The ABC has announced that Patricia Karvelas will be jumping behind the mic on RN Breakfast, taking over from Fran Kelly in 2022. After 17 years, Kelly will be leaving RN Breakfast on December 2nd.
Karvelas is currently the host of RN Drive and Afternoon Briefing on ABC News.
Karvelas said: “It is an honour and privilege to step into what I have long considered the best job on radio, setting the national agenda every weekday morning and providing the conversations and interviews that will keep ABC audiences well informed of the issues that affect them. This is particularly important given we are entering an election year.
“I have huge shoes to fill coming after the remarkable Fran Kelly and I am humbled to be the nation’s morning broadcaster at this important time. Fran made the show an important part of the day for news, information and the conversations that help us understand each other. I want to continue that standard.
“I am passionate about getting to the truth and asking questions that I know listeners want asked, regardless of where they live in Australia. Whether it is holding those in power to account or talking about arts and culture or sport, I cannot wait to get behind the RN Breakfast mic and deliver for ABC listeners.”
Fran Kelly
After announcing in October that she would be stepping down, Kelly said that choosing to leave the role she’s had since 2005 was the hardest decision she has ever made. Speaking about Karvelas’ appointment, Kelly said: “Patricia is a natural fit for RN Breakfast. Her boundless energy and strong journalistic instincts, coupled with her personal warmth and extraordinary work ethic means she has what it takes to keep the program doing what it does best – driving the daily news agenda and bringing the audience along on a wild ride of politics, popular culture, social issues, science, sport and music. There’s no other program like it!
“Patricia and I have worked together on The Party Room podcast for the past five years and I can vouch firsthand for her passion for politics. I will exit on Thursday knowing my beloved RN Breakfast is in great hands.”
A former ABC 7.30 political editor and European correspondent for the ABC, Kelly will continue to play a key role at the national broadcaster in 2022 and beyond, including in its federal election coverage and as co-host of the political podcast The Party Room, along with other special projects to be announced next year.