Shock as Q&A host Hamish Macdonald QUITS the show まっただ中に flagging ratings

• e-mail

Hamish Macdonald has やめる the ABC いっそう少なく than 18 months after taking over as Q&A host - and almost a month since he last 前線d the show with flagging ratings.

The 40-year-old 放送者 代表するd generational change when he 取って代わるd baby boomer Tony Jones, who had hosted the 現在の 事件／事情／状勢s パネル盤 program since its debut in 2008.

Macdonald took over hosting 義務s in February 2020, just before the onset of the pandemic but Covid social distancing 支配するs meant the show for much of last year 欠如（する）d a studio audience.?

Scroll 負かす／撃墜する for ビデオ?

Hamish Macdonald has やめる the ABC いっそう少なく than 18 months after taking over as Q&A host to 悲惨な ratings

Ratings fell in 2021 as the program was 転換d from Monday nights to 9.35pm on Thursdays, with テレビ視聴者 numbers in April dropping to just 224,000, いっそう少なく than half the 600,000 level of 2012.?

The ABC 発表するd his 出発 on Monday with a 声明 賞賛するing his '優れた 18 months with the 国家の 放送者'.?

With Sydney in lockdown since June 26, Melbourne-based ABC 新聞記者／雑誌記者s David Speers and Virginia Trioli have filled in as Q&A presenters so the program could have a small studio audience.

Before the lockdown, Stan 認める was occasionally hosting the show in NSW.

Macdonald, who hasn't hosted Q&A since June 24, said he was 'enormously 感謝する for the 適切な時期 I've been given'.

'I'm really excited to be moving on to a new 適切な時期, and working more with the ABC in the 未来,' he said.

退役軍人 TV 生産者 Robert McKnight said テレビ視聴者s didn't like the 改造するd Q&A hosted by Macdonald.

'The 令状ing was on the 塀で囲む from the very beginning. テレビ視聴者s didn't connect with the new 判型 or host and numbers started 落ちるing,' he said on TV Blackbox.

Just before he started hosting Q&A, Macdonald was an 時折の presenter on Ten's The Sunday 事業／計画（する）, but he has continued filling in for Fran Kelly on the ABC's 無線で通信する? 国家の Breakfast program and 前線ing 時折の stories for 7.30.

The 40-year-old 放送者 代表するd generational change when he 取って代わるd baby boomer Tony Jones, who had hosted the 現在の 事件／事情／状勢s パネル盤 program since its debut in 2008

Most Q&A episodes have been filmed at the ABC's Ultimo studios in Sydney, 招待するing 批評 that it is too 焦点（を合わせる）d on inner-city テレビ視聴者s with cosmopolitan, left-wing 見解（をとる）s, 反映するd in the audience routinely jeering 保守的な 討論者／講師s.

総理大臣 Scott Morrison 辞退するd to appear on Q&A ahead of the May 2019 選挙 and he hasn't made a 選び出す／独身 外見 during Macdonald's time hosting the show.

Former 自由主義の PM Malcolm Turnbull however has made several 外見s, with his 穏健な 見解（をとる）s favouring more ambitious 活動／戦闘 on 気候 change more in keeping with the Q&A audience 感情.

Australia's international 国境 終結 in March 2020 meant Q&A was also unable to have big 指名する international celebrity guests to liven up the show, often 支配するd by 政治家，政治屋s reciting boring talking points.?

Hamish Macdonald (pictured with his boyfriend Jacob Fitzroy) took over hosting 義務s in February 2020, just before the onset of the pandemic but Covid social distancing 支配するs meant the show for much of last year 欠如（する）d a studio audience

Macdonald, who was born and raised at Jindabyne in the New South むちの跡s 雪の降る，雪の多い Mountains, took a different approach to hosting Q&A, sitting on the left of the 審査する instead of in the middle of the パネル盤 as Jones did.

Unlike his 前任者 26 years his 上級の, he 許すd guests to ask questions of each other and 差し控えるd from using the phrase 'I'll take that as a comment' for audience members 配達するing long speeches.?

Jones finished hosting Q&A in 2019 after his wife Sarah Ferguson was 指名するd as the ABC's next Beijing 特派員, a 役割 that had to be 取り消すd after 共産主義者 中国 悩ますd foreign 新聞記者／雑誌記者s.?

Macdonald, who was born and raised at Jindabyne in the New South むちの跡s 雪の降る，雪の多い Mountains, took a different approach to hosting Q&A, sitting on the left of the 審査する instead of in the middle of the パネル盤 as Jones did

Like Jones, Macdonald has also worked as a foreign 特派員.?

The ABC マスコミ 解放（する） 公式文書，認めるd the timeslot change had been a challenge.

'Macdonald had steered Q&A through challenging times during the 初期の coronavirus lockdown 同様に as guiding the program through the first timeslot change in its 13-year history to 8.30pm Thursdays,' it said.

The ABC's news director Gaven Morris hinted Macdonald would be 申し込む／申し出d 未来 freelance 役割s with the 国家の 放送者.??

'Hamish?has long been a part of the ABC family and we look 今後 to continuing that 関係 when 適切な時期s arise,' he said.