EXCLUSIVE
Nine TV executives feared the worst when Seven news supremo Anthony De Ceglie was spotted leaving a secret meeting with one of their biggest stars, Eddie McGuire.
The Seven boss was seen at the Toorak HQ of McGuire’s production company, JAM TV, last Tuesday during De Ceglie’s flying visit to address Melbourne Press Club.
As news of the meeting filtered back to Sydney, it sparked speculation inside Nine that De Ceglie was trying to convince the former Millionaire Hot Seat host to switch channels.
It comes as Seven has been aggressively snapping up their rival’s biggest Aussie Rules personalities all year.
The network has already decimated Nine’s Footy Classified show by poaching star presenters Kane Cornes, Caroline Wilson and Craig Hutchison – while also coaxing St Kilda legend and former Fox Sports host Nick Riewoldt out of retirement and back to TV.
So it made sense McGuire would be the next big name on their shopping list.
However, Daily Mail can reveal that, while Seven is definitely looking to lure a McGuire across from Nine, it’s not Eddie they’re gunning for.
At least, not this time.
Instead, network sources said Seven was actually chasing the signature of Eddie’s sports reporting son, Xander McGuire.
The 21-year-old has proven himself a rising star since joining Nine’s Melbourne newsroom as a sports reporter in June 2022 after undertaking an internship with the network.
The award-winning youngster revealed he was taking a six-month sabbatical from the job in May so he could complete the politics component of his Melbourne University arts degree at the world-renowned University of St Andrews in Scotland.
Although he indicated he hoped to rejoin Nine when he returned to at the end of this month, it seems De Ceglie would rather see him on his channel rather than that of his rivals.
It is understood Seven has since offered the young gun a dual role at the network across both news and sport in a bid to convince him to jump ship.
With Eddie McGuire having spent the past three decades firmly entrenched at Nine, insiders said Xander was excited about the prospect of forging his own career at a different network outside his famous father’s shadow.
De Ceglie has been busy overhauling Seven’s talent roster since taking on the top job in April but would not be drawn on his future recruitment plans when contacted by Daily Mail on Wednesday.
The latest poaching raid comes at as Nine continues to slash its staff budget.
The media giant axed almost 200 jobs earlier this year as part of $30million worth of cuts, and the company’s acting chief executive, Matt Stanton, has vowed to wipe another $50million from its underlying costs this financial year.
Snaring the second generation Nine star would be quite the coup for Seven, with Nine’s chief sports presenter Tony Jones describing Xander as ‘the best young reporter I’ve seen in almost 40 years’.
The talented reporter has certainly had plenty of time to get comfortable in front of the camera, having landed his first television gig on Ten’s soap staple Neighbours in 2015 when he was just 12.
He went on to become a series regular as troubled teen Charlie Hoyland, the son of Carla Bonner’s long-running character, Steph Scully.
His father, Eddie, also began his television career at Ten as a young sports reporter in the 1980s before joining Nine in 1993.
Although Eddie admits he drove his son to the Neighbours screen test, he said he played no part in his casting and that Xander ‘did all this on his own and on merit’.
Meanwhile, McGuire’s son, Joe, has also been kicking goals.
The talented athlete has been playing gridiron with one of America’s leading college football teams, Ohio State University.
Known as the Buckeyes, the top-tier side has won the national championships eight times and regularly compete in front of more than 100,000 fans at their home stadium.
Joe McGuire, who weighs in at an imposing 96kg and is 188cm stall, was brought on board as back-up for fellow n punter Jesse Mirco in July after talking
News that he had made the side was celebrated by Prokick , which helps Aussies break into the NFL and college football with a highly successful program that has been running since 2007.
Both Xander and Joe grew up in the spotlight and were often photographed at red carpet events with their famous father and mother, Carla, and while attending Collingwood football matches, where their dad was club president for more than two decades.