Bath, who has been outspoken about commercial television’s male-dominated culture, will leave at the end of July to be replaced by Melissa Doyle

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Chris Bath, the first woman to read the number one news bulletin on commercial television in Sydney, has quit the Seven Network where she spent 20 years as a presenter and newsreader.



The chairman of Seven West Media, Kerry Stokes, praised Bath’s professionalism and sense of humour.



“After two decades of impeccable work at Seven News and more recently, hosting and reporting for Sunday Night, Chris has established a legion of fans on both sides of the camera,” Stokes said on Tuesday.



But Bath’s decision to walk away from Seven without a new job comes as no surprise to her colleagues.



The 48-year-old journalist has had a long-running feud with Seven’s news director Chris Willis and the two have not spoken to each other in years. Seven sources said Bath’s contract was up next month and negotiations had stalled.



“It has been a tough decision to leave, but years ago I left a great job in regional television because I didn’t want to say ‘What if?’ about life, and I feel with all that experience on board now, the time is right again to explore new horizons,” Bath said in a statement.



“I want to thank the network for giving me the chance to enjoy every broadcast journalism experience possible; from reading news to assignments abroad including East Timor, Bali, Gallipoli, royal weddings and various Olympics, to interviewing pollies on Face to Face, 11am and Sunday Sunrise, to Witness and Sunday Night, to the glorious anarchy of anchoring breaking news events for hours with our first class studio crews, to tangoing to AC/DC under a mirror ball on Dancing with the Stars.



Bath made history in 2009 when she replaced the late Ian “Roscoe” Ross and became the first woman to read the leading bulletin in the competitive market.



But she was dumped as the network’s top news anchor when Nine gained the lead in the ratings.



Seven management replaced Bath with her understudy, Mark Ferguson, in early 2014 in an attempt to increase the ratings against a resurgent Nine.



Bath was relegated to reading the lower-rating Friday and Saturday night shifts as well as continuing to host Sunday Night.



Bath is a forthright personality and has been vocal about commercial television’s male-dominated culture and obsession with the physical appearance of women.



“You either become a pretty, pretty princess who bats her eyelids and just sits perched on the edge of a seat riveted by everything that every man ever says to you,” Bath told a Women in Media forum last year. “Or you become a swearing, leaning-back bloke that says ‘no worries’ … That’s what I chose.”

“Because TV is so hooked into your appearance, I found it really difficult after I had a baby to be televisually appealing. I felt pressure to lose weight. I felt pressured to conform to the televisual norm.”

“There is always that threat – even though you’re not allowed to talk about it – that you have a use-by date as a woman in television. And that was looming over my head too. And I didn’t believe that was just feminist literature; I’d seen it go on around me.”



When she leaves at the end of July, Bath will be replaced by former Sunrise co-host Melissa Doyle, who will now front Sydney’s 6pm bulletin on Fridays and Saturdays.