The Seven Network has confirmed its tightly produced late-night news offering The Latest will disappear for a two-month hiatus over summer.
Hosted by Michael Usher, The Latest will broadcast its final bulletin for this year on Thursday, December 5. The program is then not scheduled to return until Monday, February 3.
TV Blackbox understands Seven’s desire to have Usher focus on presenting the Sydney bulletin, while Mark Ferguson is enjoying a summer break, was a factor in resting the program.
Seven launched The Latest in December last year and aired the bulletin across summer to capitalise on viewers tuning in for Big Bash cricket
The late-night bulletin initially aired seven nights per week. However, this was soon reduced to just four (Monday-Thursday), with The Latest regularly commencing past 11pm.
The decision comes at the same time as Nine has confirmed its 4pm local news bulletins will switch to a national format across the summer non-ratings period.
Featured
Seven is also resting their local 4pm bulletins over summer with a single National 4pm bulletin from Sydney on days where there is no cricket. The only local bulletin on Seven will be the 6:00pm News.
Update: Local 4pm News is still airing for Perth/WA, while the rest of the country receives a national 4pm Bulletin