ABC’s Tony Armstrong, Michael Rowland mock Tracy Grimshaw’s A Current Affair Allison Langdon snub
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ABC stars Michael Rowland and Tony Armstrong brutally mocked Tracy Grimshaw’s iconic farewell to A Current Affair after she clumsily snubbed her potential successor.
Rowland, who co-hosts ABC News Breakfast, took to Instagram to emulate the guard of honor Grimshaw received Thursday night when she retired from the current affairs show after 17 years.
Grimshaw’s colleagues formed a guard of honor for the esteemed TV journalist and clapped for her as she left Nine’s office for the last time.
But her emotional farewell was marred by a hilariously awkward moment when Allison Langdon, who is widely rumored to be Grimshaw’s replacement, reached out for a hug.
Grimshaw seemed to shake her head and instead hugged Langdon’s Today Show co-host Karl Stefanovic and gave him a hug and a kiss.
Rowland, who took a vacation on Friday, recreated the chilling moment with fellow ABC host Tony Armstrong.
ABC News’ Michael Rowland has brutally mocked Tracy Grimshaw’s iconic farewell video as he walks through a guard of honor as he leaves to go on vacation
The vision began with Rowland and his colleagues applauding as he walked down the hallway of ABC’s studios in Melbourne, while the newsreader hugged highfift and his colleagues.
Armstrong then opened his arms for a hug, only to be snubbed by Rowland, who shook his head sternly and walked on.
As Rowland continued hugging and kissing his co-workers, Armstrong pretended to be furious at his co-worker’s disapproval, dismissing him and watching in horror.
The camera then panned to Armstrong, who covered his face with his hands in mock disbelief.
In the video, he rejects reporter Tony Armstrong’s hug, mimicking Grimshaw’s awkward encounter with rumored replacement Allison Langdon, from whom she deflected a hug as she left the ACA studio for the last time.
The witty Instagram reel received a chorus of applause online, including from TV and radio hosts.
“This is an Oscar-winning performance from everyone involved,” ABC Radio’s Megan Burslem wrote.
“Hahahaha Tonyyyyy,” wrote Channel Nine’s Karl Stefanovic.
Even snub Tony Armstrong collaborated on the video and said, “Can you believe this man?”
The parody video comes as Tracy Grimshaw signed for the last time on Thursday night and was sent off with applause, hugs and well wishes from her Channel Nine colleagues as she left the ACA studio.
Grimshaw hugged several members of staff, including Stefanovic and presenter Peter Overton, but passed Langdon.
Tracy Grimshaw appeared to reject Allison Langdon’s hug after she presented her last-ever A Current Affair on Thursday night
Speaking on Friday morning’s Today show, Langdon addressed the awkward moment, admitting she “didn’t get much sleep” after the incident.
“That breaks my heart,” Langdon said, watching the clip.
‘I’m devastated. I mean, I turned to you at the time and said, “Tracy Grimshaw just brushed me.” When you get brushed by your hero, I must say it hurts.’
Footage of her farewell shows Grimshaw walking through a guard of honor and when Langdon goes in to hug her, she appears to reject the embrace.
Grimshaw brushed her brutally and seemed to shake her head
Then she hugged Karl Stefanovic who was standing next to Langdon
Stefanovic said Grimshaw wrote an apology to Langdon for ignoring her at the honor guard.
“Ally, I just watched last night’s guard of honor and I saw you go in to give me a hug,” Grimshaw said in her statement.
“And I hugged damn Karl! I’m sorry I missed you. I was so overwhelmed and clearly lost sight of your petite head as his large boofhead loomed into view. Big sorry.’
“Ah relief!” Stefanovic sighed and described the moment as one of the “biggest snubs on Australian television.”
‘I’m devastated. I mean, I turned to you at the time and said, “Tracy Grimshaw just brushed me.” When you get brushed by your hero, I must say it hurts,” she said
Langdon is believed to be in consideration for Grimshaw’s position as host of A Current Affair, with an announcement reportedly set to be made as early as next week.
Kyle Sandilands appeared to confirm Langdon as Grimshaw’s replacement during an interview with the long-running host on Wednesday.
Speaking to Grimshaw on his KIIS FM radio show, the shock jock said he knew the replacement was the Today show host.
Sandilands claimed he had a private conversation with Karl Stefanovic, co-host of Langdon’s Today show, who asked him for advice on a possible replacement for her.
“I feel like I know because I’ve talked to [Karl] Stefanovic,” he told Grimshaw after confronting her about her replacement.
“Well, let me just tell everyone it’s Ally. It’s not my intention to burst the Channel Nine bubble.’
Sandilands said Stefanovic had not told him their conversation was “confidential.”
‘Maybe that was a personal conversation? I don’t know… But he didn’t ask me not to say anything,’ he continued.
Grimshaw remained coy when pressuring rumors of who her replacement will be, saying any candidate for the job is “an exemplary person.”
“I really hope Channel Nine would replace me with a dud,” she joked.
“Unfortunately, they’re replacing me with someone excellent.”
“I can’t possibly give you a hint, but you’ll soon know,” she added. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you found out next week.”
On her last show, a tearful Grimshaw thanked Australians for their support of A Current Affair, as a slew of famous faces bid farewell to the longtime presenter after 17 years on the show.
“I’m terrible at the GB word, you know, the word that ends with ‘bye’ and begins with ‘good’, because I’m going to bluff and you all know it won’t be pretty,” Grimshaw said.