill, taking over from O’Brien on 7.30, and then five years later taking on panel and hosting duties for the ABC’s 2016 federal election broadcast. Election hosting was a role which had been O’Brien’s domain for decades.
At 1am, after a record-breaking seven-plus hours of anchoring the live broadcast, Sales said: “Yeah, we’ve broken the record. Suck on that, Kerry O’Brien,” dissolving the panel, which included Scott Morrison, into fits of laughter and creating a memorable television moment.
Lowlights
ABC colleague Virginia Trioli congratulated Sales for surviving “the toughest gig in the toughest of partisan times”, and even Sales’ harshest critics would have to give her that. While she wasn’t targeted by the Murdoch press like some other ABC presenters, she was relentlessly trolled on Twitter.
She says she had one goal, “and that is to ask frank questions of people in power, without fear or favour”.
But some armchair critics on Twitter repeatedly accuse her of going soft on conservatives and too hard on Labor.
When I remember, I’ve been saving sexualised social media abuse to show you what all women in the public eye get constantly, whether you are Peta Credlin, Julia Gillard or anyone in between. Check my @ mentions after any big interview to see for yourself. pic.twitter.com/RwPpWxz62w
— Leigh Sales (@leighsales) April 22, 2020
Last year, in a piece for ABC Online, she wrote: “Anyone who can stomach wading into mentions of @leighsales will find that virtually hourly, I am abused for doing my job, with a stream of tweets goading me to quit, demanding the ABC sack me, telling me I’m useless, stupid, biased and incompetent.”
Sales is not alone. ABC News Breakfast co-host Lisa Millar has abandoned Twitter after a torrent of abuse about everything from her interview style to whether she smiles.
Sales has also, quite literally, had missiles lobbed at her. She showed her characteristic toughness when she ducked a flying yoghurt pot aimed at her while she was speaking at an event in Perth in 2019.
Covered in splashes of blueberry yoghurt, Sales told the audience “If everyone else is alright, I’m quite happy to go on. That was a waste of some perfectly good yoghurt, I’m afraid.”
Totally stunned at our house to hear Leigh Sales say she’s leaving @abc730 And also happy for her boys, bigger than this photo now, who want their Mum home. Thank you so much for years of brilliant journalism. We look forward to your next media steps @leighsales 💐👏❤️ pic.twitter.com/ZyknE7q5CT
— Julie McCrossin AM (@JulieMcCrossin) February 10, 2022
