The on-air walkout that inspired Georgie Tunny's new chapter
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A Listener Production.
Hey, it's Chris Spear with you. Welcome to The Weekend Briefing, where we chat with the humans behind the headlines. And this weekend, it's Helen Smith's parting gift to us here at The Briefing, and it's her chat with the wonderful Georgie Tunney. Now, you'll probably remember Georgie from The Project, sharing the desk with Waleed Ali and Sarah Harris every night on Channel 10. And you can still catch her on your telly every weekend as the host and face of Channel 10's Weekend News. In this chat, Georgie tells Helen about the 2am starts early in her career that nearly broke her, the job offer she turned down that changed everything, taking on the amazing race with her fiancé Rob Mills, the real newsroom moment that inspired her debut novel, and how a self-proclaimed people-pleaser from the womb finally found her confidence and herself, all while being beamed into living rooms right around the country.
And of course, a little later on in the show is The Weekend List, this weekend with senior producer of The Briefing, Alex Tai, where we recommend what to watch, see, do, eat and listen to. But first, here's Helen's chat with Georgie.
Georgie, welcome to The Weekend Briefing. Oh, thank you so much. Now, I want to start, you grew up in Brisbane, you first moved to Sydney as a cadet for the ABC. What drew you to the world of journalism and this wild news cycle that we're currently navigating?
Oh, wow. Do you know what? I think that when I was younger, I was so obsessed with sport, like beyond obsessed. I wasn't good at it. I was enthusiastic. But in all honesty, I had an obsession with the Brisbane Broncos. And I thought, now, how could I make that my day job? And I loved writing. And I thought, hang on a second, what if I just became a sports journalist? And that was honestly from that moment, I think I was like, I would have been pretty young. I would have been like eight or nine, like year three or four. And ever since I had that in my mind, I just ran with it. And, you know, when you're growing up, people are like, what do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to do? And I would always just say sports journalism.
Like that's just what I wanted to do. And I kind of just like kept pursuing that as I went through school. My mum was like, you know, I had the grades and she was like, you should be a lawyer. And I was like, nah, too much reading.
Yeah.
Um, yeah. And then, yeah. And then she's like, oh, you should be, you should be like a doctor. And I was like, nah, that's shift work. Yeah. Okay. And then I got into journalism and I was like, oh yeah. Okay. So there's a, there's quite a bit going on here. Um, but it was also very early on with the cadetship that I was very fortunate enough to get. Uh, I got thrust in front of a camera really, really quickly. And I was doing live crosses very, very quickly. I was broadcasting almost immediately. Um, And I think I got hooked on the adrenaline of it all. Yeah.
So you went into a job that, yeah, it's a lot of reading and a lot of shift work, actually. But I also heard that you briefly wanted to be a dentist, but then you thought, no, teeth are actually quite gross. How would I want to do that? Yeah. But I want to go to that, those 2 a.m. starts that you used to do at ABC. How did you manage that?
Yeah.
Looking back, I don't know, in all honesty. I mean, I think about how I felt just in terms of in my body at the time and with some distance and many years away from it now, the overwhelming answer is not well. Like I wasn't good. But when you're in it, I loved breakfast television. Like I grew up just adoring it. I thought that is the pinnacle for me if I could be on a set like that with a team like that, like that's, that's all I'd ever want to do. And so when I was in it, I was actually living, it sounds so cliche, but I was living the dream. I was living my dream. And when you are that tired, your friends that you become very close to all the people that you work with, and they're that tired too.
So you kind of bond immediately.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–4:18
2
How did Georgie Tunny first get into sports journalism and what inspired her as a child?
4:18–10:45
3
How did 2am starts and breakfast TV shape Georgie’s early newsroom experience?
10:45–20:08
4
Why did Georgie turn down a major presenting role and how did that decision change her career?
20:08–35:59
5
How did The Project help Georgie combine hard news and entertainment on air?
35:59–45:59
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from The Briefing
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