Nine News Melbourne

History

The late Brian Naylor presented National Nine News Melbourne for 20 years from 1978 following his resignation from HSV-7 to 1998. Following his retirement, he was succeeded by Peter Hitchener as weeknight presenter, while Jo Hall took over from Hitchener as weekend presenter. Hall scaled back her work with Nine to news updates and fill-in duties in November 2011, with Weekend Today newsreader Alicia Loxley taking over as weekend presenter. Rob Gell formerly presented the weather until 2003, when he was replaced by Nixon; Gell subsequently defected to the rival Seven News Melbourne bulletin presenting the weather on weekends.

In March 2011, the GTV studios moved their base from Bendigo Street, Richmond, to a new building in Bourke Street, Docklands.

In May 2017, the station launched its first local afternoon news bulletin, Nine Afternoon News Melbourne, putting it head to head with its rival station Seven's local afternoon news. The bulletin is presented by Brett McLeod.

In December 2021, it was announced that Peter Hitchener would scale back to four days a week from January 2022 presenting from Monday to Thursday with Alicia Loxley presenting on Friday.

In November 2023, it was announced that Alicia Loxley and Tom Steinfort would replace Peter Hitchener to present on weeknights and Hitchener will move to weekends from January 2024.

In November 2025, Nixon resigned as weather presenter. Her final bulletin aired on 18 November 2025. She will continue to work with the Nine Network on Getaway and Postcards. In December 2025, it was announced that Nine News Perth weather presenter Scherri-Lee Biggs will replace Nixon from January 2026.

Ratings

For many decades, Nine News Melbourne was the most dominant local news service, often drawing a peak audience of more than 400,000 viewers. However, in the mid-2000s, the bulletin started to lose ground to the rival Seven News Melbourne, winning only 24 (out of 40) weeks in 2006 and then narrowly losing in 2007 when it won 19 weeks (to Seven's 20 weeks, with the other week tied). Even during the years when Nine News struggled nationally, the Melbourne bulletin remained competitive, being the only metropolitan bulletin to win any weeks against Seven News in 2008 and 2009. By 2012, however, Nine News Melbourne had re-established its ratings dominance, often leading their rivals by an average margin of over 100,000 viewers.

Current presenters

Fill-in presenters

• Brett McLeod (News)
• Madeline Spark (Weather)
• Stephanie Anderson (News & Weather)
• Natalie Yoannidis (Sport)
• Trent Kniese (Sport)
• Isabel Quinlan (Weather)

Past presenters

• Sir Eric Pearce (1956–1978)
• Brian Naylor (1978–1998)

Reporters

• Christine Ahern (Today Melbourne reporter)
• Jo Hall
• Alexis Daish (A Current Affair reporter)
• Madeline Spark
• Justine Conway
• Eliza Rugg
• Neary Ty
• Chris Kohler (Finance editor)
• Izabella Staskowski (Today Melbourne reporter)
• Reid Butler (US correspondent)
• Brett McLeod
• Heidi Murphy (State Political reporter)
• Stephanie Anderson
• Lana Murphy
• Penelope Liersch
• Mimi Becker (Europe correspondent)
• Mark Santomartino
• Isabel Quinlan
• Gillian Lantouris
• Amber Johnston
• Ollie Haig
• Edward Godfrey

Sport

• Natalie Yoannidis
• Trent Kniese
• Joel Kennedy
• Owen Leonard

References

References

1. (2014-01-06). "Nine quietly switches to hour-long news". [[The Age]].
2. Murray, Duncan. (2021-12-06). "Nine's Peter Hitchener will take a step back from reading the weeknightly bulletin". [[news.com.au]].
3. Knox, David. (2021-12-06). "Hitch to switch to 4 nights a week".
4. (2023-11-18). "Nine News announces new Melbourne anchors, Alicia Loxley & Tom Steinfort. {{!}} TV Tonight".
5. (2023-11-18). "9News Melbourne announces new presenting line-up".
6. Nov 7, 12:54pm. (2025-11-07). "'The right time': Livinia Nixon signs off from 9News weather after 21 years".
7. ermamcnamara. (2025-11-07). "Livinia Nixon speaks on her monumental decision to sign off after two decades".
8. (2025-12-11). "Scherri-Lee Biggs joins Nine News Melbourne {{!}} TV Tonight".
9. Enker, Debi. (2007-06-14). "How Seven trumped Nine". [[The Age]].
10. Ziffer, Daniel. (2007-12-03). "Seven tops Nine in week-night news". [[The Age]].
11. Knox, David. (2009-08-24). "Nine News to unveil new Melbourne set".
12. Dyer, Glenn. (2009-01-15). "I am Peter Overton?: Calamity at Nine News Sydney".
13. (2008-12-12). "Nine urges viewers to change back".
14. Bodey, Michael. (2015-07-20). "TV ratings: Nine's the one again when it comes to news". [[The Australian]].
15. (2017-07-22). "Congrats 👏 🎉 Won 21 weeks out of 40 (ratings survey): • @9NewsSyd #1 for 7 years running. • @9NewsMelb #1 for 6 years running. #9News".