The future of the Seven network’s Today Tonight is uncertain and it may not return to air, Mumbrella understands.

The show has been sidelined for the past 17 days to make way for a one-hour news bulletin supplemented with content from the Today Tonight team, a formula that sources at Seven say will continue.

Mumbrella has been told by senior Seven executives that the experiment of a one-hour bulletin, to replace the Today Tonight show, has been under discussion for “several” years.

It was the recent bushfire crisis that gave executives a chance to extend 6pm bulletins to 7pm, and then monitor the ratings difference between news and Today Tonight filling the 6pm-7pm hour.