Channel Seven throws out the rulebook in search for Matt Doran’s Weekend Sunrise replacement: Sources tell INSIDE MAIL who’s in the running – including a wildcard candidate who breaks the unwritten law of breakfast TV

Channel Seven is secretly wargaming a ‘hit list’ of seven internal candidates to replace outgoing Weekend Sunrise host Matt Doran as it looks to maintain its two-decade dominance over Nine’s Weekend Today.

Doran – once considered a successor to David Koch on weekdays before Matt Shirvington swooped in – confirmed last week he would be parting ways with the network after five years fronting the Saturday and Sunday edition of Seven’s flagship breakfast show.

The 41-year-old will appear for the final time this Sunday, giving Seven’s top brass the summer non-ratings period to bed in a new co-host for Monique Wright before the OzTAM surveys officially resume on February 9 next year. 

Still, it’s a headache Seven executives could have done without, insiders tell me.

The network has only just finished breathing a sigh of relief having successfully pulled off a double succession on the main Sunrise program, with long-time co-hosts Samantha Armytage and David Koch being replaced within three years of one another. 

Natalie Barr has outdone all expectations and proved a ratings hit since replacing Armytage following her departure in March 2021, while affable Olympian Shirvington has won over fans since being handed the torch by Koch last June. 

Channel Seven are currently wargaming a ‘hit list’ of network stars to replace Weekend Sunrise co-host Matt Doran (pictured) after his shock on-air resignation last week

Monique Wright shed tears as Doran announced he would not be returning to Sunrise in 2025

Given that breakfast and morning shows are critical to a major network’s ongoing commercial success, Seven bosses are acutely aware their pick for Doran’s long-term replacement is crucial if they want to stop Nine snapping at their heels.

And the pressure to ‘get it right’ has only intensified since Armytage announced she had signed with Nine and would be filling in on Today over the summer period. 

Despite everything at stake, Seven insiders tell me the broadcaster isn’t necessarily going to be ‘playing it safe’ with Doran’s successor. In fact, they may even have Wright team up with another female presenter, breaking from a long-established breakfast show tradition.

‘The problem with playing it safe is it’s boring and predictable… and boring and predictable television is ratings death,’ one well-placed source says. 

‘So nothing is off the table at the moment and there’s a few surprise options that are being seriously scrutinised and considered as potential Weekend Sunrise pairings.’

Inside Mail can reveal the seven stars currently being considered are…

SAM MAC

The larger-than-life personality quickly became a Seven stalwart after replacing Edwina Bartholomew as Sunrise’s roving weatherman in 2016. 

Sunrise’s larger-than-life weather presenter Sam Mac is in the running to replace Doran

Since then, the hard-working presenter has appeared across a string of network shows, including hosting First Dates, competing in prime-time special The Real Full Monty and, most recently, fronting Sydney Weekender following Shirvington’s full-time move to Sunrise.

A firm favourite with viewers, he was a finalist for the coveted Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian TV in 2019, but lost out to ABC funnyman Tom Gleeson. 

Is there anything he can’t do? Well, he can’t do everything – and a good weatherman is essential to the ongoing success of Sunrise. So Seven brass will be facing some difficult decisions while forecasting Sam Mac’s immediate future.

JAMES TOBIN

You know him, you love him, half of you grew up with him – after all, Tobin first joined Seven as the host of hit children’s programs Go Go Stop and The Big Arvo two decades ago. 

In 2008, he signed on with the Sunrise team as an entertainment reporter before becoming the ‘Weekend Warrior’ version of Sam Mac by taking on weather-presenting duties on Saturday and Sunday mornings the following year.

Long-standing Weekend Sunrise weatherman James Tobin could be tapped to make the move

A versatile talent, he replaced Bernard Curry as the host of Seven’s offbeat reality dating show Beauty and Geek for two seasons from 2013 before the show was axed.

When he’s not watching cloud patterns for Weekend Sunrise, he is busy filing stories for Seven’s lifestyle staple Better Homes and Gardens, having joined the show as its motoring and technology presenter in 2020. 

SALLY BOWREY

Believe it or not (and you may as well believe it, because we are reliably informed it’s true), there’s actually a third weather presenter in the mix… well, sort of. 

In a surprise move, network sources tell me current Weekend Sunrise newsreader Sally Bowrey is one of the candidates being seriously considered to replace the outgoing Doran. 

Channel Seven execs are considering installing Sally Bowrey in an all-female hosting combo

Of course, before taking on her current role, she was one of Seven’s most highly regarded weather presenters – and is still known to keep an eye on the skies for us from time to time.

Now, Nine did try an all-female hosting combo on Today five years ago. And we all know how the partnership of Georgie Gardner and Deborah Knight ended… with a bat signal begging caped crusader Karl Stefanovic to save the day with a glorious comeback.

But maybe Wright and Bowrey will prove to be a winning combination?

LARRY EMDUR

There’s a reason we all want to be as happy as Larry: he’s officially the most popular person on Australian television, having taken out the Gold Logie in August. 

If you can think of a show the man hasn’t fronted since joining Seven at the age of 19, when he became Australia’s youngest commercial TV newsreader, you’re doing better than us. 

Heck, he even fronted Weekend Sunrise alongside Armytage for a year in 2010 before going on to spend more than a decade presenting The Morning Show with Kylie Gilles. 

The most popular man on television, Larry Emdur, would have to give up his decade-long run hosting The Morning Show with Kylie Gillies to take on the Weekend Sunrise role

Still, Emdur already has something of a side hustle at Seven, having replaced troubled former network star Andrew O’Keefe as the host of weekday quiz show The Chase. 

We get why Seven execs would love to parachute him in to save Weekend Sunrise – but even Larry deserves a day off.

MICHAEL USHER

The former 60 Minutes presenter defected from Nine in October 2016 after giving up his globetrotting news and current affairs role to replace Melissa Doyle as weekend newsreader for Seven’s Sydney news bulletin.

He took on a second gig at the network, hosting its late-night news offering The Latest, five years back before having to give it away in March when the show was moved to Seven’s Perth studios as part of a cost-cutting initiative. 

Michael ‘Musher’ Usher is in the mix – but has only just been paired up with a co-host on news

The man affectionately known as ‘Musher’ within the industry has since been filling his spare time reading the intros for Spotlight.

However, he has only recently been paired with rising star Angie Asimus on the weekend bulletins and we reckon the network boffins will be reticent to make any sudden moves on that front before the experiment has fully played out. 

DAVID WOIWOD

Seven’s man on the ground in America made headlines over the weekend as speculation intensified that he had entered the fray to replace Doran. 

The Where’s Wally lookalike has been with the network for the past eight years, having toiled away as a Sunrise reporter from 2016 to 2020. 

Where’s Wally lookalike David Woiwod has been tipped as the firm favourite to replace Doran

He moved to La La Land as a foreign correspondent in July 2020 before being promoted to U.S. bureau chief in April last year.

An engaging and personable young star, he’s hard to rule out.

MARK BERETTA 

When it comes to gun reporters, there are few more appropriately named than Beretta. 

And if you checked Berett’s Wikipedia page, you’d be forgiven for think he has already landed the plum gig replacing Doran given he is described as ‘co-host of Weekend Sunrise with Monique Wright’ in a hastily edited update.

When it comes to gun reporters, how can you go past the appropriately named Mark Beretta?

We’re not sure how reliable Wikipedia is… is anyone? 

But given his successful reign as one of Seven’s brightest stars, we wouldn’t be surprised if ‘the free encyclopedia’ knew something the rest of us didn’t.

Read the next INSIDE MAIL column this Thursday for all the latest informed gossip on what’s really happening in Australian media and politics

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