Jana Wendt (born 9 May 1956 in Melbourne, Australia) is a leading television journalist in Australia. She was born to Czech parents who emigrated to Australia in 1949. Until August 2006, she was host of the Nine Network's Sunday program.

[edit] Background

Prior to her time with Sunday, she worked as a reporter on Australian 60 Minutes, as well as filing stories for the American CBS 60 Minutes. She has been host of A Current Affair, also on Nine, a host of Australian Dateline on SBS, Witness on Seven and a newsreader on ATV-10. She also did a number of specials for the ABC.

[edit] Personal Life

Wendt is married to producer Brendan Ward and has one son, Daniel. In 2004, a painting of Wendt by artist Evert Ploeg won the Packing Room Prize at the Archibald Prize.^[1]

She is a very private person, and has not been in the spotlight much since her departure from the Nine Network.

In 2003 there was much controversy when Wendt was named in passing as a resident of Sydney's landmark Connaught building in an interview by long-serving building manager Kerry Killorn, who was dismissed shortly after^[2] and died in 2007 aged 67 years old.^[3]

[edit] Awards and departure from the Nine Network

Wendt won the 1992 Gold Logie Award for her role as host of A Current Affair. She was the first recipient not to be there to accept the award.

Rumours of her departure from Nine began in June 2006, when the network announced it would merge its Sunday and Business Sunday programs. Leaks to the print media, reportedly from high levels within Nine and described by journalists as "ham-fisted", revealed that the network wanted to replace Wendt with Ellen Fanning.

CEO Eddie McGuire in particular was accused of trying to "white-ant" Wendt. On 1 September 2006 it was announced ^[4] that Wendt would leave the Nine Network. News reports suggested she would receive a payout of more than AU$2 million in lieu of the remaining 2½ years of her contract.

The absence of Wendt on the Sunday program's relaunch on 3 September 2006 was met with an unprecedented number of complaints that flooded the Nine Network's switchboard and of which the operator failed to keep count.^[5]

Wendt was then sacked from her regular 'Lunch' column for The Bulletin magazine, due to the association the magazine has with Channel Nine. Both have the same parent company, PBL.

On 12 September 2006, just ten days after she left the Nine Network, Jana Wendt agreed to appear on stage at Channel Seven's 50 years of television presentation. This was seen as a huge snub to Channel Nine, which had sacked her only days before.

She co-presented the News and Current Affairs 50 years celebration with Sydney news anchor, Ian Ross.

In 2007 she wrote a book, A Matter of Principle (MUP, ISBN 978-0522854145).

[edit] References

1. ^ "Jana wins packers' vote". The Sydney Morning Herald. 18 March 2004. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/18/1079199339945.html?from=storyrhs. Retrieved 17 January 2009.  (includes image)
2. ^ Dennis, Anthony (1 September 2003). "Concierge to the stars shown the door after 20 years' service". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/cgi-bin/common/popupPrintArticle.pl?path=/articles/2003/08/31/1062268473193.html. Retrieved 19 May 2009. 
3. ^ "Obituary". Obituary.com.au. 27 June 2007. http://www.obituary.com.au/obituary/index.php?s=killorn. Retrieved 11 June 2009. 
4. ^ Michael Idato: "Jana quits Nine", 1 September 2006, The Sydney Morning Herald
5. ^ Crikey - Viewers let Nine know what they think of the new Sunday