{"id":281546,"date":"2026-02-13T03:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T03:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/281546\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T03:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T03:31:10","slug":"speculation-mounts-over-channel-seven-presenter-mel-mclaughlin-after-she-disappeared-from-the-airwaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/281546\/","title":{"rendered":"Speculation mounts over Channel Seven presenter Mel McLaughlin after she disappeared from the airwaves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Speculation is mounting over a Channel Seven presenter&#8217;s lengthy absence off air following the return of a popular colleague.<\/p>\n<p>Seven sports presenter Mel McLaughlin has not been seen on air since mid-January, having gone on leave after hosting the network\u2019s Summer of Cricket coverage.<\/p>\n<p>Veteran presenter Matt White returned to Channel Seven last month to fill in for McLaughlin. He has worked at SEN mornings in recent years after finishing his role at Channel 10 in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Inside sources say White\u2019s comeback blindsided McLaughin, according to new.com.au.<\/p>\n<p>McLaughin has also missed out on a plum role hosting the network\u2019s Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games coverage, the publication has heard.<\/p>\n<p>Seven on Friday confirmed McLaughlin will be on leave for a further two weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMel is taking some well-earned leave after a massive summer of sport and will be back in a couple of weeks ahead of the NRL season,\u201d a 7News spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>SkyNews.com.au understands McLaughlin will return to her Sunday to Thursday 7News role.<\/p>\n<p>The network has not yet unveiled its Commonwealth Games line-up, but it is believed McLaughlin will be involved in Channel 7\u2019s sport and news coverage.<\/p>\n<p>It comes after White, who previously spent a decade at Channel 7, <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.skynews.com.au\/lifestyle\/celebrity-life\/veteran-sports-presenter-set-for-television-comeback-with-channel-7-after-sixyear-break\/news-story\/c9785f14c63a372c44d951f6c6bcf858\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"c9785f14c63a372c44d951f6c6bcf858\" data-tgev-label=\"lifestyle\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">returned to the channel on January 18<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>During his time away from TV, White had worked at SEN mornings and ran a farm with his wife on NSW\u2019s mid north coast.<\/p>\n<p>He is now set to lead Channel 7\u2019s NRL and 2026 Rugby League World Cup coverage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m pumped, ready to rumble, it is time to come back,\u201d White previously said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe chance to do what I love, which is live TV again, is something that I don\u2019t take for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The network last month announced \u201crecord-breaking\u201d Summer of Cricket coverage, reaching 16.8 million people on its Seven and 7plus Sport platforms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeven\u2019s record-breaking Summer of Cricket continues, with the Big Bash League (BBL) recording its biggest audience in six years off the back of The Ashes becoming the highest rated Test series ever on Seven,\u201d a Seven statement on January 28 read.<\/p>\n<p>7plus Sport viewing rose 126 per cent, while the network\u2019s Ashes average total TV audience was up 12 per cent compared to last summer\u2019s Australia-India test, the statement read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speculation is mounting over a Channel Seven presenter&#8217;s lengthy absence off air following the return of a popular&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[23677,156,157491,157490,111,139,69,41167,213,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-281546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-channel-7","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-matt-white","11":"tag-mel-mclaughlin","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-presenter","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}