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FOR Australia's women newsreaders, it is the final professional frontier left to conquer.
While female faces now front bulletins on every network in every timeslot, no woman is currently entrusted with anchoring the prime-time commercial news on her own. In Sydney, the biggest TV market, a woman has never presented full-time the No1 weeknight bulletin by herself.
At last, though, that barrier may be poised to fall, with the Seven Network confirming that long-time reader Chris Bath will take over its top-rating 6pm flagship news when incumbent Ian Ross retires.
"When Ian Ross leaves she will be taking over the 6pm bulletin Monday to Friday," Seven news director Peter Meakin told The Australian.
The network hasn't taken the decision lightly. "This is not unprecedented. But, yes, it's a comparative rarity on commercial TV," says Meakin. "There's a school of thought that there is a risk putting a woman on her own, largely because of female viewers not accepting female readers as authority figures.
"If you speak to any female presenter, they will universally agree they are more criticised than their male colleagues for their appearance.
"But I think we are bigger than that and I think Chris is bigger than that. She has been reading three days a week for some time now and ... our audience has embraced her well and truly.
"A lot of thought has gone into this and I know our audience will back us."
According to Bath's broadcast sisters, it's about time. They are keenly aware that every main commercial news program around the nation is presented either by a solo man or a male-female double-header.
As well as Ross, Seven has Peter Mitchell reading in Melbourne and double-headers in the other capitals: Kay McGrath and Rod Young in Brisbane, Susannah Carr and Rick Ardon in Perth, and Jane Doyle and John Riddell in Adelaide.
The only solo women readers in weeknight prime-time are on the ABC, which has Juanita Phillips in Sydney, Dominique Schwartz in Adelaide and Karina Carvalho in Perth.
"For mine, the last great bastion is the single female reader," says Doyle. "The big 6 o'clock spot has usually been a male precinct or a double-header. It has been a long time coming that a metropolitan commercial station has been prepared to go solo with a woman."
Sharyn Ghidella, who reads the weekend news for Seven in Brisbane and on its morning show Sunrise, says when she started her career a woman presenting the main bulletin by herself was unthinkable.
"It was just an accepted thing that men did it. And it takes time to break down that perception," she says. "So it's a notable change. No longer is the barrier there. And once it has been done, it isn't even thought about any more."
Phillips, who has read the ABC's Sydney 7pm news since 2003, believes a solo woman anchor in commercial prime-time is overdue.
"Commercial TV has a very 80s feel in terms of the news presentation," she says. "It's very much geared for older men who stick around forever and a succession of talented but apparently dispensable younger women who come and go fairly quickly."
Bath has long been considered the heir apparent to Ross, 69, who has been Seven's main Sydney reader for six years -- and threatening to retire for almost as many.
Earlier this month, however, her status was put in doubt when Seven poached former Nine newsreader Mark Ferguson, causing speculation he might gazump her for the top job.
Bath moved quickly to douse the rumours, telling radio station 2UE: "When Roscoe retires, I will be doing Monday to Friday and Fergo will be doing weekends. That's the plan."
According to TV historians, Australia's first solo female prime-time commercial news presenter was Jennifer Keyte, who read Seven's weeknight news in Melbourne from 1990. She quit in 1995 when the network decided to pair her with David Johnston.
Doyle read Seven's Adelaide weeknight news solo for six months in 2004 while her deskmate was off sick. She says there was no effect on the ratings. Nevertheless, in 2005 management appointed Riddell.
Anne Sanders also read Seven's primetime Sydney bulletin by herself from 1995 to 1997. At that time, the bulletin was a distant No2 to Nine, where Brian Henderson was unchallenged for almost four decades.
Now, much more is at risk. In May 2004, Seven News briefly overtook National Nine News in the Sydney ratings for the first time in more than 20 years. Today it is consistently on top, leading Nine's Sydney bulletin by an average 370,000 a night.
Seven's victory in the crucial 6-7pm news and current affairs timeslot was credited with giving the network the momentum to overcome the once indomitable Nine in the overall ratings, which it did in 2007.
Having the No1 news is worth millions of dollars in advertising, as well as delivering priceless bragging rights. To surrender the crown would be not only embarrassing, but expensive. With that in mind, Seven has been carefully preparing viewers for the change to come. Bath already reads the 6pm bulletin on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, as well as co-hosting weekend current affairs program Sunday Night. She also raised her profile with a coveted spot on the hit show Dancing With the Stars.
The groundwork has paid off. According to Audience Development Australia, producer of the Q-Scores service that ranks the popularity of personalities and TV shows, Bath is already more popular than Ross.
"I think female newsreaders have already made it and they don't need to prove themselves," says ADA's David Castran. "I don't know about the executives, but the viewers are very clear about what they like.
"The female readers have a certain warmth and personability that often the men don't have. There's a humanity that comes into the way the women can read a story, more than a man."
The newsreaders also question whether the attitudes of TV executives lag viewer tastes.
"I think it has been acceptable from the audience's point of view for a very long time," Doyle says.
Phillips says she still encounters "pockets of resistance".
"We get the odd viewer who rings up and complains bitterly that there are far too many women on TV, and in particular on the ABC," she says. "But I think most people don't mind who is delivering the news as long as you're good at it."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,25769569-7582,00.html
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