Latest news with #SoniaKruger
Sky News AU
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sky News AU
'The show is not being cancelled': Seven denies Sonia Kruger in trouble after debunking reports Dancing With The Stars not renewed
Channel 7 has publicly denied reports that Dancing With The Stars Australia will not be renewed after speculation the cancellation could impact the show's hosts Sonia Kruger and Dr Chris Brown. Dancing With The Stars is set to return to Channel 7 next week with 12 popular Australian celebrities set to tackle the foxtrot. Kruger, 59, is reportedly under contract with Seven for over $1 million a year and currently hosts The Voice and Dancing With The Stars. The TV star, who began her career as a ballroom dancer and appeared in the iconic film Strictly Ballroom, has been closely associated with the dance series since it first aired on Seven in 2004. However, the TV star could soon be down to just one gig at Seven amid reports the upcoming season of the long-running dance competition series will be its last. A TV insider who spoke to claimed Seven was 'tipped to axe' Dancing With The Stars because the show is too expensive to produce. Seven's decision to 'revive' the show in 2021 was reportedly at the centre of contract negotiations to woo Kruger back from Channel 9. The contract, which made Kruger one of the highest-paid women in Aussie TV, also included gigs on the now-cancelled Holey Moley and Big Brother. If true, Kruger will be down to just her hosting duties on The Voice to justify her seven figure salary, a rarity in the industry amid a massive drop in viewers and advertising revenue in free-to-air. In a statement to the Daily Mail, Seven debunked reports that Dancing With The Stars will not return to screens in 2026 and insisted 'the show is not being cancelled'. Nine gave Kruger her first on-air presenting role on the series Wonder World! in the 1990s before she moved over to Seven to work as an entertainment reporter. In 2011, Kruger joined Nine for the second time where she hosted the morning program Mornings alongside David Campbell and its successor Today Extra, as well as Big Brother and The Voice. Kruger was rehired by Seven in 2019 by then-CEO James Warburton, who she infamously called 'God' in her Gold Logie acceptance speech. Despite decades of experience, Kruger was only nominated for the Bert Newton Award for Most Popular Presenter at the Logie Awards for the first time in 2022. She was first nominated for the Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television in 2022 and won the top gong in 2023.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Huge blow for Sonia Kruger as long-running television series faces the axe
Channel Seven 's Dancing with the Stars could be facing the axe. The broadcaster is rumoured to be cancelling the beloved Aussie reality series just a week before the 22nd season hits screens, leaving hosts Dr. Chris Brown and Sonia Kruger 's jobs up in the air, according to Insiders claim that the Seven network is tired of forking out large sums of money for the show's production, which is said to cost around $1million per episode. The network's tight purse strings explain why recent seasons have seen shorter production periods, now taking place over five weeks as opposed to ten weeks back in the early 2000s. This isn't the first time Dancing with the Stars has been cancelled by Seven. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. The broadcast was swiped off of Aussie screens in 2015 after viewership numbers made a swift decline. However, it was quickly picked up in 2019 by Channel Ten, who put it back down the following year. It came as a surprise when Channel Seven revisited the broadcast in 2021, with close sources revealing that a big factor in the show's return was Sonia's new role under the network's helm. The cancellation of Dancing with the Stars marks the third program hosted by Sonia, 59, that has been axed by Seven. In October last year, industry insiders claimed the popular Channel Seven star's future at the network could be up in the air. Despite the television favourite once being one of Seven's most in-demand stars, rumours circulated that may no longer be the case after changes at the network. One change included her former hosting gig on Big Brother jumping ship after the reality show moved to Network Ten in 2025 with a rebooted format and new host in Mel Trancia. Another big change for Sonia, who also hosts The Voice on Seven, was her husband Craig McPherson vacating his role as head of news and current affairs at Seven West Media in April. A Seven spokesperson rubbished the Daily Telegraph's claims that these developments had seen the star fall out of favour at the network. 'You are making things up. This is total fiction and completely wrong. To publish this rumour would be deliberately misleading,' the spokesperson said. Despite this, the publication claimed that a 'highly placed source' at Seven said that Sonia was 'vulnerable' citing her reported $1.3 million contract. 'Now Big Brother has gone, she will likely be doing less,' the unnamed source told the outlet. Representatives for the Gold Logie winner threw more water on the rumour fire, telling the publication Sonia was 'happy' at the network. 'Sonia is under a long-term contract with Seven, has not received a pay cut, and is very happy at the network.'
News.com.au
4 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Dancing with the Stars faces chop in huge blow for Sonia Kruger
The Seven Network is tipped to axe long-running reality show Dancing with the Stars after the forthcoming latest series wraps in July. A week before the 22nd season of the program is due to have its premiere comes word the broadcaster has decided to cancel the show. Such a decision would be a devastating blow to the career of host Sonia Kruger. According to industry sources Seven is no longer prepared to foot the bill for the expensive reality show for which production costs are estimated to come in at around $1 million an episode. That would explain why recent seasons have occupied just five weeks of Seven's production schedule and not 10 weeks as was the case back in the program's production heyday from 2005 to 2009. Seven's bean-counters have looked at the program and, we hear, decided the sun has set on the format – again. Having launched the show in 2004 Seven cancelled the broadcast in 2015 after ratings softened. Ten picked it up in 2019 and 2020 showcasing the talents of Amanda Keller as host before cancelling the program. Many were surprised when Seven renewed the show the following year in 2021 – the decision largely motivated, insiders said at the time, by the return to the network of Kruger in 2019. Kruger was co-host of the original local series alongside Daryl Somers. The cancellation of Dancing brings to three the number of Kruger-hosted programs Seven has ditched in recent years. This follows the network poaching Kruger from Nine signing on a seven-figure contract that made her one of the highest paid women on Australian television. Kruger was initially hired to host Big Brother which has since moved across the dial to Ten and golf show Holey Moley which was axed after one season in 2021. With only The Voice still on air, Seven finds itself under pressure to find a prime time vehicle for the versatile frontwoman. Jackie O versus Sam in battle of dating show blondes The latest battle for TV ratings is expected to pit blonde against blonde when radio's Jackie 'O' Henderson takes on Samantha Armytage as the big name presenters of rival dating shows Stranded on Honeymoon Island and The Golden Bachelor. Two years after the honeymoon ended for contestants, Seven has finally found a slot in its schedule for the Endemol Shine production Stranded on Honeymoon Island which is narrated by Henderson. There has been much conjecture about why Seven has taken so long to broadcast the expensive program which has been described as a cross between Married At First Sight and Survivor and sees producers match strangers looking for love before abandoning the couple, still dressed in their wedding garb, on a deserted island with few distractions. The last thing the network would want to do with a copycat (and possibly inferior) reality show is pitch it into direct competition with either of those two established programs. What a crack programmer constrained by budgets might do is hold onto the program and strategically schedule it against – or immediately ahead of – another dating show, one which has had its own gestational issues – in this case The Golden Bachelor hosted by one-time Seven breakfast star Armytage. The producers of Nine's Bachelor have had their own teething problems with The Golden Bachelor. These have included delays in finding an appropriately televisual 60-year-old+ bachelor, problems creating chemistry among older contestants and issues with the Sydney location. Seven network programmers will be hoping they've found a sweet spot in the year for Stranded on Honeymoon Island after shooting it in 2023. Jackie 'O' recently announced the program is slated to air this month. The KIIS FM breakfast star who was absent from her radio show for three days last week due to illness – she had the flu – and was off again this week when her radio partner Kyle Sandilands, a fellow Seven star, called in sick on Thursday, should by then be sufficiently recovered to hit the airwaves in earnest to plug the show. Chairman Kim's in-flight entertainment ABC chairman Kim Williams appeared to be in terrifically high spirits as he took to the air on board a Qantas Dreamliner flight from Sydney to New York last month. While this column can't confirm whether Williams sidled up to the nation's top brass in the Qantas's chairman's lounge prior to his flight as experienced and pampered chairs routinely do, this column can confirm Ita Buttrose's successor wasted little time slipping into his complimentary Qantas jimmy-jams for the 22-hour haul to the Big Apple via Auckland. According to eye witnesses, it was an upbeat and talkative Williams who boarded flight QF3 to New York. The ABC on Thursday clarified Williams' Sydney-New York May 16 business class flight was not funded by taxpayers. A spokeswoman furthermore said the ABC chair was travelling 'alone on non-ABC matters'. The statement suggests Williams will be picking up his own tab. While Williams' selections from the dinner menu drew little reaction – the options of seared snapper with vegetables, Korean braised chicken with rice or beef fillet with chimichurri with a selection of cheeses to follow, apparently equally distracting to all – his in-flight entertainment choice did prompt chatter. Not for the passionate classicist a catalogue of pre-flight downloaded arts documentaries, BBC news programs and stimulating audio compilations. While the ABC chairman's Kindle did keep him entertained for a good portion of the journey it was the media boss's film selection that brought chortling from nearby travellers. Williams, who was chief executive of Foxtel for a decade until 2011, has long been a supporter of Australian content and homegrown talent so his choice of a Nicole Kidman film was not surprising. Some squirmed in their seat when he hit play on Babygirl, a raunchy film in which Kidman plays a sexually frustrated woman drawn to a younger man who dominates her. Our eyes in the sky were unable to confirm whether Williams made it through Kidman's first torrid scenes and into her first bowl of milk, or he decided it was a little too much for aircraft viewing. No word on what he was doing in New York although his trip did coincide with the New York Upfronts preview season. Networks battle it out for investigative spoils Nine's statement on Thursday concerning the creation of a dedicated longform current affairs and investigations unit appears motivated, in part, by recent strikes against the media company by rivals Seven and Ten. The news that 60 Minutes' executive producer Kirsty Thomson will head up Nine's new unit is seen as an endorsement of the woman who lost the support of veteran reporter Liz Hayes before Hayes quit the network in February. Two months later Hayes turned up at Seven's Spotlight for a one-off guest appearance, a move seen as a public rebuke of Thomson and Nine which last year axed Hayes' Under Investigation series. Following Hayes' not so subtle swipe has come Ten's decision to launch its own news investigations unit. Claims Ten will invest $20 million in the unit have spurred talk the unit would come at the expense of Ten's much-depleted The Project.
Daily Telegraph
05-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Telegraph
Sonia Kruger sells luxury Sydney home for $19m
TV presenter Sonia Kruger and her husband, former head of news and current affairs at Seven, Craig McPherson, have pocketed $19m from the sale of their Mosman house. Their five-bedroom Stanton Rd trophy home settled last week with its cash buyer being the Primo Smallgoods matriarch Maria Hunt. MORE: Trump's newest tower boasts 'world's highest pool' The couple, whispered to have sold for circa $20m, have been pinpointed as spending $16.1m on a nearby deceased estate. The three-bedroom Stanley Ave home was sold by the family of milk bar proprietor George Psaltis and wife Hariclea, who had paid $31,000 in 1967. MORE: Trick rich are using to get $200m+ mansions Kruger moved to Mosman nine years ago, paying $6.475m for an original house. Her 2016 purchase marked her return to Mosman as she once owned a two-bedroom Musgrave St apartment which cost $490,000 in 1999 and was sold in 2005 for $927,500. The couple then commissioned Corben Architects to redesign it, with another level. The $1m makeover included the addition of a lift. Kruger had sold her Warrawee home for $3,725,000. The imposing abode had been bought in 2008, just before her six-year marriage to banker James Davies ended. They also owned an Elanora Heights home. MORE: Chilling reason home builds abandoned The former champion ballroom dancer, who found fame as Tina Sparkle in the 1992 film Strictly Ballroom, retains her Waratah Mills, Dulwich Hill investment apartment, which was bought off the plan for $255,000 in 2001. Kruger's new home is described as a 'once in a lifetime opportunity with spectacular panoramas'. The ad describes it as a 'complete blank canvas': that's real estate speak for what the pictures reveal is a falling-down house. There was certainly plenty of interest, given that this is Mosman's best non-waterfront street. MORE: Panelbeater snaps up $450m Sydney shopping centre It's arguably the prime spot on the Balmoral slopes, with uninterrupted views sweeping beyond North Head, with 190-degree panoramas from every elevation. 'Build a multi-storey sanctuary with views from each level,' says the ad. It's also only 550m from Balmoral Beach. Auctioneer James Kerley had nine bidders register, with three of them active. It's understood the pair intend to demolish the old home, in the same family for generations, and rebuild on the 743sqm block.
News.com.au
05-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Sonia Kruger sells luxury Sydney home for $19m
TV presenter Sonia Kruger and her husband, former head of news and current affairs at Seven, Craig McPherson, have pocketed $19m from the sale of their Mosman house. Their five-bedroom Stanton Rd trophy home settled last week with its cash buyer being the Primo Smallgoods matriarch Maria Hunt. The couple, whispered to have sold for circa $20m, have been pinpointed as spending $16.1m on a nearby deceased estate. The three-bedroom Stanley Ave home was sold by the family of milk bar proprietor George Psaltis and wife Hariclea, who had paid $31,000 in 1967. Kruger moved to Mosman nine years ago, paying $6.475m for an original house. Her 2016 purchase marked her return to Mosman as she once owned a two-bedroom Musgrave St apartment which cost $490,000 in 1999 and was sold in 2005 for $927,500. The couple then commissioned Corben Architects to redesign it, with another level. The $1m makeover included the addition of a lift. Kruger had sold her Warrawee home for $3,725,000. The imposing abode had been bought in 2008, just before her six-year marriage to banker James Davies ended. They also owned an Elanora Heights home. The former champion ballroom dancer, who found fame as Tina Sparkle in the 1992 film Strictly Ballroom, retains her Waratah Mills, Dulwich Hill investment apartment, which was bought off the plan for $255,000 in 2001. Kruger's new home is described as a 'once in a lifetime opportunity with spectacular panoramas'. The ad describes it as a 'complete blank canvas': that's real estate speak for what the pictures reveal is a falling-down house. There was certainly plenty of interest, given that this is Mosman's best non-waterfront street. It's arguably the prime spot on the Balmoral slopes, with uninterrupted views sweeping beyond North Head, with 190-degree panoramas from every elevation. 'Build a multi-storey sanctuary with views from each level,' says the ad. It's also only 550m from Balmoral Beach. Auctioneer James Kerley had nine bidders register, with three of them active. It's understood the pair intend to demolish the old home, in the same family for generations, and rebuild on the 743sqm block.
