Waleed Aly has resigned from his radio and TV roles at the ABC and the smart money is on him joining The Project on Ten as a permanent replacement for Charlie Pickering.
Aly is a regular co-host of The Project on Fridays alongside hosts Carrie Bickmore and Peter Helliar and it is understood the Ten show is keen on getting him onboard full time.
Pickering’s spot has been filled by Rove McManus but the comedian has indicated he won’t stay on the desk beyond 2014. His production company, Roving Enterprises, makes The Project for the Ten network.
Sources say both the Ten news chief, Peter Meakin, and The Project’s executive producer, Craig Campbell, are huge fans.
Aly has served on the executive committee of the Islamic Council of Victoria and often comments on Australian Muslim affairs.
His fellow Ten personality and News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt is unlikely to approve. “I have long considered Waleed Aly, the former spokesman of the Islamic Council of Victoria, to be our most prominent apologist for Muslim extremism,” the host of Ten’s The Bolt Report wrote on his blog in September.
“He does not openly support jihadism, of course, but does attack its critics and rationalise or wilfully overlook some of its excesses. He opposes western attempts to fight back in the Middle East.”
Aly, who is a columnist for Fairfax Media, announced his departure from Radio National’s Drive show on Monday, saying he had “decided to pursue other opportunities next year”.
He also hosted an ABC TV show Big Ideas which was axed last month along with ABC2’s The Roast.
“It’s one of the rarest privileges in the world to have the chance to build a show from nothing, to make a brand-new mark on a station as revered as RN,” he said. “There’s nothing I can say to do justice to it, and give RN due gratitude.
“My three years on RN Drive have been some of the most enriching of my life. That is what happens when you work with such a formidable team and talk daily with such a sharp audience. I’m immensely proud of what we’ve built and, whatever the rest of my professional life holds, this experience will stand as a colossal landmark.”
Aly was hired by the ABC in 2012 as part of a push to get younger talent on Radio National, which has an older audience. He has been a popular host of Drive on Mondays through to Thursdays and has also appeared on Q&A.
A versatile talent, the 36-year-old is an author, academic and, according to his bio, a rock musician.
RN’s Drive will be presented entirely from Melbourne next year owing to budget cuts. The ABC has yet to announce a new host.
The Ten network has been approached for comment.
