Nine’s biggest and best-know star is leaving the network that made her a household name after more than four decades in front of the camera.
Liz Hayes quietly announced she was walking away from Nine on Tuesday afternoon, confirming mounting speculation she would quit the station after her eponymous true crime series was brutally axed last year.
‘When I arrived at Nine I had little more than a notebook and a typewriter, but like my new and far more experienced colleagues, I carried with me an enormous passion for telling stories,’ she said in a statement.
‘I was blessed. I had found my tribe. Even Nine’s owner at the time, Kerry Packer, seemed to carry the same passionate story telling gene.
‘Of course since then much has changed. The media world has evolved as have I. What hasn’t changed is the need for good stories to be told, and I will continue to tell them.
‘I leave Nine grateful for the decades of experience, the wonderful friendships that have endured and deeply appreciative to the many people who trusted me to tell their stories.’
It is understood Nine’s influential director of television, Michael Healy, was loathe to lose Hayes – and the star-factor she brought to the network – and had done everything in his power to keep the highly revered, award-winning reporter at the channel, but to no avail.
Although the polished presenter was offered significant incentives and a sizeable, new contract to stay on, it is understood she had grown increasingly frustrated by the current set-up at 60 Minutes and was unwilling to remain on the program.
Questions have already been raised within the network about why Hayes had chosen to eschew a traditional on-air send off given the loyalty and contribution to the network over such a prolonged period of time.
Hayes’ decision to leave Nine comes as a doubly bitter blow to the network – given she will now be free to contribute to its fierce rival networks.
Far from stepping away from journalism and life in front of the camera, Daily Mail Australia can reveal Hayes has already been approached to work on a number of independent television productions and has no plans for retirement just yet.
Nine’s biggest and brightest star, Liz Hayes, is leaving the network after more than 44 years in front of the camera on the channel’s biggest shows, including hosting the Today show for 10 years and spending almost three decades on 60 Minutes
Hayes first joined Nine as a general news reporter in the network’s male-dominated Sydney newsroom in 1981 and was soon recognised as a rising star
Friends close to the star said that her passion and desire to tell important stories was far from diminished and that she was excited about the opportunity to focus on presenting ‘the big picture’ through more focused productions.
The highly-regarded broadcaster’s departure from Nine comes six months after Daily Mail Australia revealed the network had unceremoniously axed her true crime series, Under Investigation with Liz Hayes, amid brutal round of cost-cutting last August.
At the time the story was published, the channel was still to confirm the program’s fate with its headline star or the executive producer, Gareth Harvey.
Hayes had juggled fronting the popular investigation series while remaining 60 Minutes star reporter since its inception six years earlier.
Long-time Nine staff said they were shocked by the decision to can the program, particularly given Hayes had been nominated for a Silver Logie for her work fronting the production.
‘If that’s what they feel comfortable doing to Liz Hayes’ show, then nothing is out of bounds,’ one troubled network insider told Daily Mail Australia at the time.
‘Liz is a Nine legend and the face of the network. To even consider killing off her show is just brutal – it means absolutely no-one and nothing is safe.’
The network’s publicity department suggested Hayes would return to full-time duties on 60 Minutes but that did not happen.
The widely revered broadcaster fronted her eponymous true crime series, Under Investigation with Liz Hayes, for six years before it was axed by the network six months ago
Hayes was called upon to lead Nine’s live US election coverage alongside Karl Stefanovic in Washington DC last November
She has only appeared on Nine once in the past six months, heading up the channel’s US election coverage alongside Karl Stefanovic in Washington DC last November.
Insiders said one of Hayes’ chief concerns was the detrimental effect Nine’s merger with the former Fairfax newspapers had on 60 Minutes editorial direction.
It is understood the program’s evolving priorities – said to be increasingly driven by the company’s print interests rather than its television arm – had been an ongoing cause of contention.
Hayes, a down-to-earth farm girl who grew up in the outskirts of Taree on the NSW mid north coast, began her career at Nine as a general news reporter in Sydney after joining the station in 1981.
Her on-air presence, poise and precision interviewing skills saw her almost immediately recognised as a rising star.
After just five years with the network, she was installed as the Today show’s co-host alongside Steve Liebmann, fronting the nation’s then-number one breakfast television program for more than a decade during its prime.
In 1996, Hayes switched gears – and programs – and carved out a fierce reputation as one of the country’s leading long-form broadcast journalists after joining 60 Minutes.
Little more than 12 months after signing on with the current affairs staple, Hayes proved she had what it takes to rival the nation’s best investigative journalists by relentlessly tracking Australia’s most wanted pedophile, Robert ‘Dolly’ Dunn, to his Central American hideaway in the country of Honduras.
Hayes spent 10 years fronting the Today show alongside co-host Steve Liebmann
The talented journalist won nationwide acclaim after tracking the country’s most wanted pedophile, Robert ‘Dolly’ Dunn, to his Central American hideaway for 60 Minutes in 1997
Hayes worked with the Australian Federal Police to trap the disgraced school teacher
In the story, called The Sting, she worked with Australian Federal Police to lure the disgraced school teacher, wanted for 91 child sex offences, into a trap so he could be arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to life in prison.
The celebrated story, produced by Steve Barrett, Melanie Morningstar and Gareth Harvey, has since been labelled one of the best scoops of the century.
Hayes went on to travel the globe many times over in search of the world’s biggest scoops, covering war zones, interrogating fearsome and hardened international criminals and compassionately lending her voice to those in need.
Fellow stars across the country’s media landscape hailed the current affairs stalwarts’ contribution to television – and in particular 60 Minutes – in the wake of her resignation.
Former fellow 60 Minutes star Liam Bartlett, who now leads Seven’s rival investigative series Spotlight, said Hayes represented the best and brightest the industry had to offer.
‘Who would’ve thought that bright young girl from a dairy farm in Taree could become a long-standing media star who excelled at reflecting the very best of the network she represented for more than four decades?’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Well, simply anyone who really knew or worked alongside Liz!!
‘Because it’s that very reason, of being able to talk to anyone, from prime ministers to postmen to Hollywood pin-ups and relate to all of them, equally, that made her so special.
The versatile reporter has spent three decades scouring the globe for 60 Minutes stories
The 60 Minutes star conducts a ‘difficult’ interview with Jordan ‘The Wolf of Wall St’ Belfort
‘Her deeply ingrained qualities and values, combined beautifully with a natural curiosity and a terrific sense of humour, made the ideal ingredients to produce a journalist who never forgot where she came from.
‘For any aspiring young media types today, Liz is a case study in how to be wildly successful but always down to earth.
‘And remaining true to yourself – in an increasingly introspective and narcissistic industry is no small achievement. She will be sorely missed at Nine.’
Hayes offered the first hint she was contemplating leaving the station one year ago in a reflective profile piece published in the Australian Women’s Weekly.
‘I never thought I would still be a woman in television at my age. It’s a fickle business and when I started, it was a novelty to have a woman,’ she said.
‘I always used to think by the time I’m 40 I’ll be out of a job, and then maybe I’ll make it to 50 and then if I’m still here at 60, that’s extraordinary and I made that.
‘So I’m tootling along, wondering.’
Hayes grew up on her family’s Oxley Island dairy farm alongside four brothers in a devout Catholic family overseen by parents Bryan and Patricia Ryan.
Hayes (second from right) with fellow Nine stars Karl Stefanovic, Tara Brown and Sarah Abo
After leaving school, she initially took up a job with the state forestry commission before journalism beckoned and she applied for a cadetship at her local paper, The Manning River Times, at the age of just 17.
‘I didn’t get it because I was told they wanted a sports writer and I couldn’t be going into the men’s sheds after the footy,’ she told the Australian Women’s Weekly.
‘So they got a bloke. It turned out he wasn’t a great speller and it came back to me: ‘Would you like this?’ I remember sighing.
‘My mother said, ‘Of course, take it,’ and Dad’s saying, ‘But you’ve got this lovely government job why would you leave?’
‘My first day, I was sent to court. I had never stepped inside a court. My editor shouted as I was going out the door, ‘Don’t forget to bow.’ That’s all he said.
‘I was exposed to everything. I did the council chambers, police rounds, the country shows, the aquatic festival and a lot of car accidents. I loved it.
‘Everyone’s got a story and I think that’s when I started to empathise in a way that I hadn’t done before with people who are trying to achieve something or need help. I started to hear human stories.’
After moving to the bright lights of Sydney at the age of 21, Hayes spent some time working in a magazines before moving to Ten.
Hayes fronted her own investigative series, Under Investigation with Liz Hayes, for the past six years while also working on Nine’s current affairs staple 60 Minutes
Four years later, Channel Nine came calling and she switched to what was then the indisputably number one network in the country, as just one of two women in its male-dominated Sydney newsroom.
‘I was frightened beyond belief but because I have four brothers, I think I knew how to wrangle men,’ she said.
‘I had enough country in me to be quiet and watch and try not to stand out – other than the fact that you’re the only other woman.’
Stand out, though, she did – and 44 years on, Hayes leaves the network a changed place and as one of the most respected journalist in the country.
