Bruce Paige - he's back!
Posted March 30th, 2010 by debritz
Bruce Paige may have retired from reading the news five nights a week, but Channel Nine Brisbane isn't about to let the popular star disappear from our screens completely. News director Lee Anderson has announced that the station has "finalised a new agreement with Bruce Paige that will continue his involvement with the network until at least 2013". Anderson added: "Bruce will continue as our back-up reader as well as undertaking a number of weekly features which will be unveiled by the network over coming months."
Update: A Nine press release has just confirmed this report, quoting Paige as saying: "I am a News man from way back and I have missed the people at Nine and the energy of the newsroom. Working part-time I still get to spend time with my family. I feel very lucky to have the best of both worlds." (March 31, 9.35am)
What next, Jackie Mac reading weekend news?
Paige is still popular. Sure 9's at their closest point to overtaking 7 since 2006 but this may put them over the top.
There is only one thing Nine need to fix now: Saturday's news. It's getting pummeled by 7, thanks to their lead-in.
Seven is on a winner with their 5-6pm programming on the weekend, however, we still swap to Nine as we do prefer Nine's news readers.
@ideaswoman: It's just weekdays that 7 is having the trouble. Deal figures are definitely down on a year ago, and it is impacting on weekday news figures.