Samantha Hayes and Mike McRoberts have presented their final Newshub Live at 6pm as the bulletin shuts down with the closure of the newsroom tonight.
“Thank you so much for watching, for having us in your homes,” Hayes said at the end of the show.
She acknowledged the “huge team of people” working behind the scenes to bring Newshub to air.
“Saying goodbye, it’s so hard isn’t it?” she said, joined by weather presenter Heather Keats and sports presenters Andrew Gourdie and Nicky Styris.
McRoberts said: “We’ve come to the end and I’d like to finish with our beautiful whakataukī, or Māori proverb.”
“He aha te mea nui o te ao, what is the most important thing in the world? He tangata he tangata he tangata, it is people, it is people, it is people.
“Thank you for being our people, we’ve absolutely loved being yours.”
The final night of Newshub — ending more than three decades of news made from Flower St in Eden Terrace.
In a Newshub segment filmed earlier, Hayes said, while choked with emotion: “My motto today, no tears until 7 o’clock”.
Asked how she was feeling, Newshub’s entertainment editor Kate Rodger said, “I’ve turned up like it’s any other ordinary day, except it’s not just any other ordinary day.”
Hayes and McRoberts co-hosted the Three newsroom’s flagship bulletin for more than eight years.
Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed in April that Newshub would be shutting down on July 5 at 7pm.
It marks the final broadcast of 34 years of news television from Flower St in Auckland’s Eden Terrace.
Following the closure of Newshub, Stuff will be producing a 6pm news bulletin for Three after reaching an agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery.
The first hour-long show produced by Stuff will air on Saturday evening.
AM show presenters, reporters thank audience on final broadcast
AM show presenter Lloyd Burr said the team welcomed him with “open arms” for the five months he worked on the show.
“[Closing] is a damn shame because we were onto something pretty awesome here …”
Burr thanked the entire Newshub team and viewers who “let us into their lives”. He also apologised to viewers as they “couldn’t save” the show.
Melissa Chan-Green, who also presents the show, thanked the team and her husband for the support.
“I do sometimes wonder how I even got here, I was just a self-conscious shy kid who liked writing stories, and I accidentally got into telly.
“Now I’m going to show my beautiful [children] how you pick yourself back up in life and you get on with something you care about, but not before we have some really lovely quiet time together as a family.
“I’m also thinking of people today who have lost their jobs in other industries, those of you who are facing tough times in your business, and those of you who are feeling lonely.
“We may be turning the lights out here, but we are still in this together. So, hang in there for what is important to you, and thank you for being so important to us.”
During the last moments of the AM Show, newsreader Michael O’Keeffe thanked his family and the Newshub team for their support with his role.
“So many amazing memories … The overwhelming emotion for me today is gratitude, I am so grateful I have been afforded this opportunity and an opportunity I never really thought I deserved but like one I never took for granted.”
Meanwhile roving reporter William Waiirua thanked the people who set him up, as he usually goes “off the cuff”.
