Updated ,first published
After almost a decade as a radio team, Gold Logie winner Carrie Bickmore and comedian Tommy Little have called time on their Carrie & Tommy national drive show and will exit the Hit Network at the end of the year.
Bickmore fought back tears while making the announcement on air on Wednesday, while her co-host Little said it was “certainly not how I wanted it to end”.
The future of the show had been a talking point in industry circles for some months.
“It’s not every day you get to come and have a laugh and call it your job with your best mate and the funniest guy in the country,” an emotional Bickmore said.
“I think we’ve been able to do something on this show that often people are too scared to do, to talk about stuff that sometimes is uncomfortable. We hope that we’ve had some small impact on your life in some small way … [and been] company for you on shitty days and [made] you laugh.”
Little said he was sad that this chapter of his radio career was coming to an end.
“It’s certainly not how I wanted it to end. I loved this job and I would have kept doing it for a long time, but I don’t always get my way,” Little said.
“I feel very grateful. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity. We’re going to be on air until the end of the year, and we’re going to try and make the best radio we can.”
Bickmore is rumoured to have been courted by ARN over recent months to move to rival KIIS FM to helm that station’s drive show in 2027. Whether Little was part of that discussion is unclear.
The KIIS drive shift is up for grabs with the Will & Woody drive show, hosted by Will McMahon and Woody Whitelaw, finishing up at the end of the year.
Matthew O’Reilly, the head of broadcast content for Southern Cross Austereo, owner of the Hit Network, informed staff via an internal memo of the end of the Carrie & Tommy show.
“Over the next few weeks, we look forward to celebrating everything Carrie and Tommy have given to their listeners over the last 10 years,” O’Reilly said in the note.
“Thank you to Carrie, Tommy and everyone who worked on the show, pouring their energy, creativity, and passion into making it what it is today. We wish them the very best for what’s next.”
No announcement has been made yet as to who will replace the pair in the drive shift next year.
Pencil case to blame for premier’s petrol station blunder
It is not quite the dog-ate-my-homework excuse, but Premier Ben Carroll has blamed a pencil case, forgetfulness and human error for an embarrassing moment at the bowser.
Carroll, who has toughened up the state government’s crackdown on crime since assuming the role of premier in July, found himself on the wrong side of the law on Monday night after he filled up his car at a petrol station in Airport West and drove off without paying.
“Late Monday night, I was running some errands and filled up the car with petrol. Found out yesterday I forgot to pay,” he fessed up on Wednesday morning.
A call from Victoria Police to the Department of Parliamentary Services alerted the premier to the bungle, and Carroll returned to the service station to settle his bill on Tuesday night.
“It shows that politicians are human beings and even premiers make mistakes,” Carroll said of the forgetful moment on Wednesday morning.
Speaking at Melbourne Assembly, he said he was on dad duty and running errands when the accidental drive-off occurred.
“Monday was a tough day for a lot of reasons, and I got home and I had a busy night on the phone, and my wife and I had a discussion,” Carroll said, referencing the attack on federal MP Helen Haines.
“She [Carroll’s wife, Fiona] was going to return [daughter] Maddie’s friend’s pencil case. I said, ‘I’ll do it and I’ll get petrol’. And then I found out the following day I didn’t pay,” he said.
“That has since been rectified.”
As it happens, Carroll is not alone in being a politician with problems at the petrol pump.
“I have been contacted by the former deputy premier John Thwaites, who told me, ‘Don’t worry, Ben. I didn’t pay for the petrol, and I also drove off with the nozzle in the car, with the petrol hose together’,” Carroll said. “And that made me feel a lot better.”
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush also weighed in on the petrol palaver on Wednesday, saying not every drive-off was a criminal matter.
“Our point of view is that a petrol drive-off is a civil matter until it’s proven otherwise,” Bush said.
“If it turns out that it’s a criminal matter, there was intent, etc, etc, charges will follow subsequently. But everyone’s got the opportunity to address an error.”
The commissioner said he was aware that the premier had paid his outstanding debt.
“We’re very careful not to criminalise every petrol drive-off. We do understand, and I’m very empathetic and sympathetic to petrol station owners who do suffer, but it’s not always criminal.”
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