| A Current Affair | |
|---|---|
 A Current Affair logo | |
| Also known as | ACA |
| Genre | Current affairs |
| Presented by |
|
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons |
|
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes - including commercials |
| Original release | |
| Network | Nine Network |
| Release | 22 November 1971 (1971-11-22) – 12 April 1978 (1978-04-12) |
| Release | 18 January 1988 (1988-01-18) – present |
A Current Affair (orACA) is an Australian current affairs program airing weeknights and Saturday nights on theNine Network. The program is currently hosted byAllison Langdon andDeborah Knight (Saturday).
A Current Affair was first broadcast on 22 November 1971, withMike Willesee, screening on theNine Network weeknights at 9:30pm, shifting to 7:00pm in 1972. For part of its early run, the comedian and actorPaul Hogan had a comic social commentary segment. Under Willesee, ACA was a Transmedia production for the Nine Network.[1]
When Willesee left Nine in 1974 to move to the rival0–10 Network (now known as Network 10), journalist Mike Minehan took over presentingACA. Other hosts included Sue Smith, Kevin Sanders andMichael Schildberger.[1][2][3][4]
The originalA Current Affair was cancelled on 28 April 1978 due to strong competition in the 7:00pm timeslot fromWillesee at Seven onSeven Network andGraham Kennedy'sBlankety Blanks on the 0–10 Network.
In 1984, Willesee returned to the Nine Network to revive the format in a series titledWillesee, screening Monday to Thursday nights at 9:30pm. The following year,Willesee moved to the earlier 6:30p.m. timeslot and extended to five nights a week, running until 1988, when Willesee's production company, Transmedia, sold the rights to the program to the Nine Network.
When Willesee left the presenting role, former60 Minutes presenterJana Wendt took over on 18 January 1988 and the show once again becameA Current Affair. This was the same week theSeven Network's soap operaHome and Away was introduced, and in Melbourne whereDerryn Hinch debuted rival current affairs programHinch at Seven.
TheSeven Network introduced direct competition withReal Life, which later becameToday Tonight.Jana Wendt left the program in November 1992, unhappy with an ACA story showing topless women.[5]
In 1993, originalACA hostMike Willesee took over for the whole year. In February 1994,Ray Martin took over. Martin signed off at the end of November 1998.
From 1999 to 2002,Mike Munro hosted. When he left the program in 2002, he returned toThis Is Your Life,60 Minutes, and laterNational Nine News in Sydney.
After Mike Munro's departure, Ray Martin returned in February 2003, and signed off again at the start of December 2005. During the 2005/2006 holiday period, theNine Network announced thatACA was to be "rested" for four weeks to enable a major revamp of the production to take place. On 30 January 2006, two weeks after the program's return,ACA was re-launched with new hostTracy Grimshaw. On September 5, 2022, Grimshaw announced that she would step down as host in November 2022 after 16 years, withAllison Langdon to host from 2023.[6]
| Tenure | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1971–1974 | Mike Willesee | |
| 1974–1978 | Michael Schildberger | |
| 1984–1987 | Mike Willesee | Willesee, direct predecessor ofA Current Affair which continued with the same format and the same theme tune |
| 1988–1992 | Jana Wendt | |
| 1993–1994 | Mike Willesee | |
| 1994–1998 | Ray Martin | |
| 1998–2002 | Mike Munro | |
| 2003–2005 | Ray Martin | |
| 2006–2022 | Tracy Grimshaw | |
| 2023–present | Allison Langdon |
Deborah Knight,Leila McKinnon andSylvia Jeffreys are the main fill-in presenters when Langdon is on leave.Ben Fordham,Karl Stefanovic, Dimity Clancey, Brady Halls,Peter Overton andEddie McGuire, among others, have also filled in.
In January 2022,Tracy Grimshaw scaled back to 4 days a week hosting from Monday to Thursday withDeborah Knight hosting on Friday.
| Tenure | Host |
|---|---|
| 2020–present | Deborah Knight |
In March 2020, a Saturday edition was launched during the ongoingCOVID-19 pandemic, hosted byDeborah Knight. It was made permanent in December 2020.[7]
Launching in 1991,QTQ-9 inBrisbane produced a local version of the program, titledExtra. It carried local stories including the lead up to its NRL Grand Finals. Despite its eighteen long years of popularity and ratings success, the local current affairs program was axed, due to a major schedule cleanup for making space for Nine's now-scrapped one-hour current affairs program,This Afternoon, hosted byAndrew Daddo, Katrina Blowers andMark Ferguson from 4:30pm weekdays starting the following Monday after its final ever broadcast. The decision was part of a push to nationalise lead-in content for the network's struggling news bulletins. The game showHot Seat was moved to replaceExtra at 5.30pm.
In 2002,NWS-9 inAdelaide produced a local version of the program hosted by weekend news presenterGeorgina McGuinness. It carried national stories, but featured more local stories including the lead up to the 2002 AFL Grand Final. The Adelaide edition was short lived due to the very heavy competition of theSeven Network Adelaide'sToday Tonight.
In January 2008,WIN Corporation announced that a new local version ofACA would be produced in Western Australia to replace the east coast version hosted byTracy Grimshaw. It was hosted by Louise Momber, with special investigatorsPeter van Onselen and Michael Southwell.[8] The first state based edition sinceAdelaide in 2002, the Perth program's initial host, former news presenterSonia Vinci, resigned prior to the show's commencement and was replaced by Louise Momber. The program was launched on 20 October 2008. A week later on 27 October, WIN launched an Adelaide version of the show onNine Adelaide, with Adelaide'sNational Nine News reporterKate Collins presenting.[9] Both versions were short-lived – on 30 November 2009, WIN announced that Perth and Adelaide would return to the national format.[10]
In 2009,Extra was axed with theNine Network investing money into other areas within the network. AllExtra reporters were spread across the network in other reporting capacities fromA Current Affair toNine News.
Michael Smyth was a fill-in presenter forKate Collins
LikeToday Tonight, the program's former rival onSeven,A Current Affair is often considered by media critics and the public at large to use sensationalist journalism – as depicted in the parody television showFrontline – and to deliberately present advertising as editorial content, as previously exposed on theABC programMedia Watch.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Stories covered by ACA rotate around community issues i.e. diet fads, miracle cures, welfare cheats, shonky builders, negligent doctors, poorly run businesses and corrupt government officials.
In 1996, the show reported on the Paxton family from the impoverishedMelbourne suburb ofSt Albans. The family were told that the show was about helping the family members to get jobs, but the version that aired claimed that the family were "dole bludgers" refusing reasonable offers of employment. After the story aired, the family received death threats.[19]
In September 2006 ACA was ordered to pay over $320,000 to former Australian swimming coach Greg Hodge in relation to indefensible defamatory allegations made in a 2003 story relating to Hodge's conduct towards a former swim student.[20]
In March 2010 ACA was found to have defamed acclaimed plastic surgeon Peter Anthony Haertsch in allegations aired in a 2008 report about a Gold Coast woman's breast enlargement procedure, and ordered to pay $268,000 damages.[21]
In June 2008 ACA broadcast a program about Queensland property developer Lev Mizikovsky. Mizikovsky sued ACA claiming he was defamed by the broadcast and in November 2011 a jury agreed, but found the defamatory meanings were defensible.[22] Mizikovsky is now liable for costs, which are reported to exceed $2 million.[22]
On 7 November 2012, a segment was broadcast giving the impression thatAsian people were taking over a shopping centre inCastle Hill, New South Wales. After numerous viewer complaints, theAustralian Communications and Media Authority found the segment had breached the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice in three clauses, including "containing inaccurate factual material", "placing gratuitous emphasis on ethnic origin" and "likely to provoke intense dislike and serious contempt on the grounds of ethnic origin". Fill-in hostLeila McKinnon made an on-air apology on 13 September 2013.[23][24]