Tony Armstrong to leave ABC News Breakfast

ABC presenter Tony Armstrong has announced he will leave ABC News Breakfast next week.

The Gold Logie nominee will host a new ABC show screening in 2025 that will be announced later this year, the national broadcaster said in a statement.

Tony Armstrong announcing his departure live on air this morning.Credit: ABC

Armstrong informed News Breakfast viewers of his departure on Tuesday morning.

“I’m not very good at doing this stuff. But I just want to thank absolutely everyone – all of you guys, my colleagues, everyone behind the camera, all the producers, all the people who watch as well and come up in the street and say g’day and all that kind of stuff,” Armstrong said.

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“It’s been a whirlwind sort of three-and-a-touch years. A lot’s happened. Feels like I’ve been on a bit of a rocket ship. But the support that I’ve got from News Brekkie and news in general has been, yeah – it’s been amazing.”

Armstrong began as fill-in sports presenter in 2020, before taking up the role full-time the following year.

In 2022, he won the Graham Kennedy Award for most popular new talent at the 2022 Logie Awards, then the 2023 Bert Newton Award for most popular presenter and was shortlisted for the Gold Logie earlier this year.

He thanked everyone who had helped him along the way, adding: “And I’ve needed a lot of help – I’m not very good at the tools. This stuff’s alright, but the computers and stuff, not so great. Haven’t logged into an email for a while. If there’s one in there, I’m sorry...! But, yeah. Huge thank you.”

Armstrong said he would miss the News Breakfast couch, but not the early alarm. Host Michael Rowland said there was no one he’d rather sit through an earthquake with – a reference to their on-air experience of an earthquake that shook Melbourne in 2021.

Armstrong is a proud Gamilaroi man. “I want to thank News Brekkie so much for giving me a platform and enough leg rope to be myself. I’m sure there are a lot of other places where I’m sure I wouldn’t have been afforded the opportunity and the bandwidth to kind of show my personality the way I have. So, thank you.”

More to come

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