A Current Affair (Australian TV series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from A Current Affair (Australia))

For the American television program of the same name, see A Current Affair (US)

A Current Affair (or "ACA") is an Australian television current affairs programme, broadcast on the Nine Network. The program airs nationally at 6:30pm weeknights in all capital cities and is produced in the studios of TCN-9 in Sydney. Like its main rival broadcast on the Seven Network, Today Tonight, A Current Affair is notorious for its sensationalist reporting. The series is frequently described as Tabloid television with its stories rotating around sensationalised community issues such as diet fads, miracle cures, welfare cheats, building rorts, greedy landlords, tenants from hell, lenient judges, unfair convictions and neighbours from hell.

It was first broadcast in 1971 hosted by Mike Willesee, screening weeknights at 7.00pm. Willesee left Nine in 1974 to move to the rival 0-10 Network, and then in 1976 moved to the Seven Network to present a rival current affairs program Willesee At Seven. Journalist Mike Minehan took over presenting A Current Affair after Willesee's departure. The program ended in 1978 following strong competition in the 7.00pm timeslot from Willesee At Seven and Graham Kennedy's Blankety Blanks on 0-10.

In 1984, Willesee returned to the Nine Network to present a mid-evening current affairs program titled Willesee, screening Monday to Thursday nights at 9.30pm. The following year, Willesee moved to the earlier 6.30pm timeslot and extended to five nights a week. In 1988, former 60 Minutes reporter Jana Wendt took over as host of the program and the title A Current Affair was re-instated.

The comedian and actor Paul Hogan had a somewhat out-of-place comedy segment during the early 1970s episodes. Ray Martin took over from Jana Wendt in 1994. Mike Munro took over the hosting role in 1999 after being a reporter for the program. Mike Munro was removed from the program in 2002 and returned to This is Your Life, 60 Minutes and later National Nine News. Ray Martin returned in 2003 and signed off at the start of December 2005, after unimpressive ratings.

In 2002, NWS-9 in Adelaide produced a local version of the program hosted by weekend news reader Georgina McGunniss. It carried national stories, but featured more local stories including the lead up to that year's AFL Grand Final. The program was short-lived due to the strong competition of 7's Today Tonight.

Over the 2005/2006 summer, ACA was rested to enable a major revamp of the program to take place. A Current Affair had seen its ratings decline for most of 2005 against arch-rival public affairs show Today Tonight on the Seven Network. Tracy Grimshaw took over as host of the show on Monday 30 January 2006.