Erin Molan’s Sky News replacement has been revealed, after she parted ways with the network late last year.
Sky News Australia pulled the pin on Molan’s Friday night public affairs program at the end of November, and now her successor has been named.
Danica De Giorgio shared the good news that she is taking over Molan’s slot in an Instagram post on Friday.
‘New year, new time slot, new show… this time with my name in the title!’ the fellow Sky News journalist and presenter wrote in her caption.
‘My new show launches tonight, join me 5pm Fridays for opinion and analysis on the latest news across the country and around the world’.
De Giorgio is well known at the network, having co-hosted the Danica & James show at 7pm on Sundays.
Erin Molan’s Sky News replacement has been revealed, after she parted ways with the network late last year. Erin is pictured
The political commentator and MC, who has over a decade experience in the industry, will now helm the Danica De Giorgio show at 5pm on Fridays.
Molan was one of the first to congratulate her replacement, writing in the comments underneath the announcement: ‘Congratulations beautiful!
‘You will be superb… as always’.
Last month, Daily Mail Australia revealed that political commentator and one-time Channel Nine NRL Footy Show host Molan had already hosted her final show at the News Corp-owned station.
Although network insiders suggested Molan was caught off-guard by the decision to cancel her show, Sky News Australia insisted they had ended their partnership with the host on amicable terms.
‘Erin has been a fantastic member of the Sky News team over the past three years, and has worked incredibly hard for her viewers, passionately advocating on the issues close to her heart,’ a spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
‘We’d like to thank Erin for her contribution to the network.’
Despite the fond farewell, Molan was believed to be a no-show at the station’s low-key Christmas party.
Sky News Australia pulled the pin on Molan’s Friday night public affairs program at the end of November, and now her successor has been named. Danica De Giorgio (pictured) shared the good news that she is taking over Molan’s slot in an Instagram post on Friday
Molan was one of the first to congratulate her replacement, writing in the comments underneath the announcement: ‘Congratulations beautiful!’
Daily Mail Australia confirmed she presented her hard-hitting weekly news program, Erin, for the final time on Friday, November 29.
Network colleague James Macpherson featured on the program instead of Molan the following week but viewers were told he was just ‘filling in’ for her and the program was still billed as Erin.
The decision to cancel Molan’s show came just months after the breakfast radio program she co-hosted alongside comedians Dave Hughes and Ed Kavalee was scrapped by Southern Cross Austereo’s struggling 2DayFM station in August.
The trio were replaced by the Hit Network’s Jimmy Smith and Nath Roye, who agreed to bring their night-time The Jimmy and Nath Show to breakfast for the remainder of the year.
The cancellation of Molan’s two key hosting roles is understood to have come at a significant financial cost to the veteran journalist.
Sources said she had been pulling in about $200,000 a year for her 2DayFM radio gig and a further $150,000 a year from her job with Sky News Australia.
The 41-year-old journalist joined Sky News Australia in July 2022 after parting ways with Nine after 11 years at the network the previous December.
She debuted with her own program, simply named ‘Erin’, at 7pm on July 19, initially replacing fellow Sky presenter Sharri Markson on Sunday nights while she was on maternity leave, before her show was moved to 5pm on Fridays.
Daily Mail Australia confirmed she presented her hard-hitting weekly news program, Erin, for the final time on Friday, November 29
Explaining her decision to change channels, Molan said she had been keen to break away from sports broadcasting and move into hard-hitting political coverage.
‘Just because I can be silly and funny and all of those things, does not mean that I don’t also have a real passion for politics or that I can’t be credible in other spaces,’ Molan told The Daily Telegraph at the time.
‘I have always deeply loved news and it has always been my passion, I have just been waiting for an opportunity to delve into that.
‘As my show launches, I think that the perception that maybe I am just that sports chick or that chick from The Footy Show will change,’ Molan continued.
‘Being a host on television, it doesn’t really matter what the subject matter is.
‘I have done entertainment, news bulletins, sport, I’ve hosted ridiculous segments on The Footy Show.
‘None of those things make me any less legitimate in another space. The ability to do a lot of different things, to laugh at yourself and be silly but also to be serious and credible when required, I don’t think any of those things are mutually exclusive.’
After cancelling her breakfast show, Southern Cross Austereo chief content officer Dave Cameron, who oversees the 2DayFM line-up, said the station would be announcing a full-time replacement ‘in due course‘.
Although network insiders suggested Molan was caught off-guard by the decision to cancel her show, Sky News Australia insisted they had ended their partnership with the host on amicable terms
It is understand Smith and Roye have since agreed to continue on in the timeslot on a permanent basis.
The departing hosts, Molan, Hughes and Kavalee, issued a joint statement at the time thanking their audience for tuning in throughout their time on air.
‘We’ve loved our time together on 2DayFM Breakfast, however, due to some of our families living in different cities we are unable to commit to 2025,’ they said.
‘So with a heavy heart we are moving aside so 2DayFM can find the team to take them forward in Breakfast
‘We are so grateful to Sydney for their support, and to double the number of listeners in three years is something we are immensely proud of, and we will miss each and every one of them.’
The decision to axe the show soon proved a flashpoint after Molan’s News Corp colleague Annette Sharp penned an opinion piece in Sydney’s Saturday Telegraph claiming that the decision to pull the pin on the hosts ‘had been coming since October 2023’.
‘With the expensive Hughes/Kavalee/Molan radio show struggling to make inroads in the breakfast slot and shedding about a third of its audience in the fourth and latest radio ratings (dropping from a 5 share to a 3.6 and finishing sixth behind 2GB, KIIS, WS, ABC, Smooth and Triple M), the writing was on the wall for the breakfast team whose appeal with 2DAY’s traditional female audience has always been in question,’ Sharp wrote on August 10.
‘Hughes, Kavalee and Molan were robbed of a chance to farewell their audience as 2DAY swiftly switched to a music-only format on Thursday, which some radio insiders predict may attract better ratings.’
Molan’s 2DayFM breakfast show, alongside comedians David Hughes and Ed Kavalee, was cancelled in August
The story attracted an almost instant rebuke from Molan, who remains a columnist with the Daily Telegraph, as she returned fire on the paper’s website less than four hours later.
‘Dear Annette,’ she wrote in an open letter.
‘Thank you so much for the interest you continue to show in my career. Just a couple of things, and I won’t take long here, but when you don’t give me a right of reply I’m forced to do it myself.
‘Just a couple of facts you conveniently omitted in your piece… In 3 years we took our Sydney breakfast radio show from less than 200,000 listeners to over 400,000 listeners – that is incredible growth.
‘My weekly 5pm show, Erin, on Sky News is regularly the number 1 rated show on the network on a Friday.
‘I also write a column for this newspaper and for Stellar Magazine… both seem to be fairly well received.
‘Southern Cross Austereo asked me to stay – I said no. I may not be everyone’s cup of tea, clearly I’m not yours, and that’s ok but please reach out in future when you are unsure of facts.’
Molan did not respond when approached by Daily Mail Australia at the time.
