Jimmy Kimmel roasts 7News hosts' Novak Djokovic ‘a**hole’ video

After going viral in Australia earlier this week, the explosive leaked video of 7News co-anchors Rebecca Maddern and Mike Amor calling Novak Djokovic an a***hole has now appeared on US talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

The controversial clip, which was reportedly captured before the news program went live on Tuesday night, showed the journalists discussing their honest opinions about the tennis star.

While plenty of Australians have since weighed in on the incident, TV host Jimmy Kimmel shared his thoughts during the opening monologue of his show on Thursday night.

“Have you been following the legal battle between Novak Djokovic and the Australian Government?” he began.

“It’s a very big story Down Under, one that led to this exchange on TV news where these anchors were apparently unaware they were on the air,” he said, before playing a snippet of the off-air discussion.

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“Whatever way you look at it, Novak Djokovic is a lying, sneaky, a***hole,” Rebecca remarked in the footage, questioning whether Djokovic isolated in the days after testing positive for Covid-19 on December 16, with photos emerging of him attending events in Serbia.

“It’s unfortunate that everybody else stuffed up around him. To go out when you know you’re Covid-positive - well, I don’t think he was even Covid-positive…”

Mike also labelled Djokovic an “a***hole”, saying: “You’ve got a bulls**t f***ing excuse and then he fell over his own f***ing lies, which is what happens right?”

After the clip played, which was met with laughter from the studio audience, Jimmy said that he wished all TV anchors were as candid as Rebecca and Mike.

“Why isn’t all the news like that? I would watch the news every night,” he joked, adding, “‘I think he’s an a***hole… Now let’s check in with Ron in the Channel 9 weather centre.’”

While Channel Seven is currently investigating how the video was first leaked on social media, 7News experienced a bump in ratings the following evening.

Wednesday night’s broadcast received an increase of 40,000 viewers compared to the previous show, despite the controversy not being mentioned on-air.

Seven Network Director of News and Public Affairs, Craig McPherson, shared a statement with Yahoo saying: “The illegal recording was of a private conversation between two colleagues. It was an underhanded, cowardly act in breach of the Victorian Listening Devices legislation the perpetrator of which will be accordingly dealt with when found.”

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