Dallow and Petrie away to edgy start

Simon Dallow and Wendy Petrie, happy to get through the first night of a new era on One News. Picture / Martin Sykes

"It's not about me," those television presenters assure their humble viewers in the new One News promotion.

This must be true, because Sir Edmund Hillary and Ahmed Zaoui then say it's about them, and children and firefighters claim it is about them.

Not about news anchors Wendy Petrie and Simon Dallow.

But, of course, it is a little bit about them because they are the ones whose mugs are on the television, and nobody's going to watch someone they think is a dolt night after night.

So a taxi driver in the promo tells us, "Wendy, she's hot," and he likes that.

TVNZ's hope for a new age begins with hot Wendy and Simon, side by side at the revamped set in Studio Four for the first time.

They've had a four-hour rehearsal on Sunday and an hour before the news last night. They've had the "ra-ra the troops" speech from boss Bill Ralston.

But there is a slight problem in that the silly season has stuck around, meaning no real news for the grand launch into the post-Judy era. The nerves in the control room have turned it silent.

With four minutes to go, Helen the autocue operator storms into the hushed room and hollers, "Okay, God bless us all. Goodbye," and hurries back into the studio.

Simon and Wendy run through the intro and nothing goes wrong - which makes director Charles O'Kane even more nervous.

"I'm always concerned when we get the rehearsal right. Something's going to go wrong when that happens."

Because it's the law, stuff does go wrong.

Simon is reading the bits meant for Wendy and vice-versa, and Karen on weather is canny enough to realise Simon is not the blonde who just introduced her so changes her thanks to Wendy instead.

After the first nervous segment, after they've read through stories about fires and car crash victims, they're off air and laugh with relief.

Simon jokes about a moment of paranoia that there was something on his lip. Wendy jiggles in her chair and drinks her herbal tea.

Later on, Simon has a wee stumble in a piece about fires in Australia but by the post-weather segments they're into it and ad-libbing like crazy about Faberge eggs and Chris Cairns, to keep Helen on her toes.

Sports presenter Neil Waka rounds off the sports news with an acknowledgment that for the first time in 16 years, it's not Judy Bailey he's crossing back to.

"Simon and Wendy, welcome to the 6 o'clock news. You guys look great," he says.

At 6.40pm Charlie asks, "How do we finish the programme tonight?"

And because it's the first night and everyone would just like to plain old get through in one piece, they opt for the safe rather than the dramatic:

Simon: "That is One News this Monday."

Wendy: "Tonight is around 10.30, and from us, goodnight."

Then it's over, with no wardrobe malfunctions, no Freudian slips.

As they leave the studio, cue applause and the popping of corks.

There is clapping for Wendy, then clapping for Simon and then no clapping for Helen, who decides this is all wrong and yells, "What about me and my autocue-ing?"

And because she has both the power and the sense of humour to wreak all sorts of havoc on future nights, someone claps for her, too.

Simon castigates himself for stumbling and hopes he'll soon get used to the new format, which is faster than the old. Wendy laughs about "first-night nerves" and how anybody could make a little stumble.

Charles moans faux-dramatically about the muddle-up, rolls his eyes and eloquently adds, "You can pick your nose, but you can't pick your crew."

Then Simon has to go to his child's birthday party, so he kisses Wendy on the cheek, thanks her and she says, "I'll see you tomorrow."

By then, it will not be the first day and there won't be receptions heralding a new age, but just months of waiting for remote, unknown viewers to make their own little votes, spelled out in cold black numbers on graphs.

Because it's about the viewers. Oh, Hilary Barry and Mike McRoberts were on TV3 at the same time.