Ex-Sunrise host Samantha Armytage ‘wants to join Channel Nine to host a late-night news show’ after her contract with Seven expires
Former Sunrise host Sam Armytage recently said she ‘wasn’t done’ with television after quitting Channel Seven’s top-rating breakfast show.
And the 44-year-old journalist is now reportedly in talks to host her own late-night news show after her contract with Seven expires.
According to Woman’s Day, Sam has been plotting her TV comeback for months and wants to jump ship to rival network Channel Nine.
Television comeback: Rumours are swirling that former Sunrise host Sam Armytage is in talks to host her own late-night news show on Channel Nine
Rumour has it Sam wants to pitch a one-hour nightly news program to rival The Latest: Seven News, which airs after 10pm.
‘[She] wants to go head-to-head with Seven’s The Latest – it would be Monday through Thursday, a one-hour format, which will see Sam free to head up to her country retreat for the other half of the week,’ a source said.
The Monday-to-Thursday evening news slot was previously hosted by Chris Bath or Anne Fulwood from 1995 to 2003.
Connection: Sam has been friends with Karl Stefanovic, one of Nine’s biggest stars, for years
Natalie Barr would often fill in before she was moved to Sunrise.
Reports surfaced weeks ago that Sam wouldn’t be keen on returning to early starts and would ‘prefer’ a spot on a nightly current affairs show.
Before that, in late April, Sam revealed she wasn’t finished with television.
Gossip: Sam (pictured with Sunrise co-anchor David ‘Kochie’ Koch) wants to pitch a one-hour nightly news program to rival The Latest: Seven News, which airs after 10pm
‘I don’t think I am done with TV,’ she told The Daily Telegraph. ‘I am for now but I may some day get back in but it has to be the right role and it has to be at the right time.’
Sam explained she wanted her next role to be less high-profile than Sunrise, citing the scrutiny she faced hosting Australia’s most popular breakfast show.
‘I am quite happy not to go at the pace or at the level I was at before because I don’t think that brought me much happiness,’ she said.
Farewell: Sam quit Sunrise in March, after eight years hosting the program with David Koch, saying she wanted to spend more time with her new husband, Richard Lavender (right)
Sam quit Sunrise in March, after eight years hosting the program with David Koch, saying she wanted to spend more time with her new husband, Richard Lavender.
She broke down in tears at the end of her final broadcast as she accused ‘some aspects of the media’ of treating her unfairly during her tenure.
A month before her departure, she had upset her Seven colleagues by saying the TV industry was filled with ‘narcissists’ and ‘sociopaths’ in a magazine article.
Not done yet: However, Sam revealed in late April she wasn’t finished with television. Pictured with her Sunrise colleagues (L-R: Sam Mac, Mark Beretta, David Koch, Natalie Barr and Edwina Bartholomew) on her last day at Brekky Central