Henry: evening shift out, end of story

Whether he stays or goes, Paul Henry says he is the one calling all the shots.

Henry is set to ditch his multimedia breakfast show to launch a new weeknight current affairs show in place of the 7pm Story, hosted by Duncan Garner and Heather du Plessis-Allan.

In typical braggadocio style, Henry said last night: ‘‘I am an exceptionally good communicator. If there was a change of this significance you can expect that I would be the one to communicate it.

‘‘Clearly that I haven’t is an indication it’s not true.’’

That contradicts strong rumours coming out of MediaWorks, that Henry will shift to an evening timeslot later this year.

It’s understood Story’s days are definitely numbered, with up to 20 jobs on the line.

But all options are on the table as to how a potential show featuring Henry would look.

The move to the evenings, long coveted by Henry, had been doing the rumour mill for some weeks at MediaWorks.

A source said Henry had been discussing a move to the 7pm slot for nearly a year.

‘‘The plan was always for Duncan (Garner) to move to the breakfast slot,’’ the Iaman exceptionally good communicator. source said.

It would mean Henry’s much-hyped battle against new Breakfast hosts Hilary Barry and Jack Tame would be shortlived.

But the source added: ‘‘I don’t think (Henry) cares about running away from a fight. He just doesn’t want to be getting up at 3am in the morning.’’

New MediaWorks chief news officer Hal Crawford hails from Australia, where there is a long tradition of halfhour bulletins, followed by 6.30pm current affair shows.

A MediaWorks spokesman said that since launch, Story has grown its target demographic audience of viewers aged 25-54, as well as all viewers (5+).

From 2015 to July 2016 the show has increased its total weekly 25-54 audience from 369,800 to 396,200.

The spokesman said Story had closed the gap on Seven Sharp in that demographic, and drawn a higher audience amongst 18-39 year olds.