Channel Seven employees turn on the network’s biggest stars – as viewers slam the new talent including a comedian and astrologer

Channel Seven staff are worried about their jobs amid mass layoffs and are said to have turned their anger on the network’s biggest stars.

Sunrise presenters Natalie Barr and Matt ‘Shirvo’ Shirvington earn hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary each year. According to some insiders at Seven, tensions between employees behind the scenes are starting to rise.

A source told Ny Breaking Australia on Thursday that some believe Seven is “slowly sinking” as workers at the bottom of the ladder are hit hardest and cut back, while TV stars are still making big money.

“It’s not just the bigger talents who are getting the extra money, it’s also the people in management… There’s definitely resentment,” the insider said.

“Unspoken resentment, of course, but it’s a lot of what we talk about out of earshot. We express our anger and contempt for it. The general idea is that we’re on a very slowly sinking ship.”

Ny Breaking Australia has reached out to Seven for comment.

Nat, 56, who has presented Sunrise since June 2020, has never revealed her exact salary, but it is believed she earns more than $1 million a year from presenting Australia’s most popular breakfast program.

Co-host Shirvo, 45, joined the program in June 2023, replacing former star David Koch, who reportedly earned more than $1.5 million a year despite working only four days a week.

Shirvo, a former Olympic sprinter, reportedly signed an initial salary of $400,000 a year with the network, with the salary set to increase once ratings came in.

A source told Ny Breaking Australia at the time: ‘Shirvo is young, handsome and charismatic, but he is relatively inexperienced, which is why he gets half of what Kochie earned.’

The insider said they expect his salary to increase to $750,000 if the ratings and audience feedback work in his favor.

It comes after Channel Seven confirmed a controversial change to its TV news bulletins, introducing an astrological report from ‘Astro Tash’, following divisions within the network over a radical overhaul following the axing of 150 jobs at the channel.

With the likes of Sunrise presenters Natalie Barr, 56, (right) and Matt ‘Shirvo’ Shirvington, 45, (left) raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries each year, some insiders at Seven have said tensions are starting to rise between employees behind the scenes

Several insiders said Tuesday that the atmosphere at the station is now tense, with some staff members “unhappy” and taking sick days to seek work elsewhere after a new regime came to power and sought to shake things up.

A 10-second astrological report just before the weather forecast and the 6pm announcement, and a weekly comedy sketch on Fridays at 6:57pm by Mark Humphries are some of the key changes viewers will notice over the coming week.

Meanwhile, many viewers don’t seem to be happy either. Australians are threatening to boycott Seven after the network introduced the new satirical segment, hosted by comedian Mark Humphries.

Meanwhile, many viewers don’t appear to be happy either, with Australians threatening to boycott Seven after the network introduced the new satirical segment, hosted by comedian Mark Humphries (pictured).

The 6:57pm news will become a weekly feature following the Friday news bulletin and is just one of many changes being made to the channel.

Humphries decided to make some jokes about President Joe Biden after making a series of gaffes during a high-pressure press conference.

“Today, people around the world waited with bated breath for news of Joe Biden, the leader of the (for now) Free World,” the comedian began.

His press conference was delayed by more than an hour, presumably because the president was late, or more likely, staggered late.

Meanwhile, reports emerged on Friday that Channel Seven Queensland newsreader Sharyn Ghidella (pictured), 58, had been fired over the phone from the network where she had worked for 17 years.

“And you know it was serious because of the way it was billed by the White House. A big boy press conference. And that’s technically correct if you use Benjamin Button’s definition of “boy.”

“Biden, who is 81 but doesn’t look a day over 90, spoke fluently on a range of topics and allayed voters’ concerns about his age. That’s what I’d like to tell you.”

Viewers were divided over the sketch: ‘You sacked Sharyn Ghidella and now you have a really unfunny, stupid, idiotic idiot at the end of the news!’ wrote one woman on X, while a second added: ‘I will never watch Seven News again.’

Meanwhile, reports emerged on Friday that 58-year-old Ghidella, a long-time newsreader at Channel Seven Queensland, had been fired over the phone from the network where she had worked for 17 years.

Ghidella, the face of Seven News in Queensland since 2007, confirmed the news in a fiery Facebook post on Friday.

She said she finally got her “tap on the shoulder” while she was at the salon, admitting it was a relief after the stressful weeks of media layoffs.

According to Ny Breaking Australia, morale was already “low” following the Bruce Lehrmann fiasco on the Spotlight show and the firing of veteran reporter Robert Ovadia.

And the series of new changes implemented following the appointment of new director of news and current affairs, Anthony De Ceglie, are being viewed with suspicion by some network news insiders.

A source told Ny Breaking Australia on Thursday that some believe Seven is “slowly sinking”, with employees at the bottom bearing the brunt of the burden and making cuts, while TV stars continue to earn big bucks. Pictured: Former Sunrise presenter David Koch

One critic described the changes as “depressing,” saying: “All the journalistic credibility we’ve worked so hard to build for so many years is being destroyed. People are devastated. It feels like a funeral here.”

But the new boss hit back at critics, insisting that morale is “great” and that “trying new things” is part of the network’s bold new future.

Mr De Ceglie presented the changes as a long-awaited overhaul of a set format that has not changed for decades.