Popular ABC presenter announces he is leaving

Former AFL player and Logie winner Tony Armstrong has announced he will be leaving the ABC.

Armstrong is set to finish up with ABC News Breakfast in October, according to the ABC, and thanked the team.

“I just want to thank Brekky and the broader ABC News team for welcoming me in with open arms and helping me grow over the past few years,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong, a Gamilaroi man, has been with the ABC since 2020, when he started as a fill-in sports presenter.

He began full-time work in 2021, and has since won the Graham Kennedy Award at the 2022 Logie Awards for most popular new talent as well as the 2023 Bert Newton Award for Most Popular Presenter.

ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland expressed his sadness over the move in a post to Instagram.

“I am so sorry three years of talking sport and swapping gags with him is about to end,” Rowland wrote.

“Tony has brightened so many mornings. I am so proud News Breakfast has provided him the platform to become an award-winning household name.

“Tony’s an engaging colleague and a good friend. In fact there’s no one I would rather sit through an earthquake with (Yes, we did. See pic #2).”

ABC News Breakfast host Bridget Brennan called Armstrong a “wonderful friend”, and said the team is “going to miss his infectious and caring nature”, according to the ABC.

“I know it’s meant so much to me and to thousands upon thousands of First Nations viewers waking up to see Tony representing us on the daily,” Brennan said.

Armstrong will officially finish up next Friday October 4, however the ABC has revealed he will host a new show with the network in 2025.

Details of the new show are set to be released later this year.

More to come …