Broadcaster Caroline Wilson featured on the 3AW Rumour File this morning. The implication being that she might be changing channels – moving from Channel Nine to Channel Seven.
The Rumour File caller had his rumour branded “changing channels”. The call went like this:
“Two football personalities from a TV show are following their colleagues to another station.”
The 3AW breakfast team with Ross and Russ and station manager Stephen Beers
The caller didn’t have much more to offer. 3AW breakfast hosts Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft then took over and posed a number of questions. “Are they both male,” asked Stevenson. The show then played a clip of Caroline Wilson claiming, “You’re a bit of beat-up merchant.” Another clip featured Wilson saying, “Absolute bulltish”. The short segment then ended with another Wilson clip: “You’re a pair of absolute dills.”
Updated: Caroline Wilson’s colleague at 3AW and on Footy Classified, Matthew Lloyd, confirmed tonight he’s “bitterly disappointed” Wilson has decided to make a bombshell move to Channel 7. He was speaking on 3AW’s Wide World of Sports.
“I’m bitterly disappointed but no one is bigger than the show,” he said on 3AW.
As first flagged on 3AW’s Rumour File on Monday morning, Matthew Lloyd has confirmed Caroline Wilson will make the shock TV switch.
If Seven has in fact secured the services of Caroline Wilson, and another as-yet-unnamed Nine contributor, they will be joining Kane Cornes who has just one week left at Nine.
The moves to rebuild Seven’s AFL offering comes ahead of the 2025 season where Seven will be able to stream its weekly AFL matches. So far people wishing to stream AFL coverage had to subscribe to either Foxtel or Kayo Sports.
Seven’s new director of network sport, Chris Jones, recently told Mediaweek about the planned changes to programming coming in 2025.
“Our football coverage is fantastic, but there’s certainly opportunities for us to grab more share of audience,” said Jones.
“I would love to have more programming on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next year where we can tell AFL stories, and feature them prominently on 7plus and on Seven.”
What about new commentators and analysts? “When the weekend rolls around, yes, let’s bring in fresh talent. I don’t think we’re done yet from that point of view.”
Seven’s Chris Jones
See also: Seven’s new sports boss: Chris Jones details AFL, cricket plans and a whole lot more
In addition to Cornes, there’s been speculation Seven has also targeted Foxtel’s Gerard Whateley.
“There’s an ambition from our [AFL] team to set the agenda, perhaps a little more than what we have in the past.” Jones talked about “analysis shows for the football lovers where we can dive into what’s going on and why, the politics of football, the trade stories, and more.”
He added the 2024 team continues to do a great job. “Right up until Grand Final day they have all done a remarkable job. On that day we have four-time Premiership players and Premiership captains Luke Hodge and Joel Selwood.
“Dale Thomas has been an absolute sensation this year. He is going from strength to strength and is going to be a huge part of the team moving forward. We already of course have Matthew Richardson who’s probably the most loved, based on all of our sports broadcasts from an expert point of view.
“There’s already great depth, but we’d like to bring even more talent into the team to complement those that we’ve already got.”
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