Leaked emails you WON’T see in court expose ABC’s fatal error in Lattouf farce, Netflix’s Belle Gibson lie rattles 60 Minutes – and Seven axes a divisive news presenter: INSIDE MAIL

In our must-read Mail+ column, Steve Jackson and Peter van Onselen reveal what’s REALLY going on in the worlds of media and politics each week.

Seven axes Friday night news comedy skit

When Seven News announced they’d hired Mark Humphries as a Friday night funnyman to round out the back end of their flagship 6pm hard news bulletin, everyone assumed it was all just one big joke. 

Unfortunately, no one was laughing when he started turning up during the news last September… which, as it turns out, is something of an issue when you’re a comedian. 

The problem was the hirsute humorist wasn’t quite funny enough to convince younger audiences to trade TikTok for the boomer box, while older audiences were simply confused and thought they were watching the ABC by mistake. 

Had someone accidentally sat on the remote?

Well, the good news is they need be baffled no longer. 

Because Inside Mail can reveal Humphries’ 6.57pm News skit has been dumped from the bulletin as the network doubles down on making every minute matter in what is already looking to be one of the tightest ratings races in recent history.

Changes are afoot for Seven News’ 6pm bulletin, hosted by Mark Ferguson and Angela Cox

Not that Seven is canning the comic completely; far from it.

Our spies tell us the channel’s news bosses are keen to hang on to Humphries – particularly given the looming federal election – and they’re working on finding a new home for his satirical act that will best connect him with his target audience. 

Seems a sensible decision… and we predict he will likely find his way online, where he already has a well-established and significant following. 

The not-so-surprise decision comes just weeks after Inside Mail revealed Seven had also axed its horoscopes segment with Natasha ‘AstroTash’ Weber from its primetime news bulletins. 

At the time, we thought Jupiter’s transit in Taurus was to blame, but then we would say that – we’re a Sagittarius.

Weber has since found a new home on The Morning Show.

Still, it seems Seven’s experiments with fusing hard news and light entertainment are far from over. 

The network this week announced that weekend anchorman and Spotlight host Michael Usher and Melbourne newsreader Karina Carvalho will be joining the cast of the new season of Dancing with the Stars. 

Comedian Mark Humphries’ 6.57pm News skit has been dumped from the program

That means we could well wind up watching Musher – as he is known in the industry – do the Mambo on Seven one minute before interviewing the family of a murder victim on Spotlight the next. 

Seven insiders are already speculating the juggling act will make for some ‘interesting’ TV transitions. But, hey, at least his dance card is full.

Who ABC exec really wanted to hire instead of Lattouf

Unsure what to get your local ABC news executive for their birthday this year?

Why not give them a copy of the broadcaster’s hit new role-playing adventure, The Blame Game by Parker Brothers.

After all, Aunty’s top brass have been playing it incessantly in the Federal Court for much of the past two weeks while being grilled over their roles in the decision to fire fill-in ABC morning radio host Antoinette Lattouf three days into a five-day casual presenting gig in Sydney back in December 2023.

As far as we can tell from the testimony so far, they all claim they weren’t really across the specific details of what Lattouf did to warrant getting sacked… yet they were all in furious agreement she needed to get sacked for doing it. 

Indeed, the exec who ordered her termination, former ABC content chief Chris Oliver-Taylor, told the court even he wasn’t across all the details – but made the executive call based on the recommendations of his subordinates. 

Meanwhile, the exec whom he ordered to terminate her, former ABC Sydney radio boss Steve Ahern, said he wasn’t across all the details either – even though he was the one who personally pulled the trigger. 

Ahern was given the unenviable tasked of giving Lattouf the flick under the auspices of the age-old ‘you hire her, you fire her’ rule – and it’s hard to argue against the logic. 

Antoinette Lattouf (pictured) is taking the ABC to court for unfair dismissal. But Aunty could have avoided the whole mess if they’d just hired the guy they originally had in mind for the ill-fated December 2023 fill-in role…

But here’s where things get interesting: Inside Mail can reveal Ahern didn’t even really want to hire her for the casual gig in the first place. 

He actually wanted to hire former 2GB wunderkind and one-time Seven News Sydney boss Jason Morrison as the regular fill-in host for the public broadcaster’s Harbour City station.

Actually, scratch that. He didn’t want to hire Morrison – he did.

In fact, we hear he asked him to start filling in from November 6 that year, and even agreed to arrange some overnight shifts for Morrison so the talkback veteran would have a chance to settle in behind the mic and blow out the cobwebs before hitting prime time.

At least, that’s according to the leaked emails that fell off the back of a truck and somehow landed in our inbox. 

So far, so good, right? Well, almost – because not long after he locked Morrison in, Ahern started to get the wobbles.

See, he couldn’t help but notice a few inconvenient truths when it came to his new, star recruit: he was white; he was a he; and, worst yet, he was a conservative.

Sensing a staff revolt over the appointment, Ahern backed out of the deal, explaining it could cause internal ‘disquiet’ and instead decided to go with a less controversial option… someone who ticked all the diversity boxes – namely a first-generation Australian woman of colour.

Enter Lattouf. What could possibly go wrong?

Oh, that’s right, she got axed after just three days on air, is now suing the public broadcaster for unlawful dismissal, and is threatening to take us, the poor taxpayers, to the cleaners as a result.

And if that’s not crazy enough, former ABC chair Ita Buttrose has even been accused of pulling all the strings while taking the stand in court in a wheelchair.

Surely it must go down as the most disastrous ‘last-minute change of plan’ in media history!

Former ABC Sydney radio boss Steve Ahern had actually wanted former 2GB presenter Jason Morrison (left) as the regular fill-in host for the public broadcaster’s Harbour City station

Ita Buttrose rolling up to the Federal Court in a wheelchair wasn’t on our 2025 bucket list

We were so stunned by what the leaked emails revealed, we reached out to Morrison to double-check whether the details were actually legit.

‘G’day, In July [2023], an ABC Sydney manager booked me a few weeks casual work for November/December,’ he confirmed via text.

‘Closer to the date, the shifts were suddenly cancelled because, I was told, a decision had been made to fill the role internally. Turns out that wasn’t quite right.

‘I reckon someone must have figured out I was “not very ABC or not diverse enough”.

‘Whatever their reasoning, I can assure them that they would’ve got a professional sounding radio show and we wouldn’t have ended up in the Federal Court!’

And you know what? With someone like Morrison behind the mic, they might just have picked up a few ratings points, too.

Dutton conspiracy theory goes unchallenged on the ABC  

On ABC Insiders last weekend, columnist Niki Savva tried to suggest Peter Dutton was scared of debating a woman during his regular political segment on the Today show.

Labor tried to suggest he take on Anika Wells each week instead of his long-time sparring partner, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles. Dutton refused, leading Savva to conclude: ‘Surely that couldn’t be because he’s afraid to front up with a woman?’

Savva is clearly no fan of Dutton’s, having devoted the lion’s share of her columns to attacking him. 

Inside Mail is happy to point out the bleeding obvious: No, it’s not that Dutton won’t debate a female politicians – he’s done so throughout his 25-year political career – it’s because matching the opposition leader up with the newest and most junior minister in cabinet – the sports minister for God sake! – is designed to diminish Dutton.

And he rightly refuses to take the bait.

How can we be so sure of this? Because that is exactly what a member of Team Albo told us in a more candid moment of reflection. Of course, surprise, surprise, Savva’s misdirection and spin wasn’t challenged on the ABC show.

But don’t dare suggest the ABC is anything but impartial… 

Labor’s unpopularity contest backfires

Speaking of Peter Dutton, Labor is convinced he is a drag on the Coalition’s vote, so it’s spending up big to target him in their attack ads.

The party has already spent more than half a million dollars doing so, mainly on YouTube, and that’s only since Australia Day!

But Liberal strategists think Dutton’s brand has become a net positive, and as a consequence they are using him more freely on the pre-election campaign trail. Plus, he’s doing a lot more face-to-face events with voters than in months gone by.

In contrast, Labor is drawing parallels between Dutton and Tony Abbott, who despite his success as opposition leader always threw up unpopular personal ratings when polls were released. That isn’t the case with Dutton, not according to the latest polls this year anyway.

Dutton is variously seen as equal to or better than Albo on the preferred PM ratings, and his net satisfaction rating is much better than the PM’s. 

The once-popular Anthony Albanese is now a deeply disliked leader, which is quite the turnaround in the space of two years.

We haven;t heard yet just how aggressively the Opposition plans to target the PM in the coming election campaign, but you would have to think their strategy will mirror what Labor is attempting to do to Dutton now.

Anyone hoping for an election campaign built around positive messaging might want to take a long holiday between now and the end of May. Somewhere with no Wi-Fi, we suggest. 

Who killed Channel 10? McKnight will tell us  

Who killed Channel 10? Well, we don’t know for sure just yet… but we can reveal that a specular new true crime series is about to delve into that very question.

The whodunnit murder-mystery is the brainchild of former Ten executive producer Rob McKnight and one-time Ten Eyewitness News reporter Michael Cain.

While the production is still in ‘early development’, we’re already decanting a bottle of red and readying a box of Ferrero Rocher in anticipation. 

Why? Because McKnight rarely disappoints when talking television – and certainly never when it comes to dishing on Ten’s peculiar quirks and foibles. 

After all, he’s the ultimate insider, having run Studio 10 for almost five years at its peak back when the little blue engine that (almost) could was threatening to overtake Seven and Nine.

And with trademark candour, he refused to play the ‘pursuing new opportunities’ card when he was given the old heave-ho from his dream job in 2017.

‘Unfortunately, I am not Ten material [and] I have been informed my services are no longer required. I am not going to spin a BS line that I resigned,’ he publicly announced at the time.

Since then, he has frequently earned the ire of Ten management with his frank and forthright hot takes on the channel’s lack of direction, even famously suggesting an underwhelming overhaul of Studio 10 looked like ‘a piece of s***’.

Ouch. Rest assured, when someone has an axe this big to grind and a track record of saying things others won’t, you can rest assured their doco is going to be good!

So what can we expect? And should Ten’s current executive regime be nervous? Short answer: Fireworks and yes. 

Long answer: McKnight expects the series to be so explosive, he’s planning to buy an extra filing cabinet to store all the legal letters soon to be flooding in from his former paymasters.

‘The fact is, they can send as many legal letters as they want, but at the end of the day, in everything they’ve ever thrown my way, they’ve never had a legal foot to stand on,’ he told Inside Mail.

‘Sure, they might call me a disgruntled former employee. You can call me that. But the fact is, I love television and actually loved Channel 10.

‘I’m very sad to see what’s happening with it, and so are a lot of other people.

‘The station cannot find a target demographic like it did in the old days and with the new owners [Paramount] there are many questions over what the future of Ten will be. 

‘We’re witnessing the death of Channel 10 in real time.’

He wouldn’t tell us who would star in the series, but hinted there would be some big names involved.

Inside Mail asked its better half and one-time Ten political editor, Peter van Onselen, if he would be among them – and he said he only had nice things to say about the network, given that he took the money and signed an NDA on departure.

And as for any hints about who really did kill Channel 10? 

Well, McKnight wasn’t giving that away just yet either. 

‘You will have to wait and watch to find out,’ he said.

In the meanwhile, McKnight has just launched his own weekly YouTube show on Saturday nights, aptly named McKnight Tonight. Perhaps he will drop some clues there.

Truth behind Sixty’s stranger-than-fiction interview

Why let the truth get in the way of a good story? Belle Gibson certainly didn’t as she built a mass following by claiming she’d cured her non-existent brain cancer through the power of clean eating.

The disgraced wellness blogger’s bizarre web of lies has now been immortalised in a hit Netflix series, Apple Cider Vinegar, which claims it is based on ‘a true-ish story’.

Funnily enough, ‘true-ish’ is the word we’d use to describe the series’ portrayal of Gibson’s real-life, car-crash interview with 60 Minutes’ Tara Brown almost 10 years ago. 

In one pivotal scene from Apple Cider Vinegar, Kaitlyn Denver, who plays Gibson, is seen wearing the iconic pink turtleneck from the infamous TV dust-up and strolling about as the team from Sixty strings up more lights than a Christmas display.

Belle Gibson’s infamous 60 Minutes interview in which she was grilled by Tara Brown about her cancer lies has been immortalised in the Netflix series Apple Cider Vinegar

The TV version of Gibson then struts over to a nameless producer – who we can reveal is supposed to be real-life former Sixty journo-turned-spinner Alice Dalley – and demands to know where Brown is at. 

‘On her way,’ Netflix’s version of Dalley informs her, before adding: ‘Okay, I’ve just transferred the deposit, if you want to check it’s in your account.’

‘Uh, no, I need the whole $75k now,’ Gibson replies.

‘This is how we always do it,’ she is told – even though that’s never how they do it.

‘Yeah, but I’ve been burnt before… $75,000 in my account now or we call off the interview,’ she demands.

As the threat lingers, the clear impression is given that 60 Minutes paid the cancer fraudster $75,000 before they even asked her a single question.

Now did that really happen? Well, yes and no. 

Yes, 60 Minutes did pay the truth-averse cancer faker $75,000 for the scoop… but no, she did not demand the full amount on the day… and it wasn’t Dalley who deposited the funds into her account.

Sixty producers can work a lot of wonders but producing that kind of cash (or anything much over $50) on demand isn’t one of them. 

As for the infamous interview itself, one-time Secret Life Of Us star Sibylla Budd does a decent job recreating Brown’s clinical and laser-focused questioning.

The ‘true-ish’ series implies a 60 Minutes producer agreed to a $75,000 upfront payment before a single question had been asked. This didn’t actually happen

The only letdown? The series left out some of the face-off’s best real-life exchanges – including the stranger-than-fiction moment Gibson refuses to give Brown a straight answer after being asked: ‘How old are you?’

‘I’ve always been raised as being currently a 26 year old,’ Gibson replies in a baffling display of logic during the real interview that doesn’t make the cut in the Netflix drama.

Brown smiles: ‘How old are you?’

‘Well, I live knowing, as I’ve always known, that I would be 26,’ Gibson says.

Then comes the ‘moment’ 60 Minutes is famous for, as Brown moves in for the kill. 

‘Okay, Belle… this is a really, really simple question: How old are you?’

Gibson: ‘I believe that I’m 26 – I have two birth certificates and I’ve had my name changed four times. 

‘The identity crisis there is big but that was my normal when I was growing up, Tara.’

Brown: ‘What do you know the truth to be now?’

Gibson: ‘That’s probably a question that we will have to keep digging for… because it’s not something I’ve ever understood or had answers around.’

Forget fake cancer claims, the poor woman couldn’t even answer her age. 

The interview is so sensational, in fact, you can probably forget about watching the six-hour Netflix series and do yourself a favour, and just head on over to Sixty’s YouTube channel and watch the real thing.

It’ll take a tenth of the time and it’s 10 times as good. 

ABC poaches political reporting pair from Sky News  

As regular readers will recall, there have been more than a few murmurs within the ABC that the public broadcaster is heading in a more populist, accessible direction under the leadership of chairman Kim Williams.

Strangely enough, the veteran media exec reckons the content produced by the taxpayer-funded broadcaster should be relevant to more taxpayers. 

It’s a suggestion so outrageous that it’s enough to make Aunty’s inner-city progressive types splutter on their soy lattes (it’s a cheap gag – but I couldn’t resist).

But they need not worry. I mean, it’s not like the ABC has started recruiting political reporters from conservative news channel Sky News or anything.

Oh wait, what’s that? The ABC has started recruiting political reporters from Sky News? 

That’s right: two of Sky’s brightest political journos, Fiona Willan and Olivia Caisley, both quietly defected to the public broadcaster over the summer.

Olivia Caisley, once a rising political reporter at Sky News, has defected to the ABC

Caisley and fellow ex-Sky News political journo Fiona Willan (left) quietly left the network and resurfaced last month at the public broadcaster

Their exits sparked the usual rumour that does the rounds whenever a promising young reporter leaves Sky: they realised that, unless you’re prepared to take a political handbrake turn to the right, you can only get so far at a network where prime-time conservative pundits reign supreme.

But apparently that’s not the case for Willan and Caisley, who both had glowing praise for Sky when I spoke to them and made no mention of the station’s political slant.

And as for why they left? Sources tell me it was just a case of eyeballs – there are more on the ABC than on Sky.

Willan had only been with Sky for a year after joining last January from Nine, where she’d carved out a reputation as a hard-hitting newsbreaker on the federal political beat.

‘I enjoyed my time with Sky last year – particularly the experience I gained as a news anchor,’ she told Inside Mail. 

‘After 13 years with the Nine Network, it was interesting to see for the first time how a 24-hour newsroom works.

‘However, I was very excited to be offered my current role with the ABC. 

‘As a senior journalist in the Sydney newsroom, I not only get to cover the big stories of the day, but I also have the chance to hunt for my own stories and work on some longer-form packages for Stateline (and that’s a real treat, as I do love having the chance to explore issues in greater depth, as I’m sure you’ll understand!)

‘And yes, I’ll certainly be focusing on political stories as the ABC’s NSW metro federal election lead (part of a team covering electorates around the country). Looking forward to being part of the coverage!’ 

Willan announced on LinkedIn she was working at the ABC’s secondary HQ in Sydney’s west

Caisley had been a political reporter with Sky for twice as long, having joined from The Australian almost two and a half years ago.

She told us she had also loved her time at Sky but was equally excited by the opportunities on offer at the ABC.

Although we hear Sky News had been keen to retain both, neither could be swayed, and we understand the opportunity to reach a larger audience at the public broadcaster was a key factor in their decision to switch channels.

Now, we would usually make some sort of wisecrack right about now about Sky News only having three viewers.

But not this week… because who knows? One of them might be away on holidays.

Smile, you’re on Pato’s candid camera… potentially 

Ousted Nine news director Amanda Paterson will head into her second round of mediation with the network’s lawyers on Thursday after accusing the broadcaster of unlawfully terminating her from her powerful position running its Queensland’s newsrooms.

And we’re pretty sure we already know what one of the channel’s legal eagles’ first questions will be: Just how did a secret audio recording of Nine news boss Fiona Dear sacking you find its way onto The Australian’s website this week?

Well, who could say? The man behind the scoop, the broadsheet’s media editor James Madden, has a tendency to randomly stumble across stuff like this from time to time.

After it emerged ousted Nine news director Amanda Paterson (pictured) had legally recorded audio of her being fired by her boss Fiona Dear over Zoom, rumours abound about what else she might have up her sleeve…  

Besides, he swears hand on heart Pato wasn’t the source – and so does she.

Now, to be fair, the recording was hardly earth-shattering, and Dear did not sound motivated by malice as she delivered the bad news to Paterson via video link from Sydney last November.

Still, it will doubtless have Nine in a quandary.

After all, if their erstwhile Queensland news exec covertly – and legally, we might add – recorded an impromptu meeting with her boss, not knowing she was about to get fired from her very senior role…

Then what other, potentially embarrassing meetings and conversations have been covertly recorded at Nine over the years?

Is it likely they too will find their way into the public domain?

And, most concerning of all, what ugly secrets is Paterson prepared to spill about the network as the case heats up and she pursues a seven-figure payout and her old job back?

Those are some fair head-scratchers alright.

For what it’s worth, we reckon the answers to those million-dollar questions are (in order): a lot of them; very; and, every single one.

Buster goes berserk over ABC war crimes ‘whitewash’ 

Don’t mention war… or, worse yet, the independent investigation the ABC commissioned into its dodgy ‘Line of Fire’ reports falsely accusing Australian soldiers of war crimes in Afghanistan.

At least, not to Liam ‘Buster’ Bartlett.

The Seven Spotlight chief correspondent who first exposed the ABC’s litany of errors – not least the addition of six gunshots to a clip accompanying one of the online stories that prompted the formal review – reckons the whole thing has been a whitewash.

In fact, we can reveal he was so incensed by the investigation’s lacklustre findings after its final report was released last Thursday that he fired off a text to the man behind the review, ex-ABC exec Alan Sunderland, and let him know just what he thought of his handiwork.

‘Alan, I have tried to respect your position but bluntly, you have completely lost me,’ Bartlett raged in his message.

‘The report you have produced has served your masters and your bank account but has failed the national interest entirely. And for that, I can’t forgive it.

‘That you found no senior person responsible for airing that disgraceful fraud is beyond a joke.

‘I thought you were better than that. 

‘With all your senior experience around editorial – you;re telling Australia that nobody was accountable for checking or screening the crucial footage that your mob used as proof of a war crime?

‘It was simply the poor old video editor? What a marvellous scapegoat.

‘And as for [the] Brett Hamilton [interview]….you say it “could” have been taken out of context! 

‘Alan, you know it WAS taken out of context – because even you know, in your soul… that the context was manipulated. Totally. The transcripts prove it.

‘But again, zero accountability.

‘I know when I worked at the ABC there was always total accountability on big and small stories. And thank God. It taught me the truth was important.

‘But you have helped the entire country to now learn that at today’s ABC… nobody is truly accountable for the most egregious acts when making fake allegations of the most serious kind.

‘I hope you’re proud of yourself.’

Hey, Buster, tell us what you really think… because you certainly told Sunderland.

Now, to his credit, Sunderland tried to call Bartlett a couple of times to politely discuss his ‘feedback’ only to discover the booming baritone was overseas on assignment and had to resort to replying via text message instead.

Still, he told Inside Mail he understood Bartlett’s concerns – particularly when it came to the added gunshots.

‘I have no animosity towards Liam, he can have a go at me – it’s perfectly understandable and I have broad shoulders,’ he said.

‘Everyone’s entitled to draw their own conclusions – I’d just ask anyone critiquing the report to critique the facts uncovered in it.

‘I did hold the ABC to account… but I didn’t find any evidence anyone had deliberately put in six extra gunshots to deliberately make things look worse or “sex up” the story.

‘I didn’t find any evidence of any deliberate manipulation as opposed to indefensible negligence.’

Alright then, Bartlett, who’s next in the line of fire?

Keep your friends close…

We don’t know if Albo was a Boy Scout in his youth, but he appears to be adhering to the motto ‘be prepared’.

Having all but ignored the teals and other independent crossbenchers in the House of Representatives since winning a majority at the last election, now that it looks like a returned Labor minority government is his best-case scenario, the PM decided to invite the crossbench around to The Lodge for drinks and canapés earlier this week.

We hear there wasn’t much discussion about what they all might do if required to choose which major party governs after the next election, but make no mistake, Albo’s motive in getting the gang together was to get in their good books early if that task befalls them.

Of course, a true Bismarckian diplomat would have courted the crossbench long ago… and Albo’s dinner party has made it glaringly obvious why he’s now finally acknowledging their collective existence.

The Wolf baying for blood in Brissie news battle 

Seven’s resident Mr Fix It, Ray Kuka, isn’t called ‘The Wolf’ for nothing. 

He’s the man the network sends in to take care of business, clean up messes and, occasionally, give their rival’s chief executive a good head-kicking (figuratively speaking, of course).

After all, the mild-mannered Perth news director completely eviscerated erstwhile Nine boss and starry-eyed people-pleaser Mike Sneesby during a spectacular bounce outside his Paris hotel during the Olympics last year.

Indeed, Sneesby resigned just two months later and is still said to suffer sleepless nights while haunted by his encounter with the Wolf. (Seriously, watch the bounce again – who wouldn’t have the odd nightmare?)

Kuka was later dispatched to Brisbane to restore law and order within Seven’s shambolic Mount Coot-Tha studios following the staggering mishandling of much-loved, veteran news anchor Sharyn Ghidella‘s exit from the network.

And even though he’s now back in Perth and keeping an eye on things in the sunshine state from afar these days, the Wolf is still baying for blood in the Brissie ratings battle.

Last week, he asked all the newsroom’s journos to email him examples of their best and worst scripts before giving them a news-writing masterclass.

Of course, journos are naturally sensitive creatures who instinctively fear criticism – so a request to submit their worst scripts for Kuka’s red pen had many in the bureau’s bustling newsroom on edge.

(A tip for young players? The trick is to simply submit your two best scripts while claiming one of them is your worst – you’re welcome).

Despite the inevitable misgivings, the workshop clearly helped because Seven’s 6pm news bulletin has gone from being routinely trounced by rival Nine in the River City to smashing them in the first night of the ratings season this year.

Not only that, we hear Kuka also asked everyone to send him a compliment about one of their colleagues while submitting their homework – and so many people praised reporter Michael Hammond, the Wolf even sent him a bottle of bubbles in recognition of his work.

Heartwarming stuff. Now really, who’s afraid of that Big Bad Wolf?

Ratings chaos as Seven News fends off MAFS

Speaking of ratings, it wasn’t just in the Queensland capital where Seven stamped its authority this week with their all-important 6pm flagship bulletins.

The big red bus rolled right over their rivals in four of the five-city metros on the first night of the fierce ratings war, with Melbourne the only holdout for Nine.

And all this despite Nine’s reality TV juggernaut Married At First Sight dominating the battle for eyeballs later in the evening!

Nine execs are fuming that the prime-time success of Married At First Sight hasn’t translated into a ratings victory for the 6pm news. (Pictured: MAFS expert Alessandra Rampolla)

This is when Nine News should be absolutely annihilating the competition.

We hear the bosses in at Nine’s Denison St HQ are fuming and about to declare a state of emergency because they’re so flummoxed that MAFS hasn’t lifted their news numbers.

How long now until 60 Minutes star Amelia Adams is called upon to co-anchor the Harbour City news alongside Peter Overton in a bid to compete with popular Seven double act Mark Ferguson and Angela Cox?

…and some good news if you’ve got a mortgage

The next time you read this column the Reserve Bank will have decided what to do about interest rates at its monthly meeting for February. It’s due to meet next Tuesday.

A little birdie told us the board papers distributed ahead of the meeting included a recommendation by RBA Governor Michele Bullock that the cash rate come down by 25 basis points.

Big news for anyone with a mortgage, assuming the banks pass the proposed rate cut on. It would be the first downward movement in interest rates in nearly three years.

Since Labor came to power, all rates have done is go up, up and up. 

A dozen consecutive increases tells a sorry tale. 

Of course, it’s always possible the board collectively chooses to reject the advice of its governor, but that seems highly unlikely. You heard it here first! 

Guess who, don’t sue

Which serpent-tongued TV type has been accusing a popular gossip columnist of ‘spreading lies’ after unexpectedly appearing in bold type in one of their latest dispatches?

Of course, not to their face. (Seriously, why would you think that? Gosh, no).

Now, it wasn’t Inside Mail this vituperative figure was talking about… nor any of our colleagues for that matter. 

So what do we care?

Well, if we’re being completely honest (and we always try to be), we’re just looking forward to the moment word filters back to said columnist – and we’re fairly certain it will.

Should be quite the show.

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