Jana Bohumila Wendt ( ; born 9 May 1956) is an Australian

Gold Logie The Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television, commonly referred to simply as the Gold Logie, is an award presented annually at the Australian Logie Awards. The Gold Logie was first awarded at the 2nd Annual TV We ...

award-winning television journalist, reporter and writer.

Early life

Wendt was born in Melbourne to Czech parents who emigrated to Australia in 1949. Wendt attended Presentation College, Windsor before graduating at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

(French,

Honours Honour (British English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a ...

) in 1979.

Career

Starting as a researcher for the

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, Wendt's television career began as a news presenter for

ATV-10 ATV is a television station in Melbourne, Australia, part of Network 10 – one of the three major Australian free-to-air commercial television networks. The station is owned by Paramount Networks UK & Australia. History In April 1963, the ...

evening news. In 1982 she then went on to be one of the first reporters on the Australian Nine Network's version of '' 60 Minutes'', as well as filing stories for the American CBS '' 60 Minutes''. She was host of ''

A Current Affair ''A Current Affair'' may refer to: * ''A Current Affair'' (Australian TV program), 1971–present Australian current affairs program that airs on Nine Network * ''A Current Affair'' (American TV program), a 1986–1998 American television news ...

'', also on Nine, until 1993, and host of Australian ''

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'' on SBS and ''Witness'' on

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. She also did a number of specials for the

. She returned to Channel Nine in 2003 to host '' Sunday''.

Departure from Nine Network

Rumours of Wendt's departure from Nine began in June 2006, when the network announced it would merge its ''Sunday'' and ''Business Sunday'' programs. Leaks to the print media, reportedly from high levels within Nine and described by journalists as "ham-fisted", revealed that the network wanted to replace Wendt with

Ellen Fanning Ellen is a female given name, a diminutive of Elizabeth, Eleanor, Elena and Helen. Ellen was the 609th most popular name in the U.S. and the 17th in Sweden in 2004. People named Ellen include: *Ellen Adarna (born 1988), Filipino actress *Ellen ...

. Then CEO

Eddie McGuire Edward Joseph McGuire AM (born 29 October 1964) is an Australian television presenter, journalist and Australian Football League commentator. He is also an occasional '' Herald Sun'' newspaper columnist. He hosts Channel Nine’s Millionai ...

in particular was accused of trying to " white-ant" Wendt. On 1 September 2006 it was announced that Wendt would leave the Nine Network. News reports suggested she would receive a payout of more than A$2 million in lieu of the remaining two and a half years of her contract. The absence of Wendt on the ''Sunday'' program's relaunch on 3 September 2006 was met with an unprecedented number of complaints that flooded the Nine Network's switchboard. Wendt was then sacked from her regular "Lunch" column for '' The Bulletin'' magazine, due to the association the magazine has with the Nine Network; both had the same parent company, PBL. On 12 September 2006, just ten days after she left the Nine Network, Wendt agreed to appear on stage at the Seven Network's ''50 Years of Television'' presentation, where she co-presented the News and Current Affairs section with Sydney news presenter Ian Ross, another former Nine Network employee. Wendt presented the Logies Hall of Fame award to the program ''60 Minutes'' at the 2018 Logies.

Personal life

Wendt married producer Brendan Ward in 1984 and they have one son, Daniel. In 2004, a painting of Wendt by artist Evert Ploeg won the Packing Room Prize at the

Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor ...

Awards

Wendt won the 1992 Gold Logie Award for her role as host of ''A Current Affair''. She was not at the presentation to accept her award, citing commitments to ''A Current Affair'', based in Sydney, while the awards were being presented in Melbourne. In 1997, she delivered the second Andrew Olle Media Lecture. Wendt won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2018

Kennedy Awards The Kennedy Awards, also known as the NRMA Kennedy Awards, are Australian awards for journalism based in Sydney, New South Wales, run by the Kennedy Foundation, and named in honour of Indigenous Australian journalist Les Kennedy, who died in ...

Books published

* ''A Matter of Principle'', Melbourne University Press, 2007. . * ''Nice Work'', Melbourne University Press, 2010.

References

External links

Wendt's
1997 Andrew Olle Media Lecture {{DEFAULTSORT:Wendt, Jana 1956 births Nine News presenters 10 News First presenters Australian people of Czech descent Gold Logie winners Living people Journalists from Melbourne Australian broadcast news analysts University of Melbourne alumni Australian television talk show hosts 60 Minutes correspondents 60 Minutes (Australian TV program) correspondents