"One person said not to be on the list to stand in for Grant is...

"One person said not to be on the list to stand in for Grant is David Speers. The circumstances which saw Grant’s Indigenous heritage become part of the online vitriol directed towards him mean that Speers, as a white male, is unlikely to be considered for the role – even on an interim basis."

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Karvelas set to front Q+A after Grant’s shock exit

With Stan Grant’s shock decision to step away from Q+A after Monday night’s episode because of racism, the ABC is being forced to scramble to find a temporary host for the show.

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There is understood to be uncertainty in ABC management about when Grant will return to Q+A, or even if he’ll come back at all.

In his viral column published on the ABC website on Friday about the racism that drove him away from the show, Grant left the question of his return open. “On Monday night I will present my Q+A program, then walk away. For how long? I don’t know.”

Stan Grant. Picture: Jane Dempster

The large void left by Grant’s sudden departure means that the ABC has been forced to scramble to find interim hosts for Q+A until Grant’s long-term position becomes clearer. Grant is rumoured to have more to say about his leave on Monday night’s show. But in the meantime, Diary is reliably informed that RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas is likely to be the initial replacement while Grant considers his future, with a stint of two shows from May 29 seen as most likely.

Another who has been mentioned around Aunty has been ABC Radio Melbourne host Virginia Trioli – who Q+A executive producer Erin Vincent immediately turned to for several weeks after Hamish Macdonald hurriedly departed Q+A to return to The Project in mid-2021.

The word is that Trioli is willing to act as a pinch-hitter for the ABC amid the current situation.

However, she is unlikely to undertake a long-term stint on Q+A, because of the ongoing ‘family issues’ that saw her take leave earlier this year. Trioli tweeted on Friday that she was ‘appalled and saddened’ by the racism Grant had faced.

Virginia Trioli.

David Speers. Picture: Kym Smith

One person said not to be on the list to stand in for Grant is David Speers. The circumstances which saw Grant’s Indigenous heritage become part of the online vitriol directed towards him mean that Speers, as a white male, is unlikely to be considered for the role – even on an interim basis.

Another who has previously hosted Q+A, and currently has time on her hands, is Fran Kelly, after her tonight show, Frankly, was cut by the ABC. But the word is that Kelly won’t be considered this time, after she made headlines for losing control of a Q+A panel in 2019 involving Egyptian-American writer Mona Eltahawy.

Meanwhile, Diary hears that one long-term Indigenous candidate to succeed Grant on Q+A is Dan Bourchier, the ABC’s correspondent on the Voice to Parliament and co-host of The Drum.

Grant has long firmly maintained that there is not enough Indigenous representation on ABC shows. In an opinion piece for The Australian in 2014, he said: “As I write there is no Indigenous person serving as an ABC foreign correspondent or anchor of a major prime time program, no Four Corners reporter.”

Even this year, Grant was critical of the ABC’s election night coverage for the March NSW state poll. In a leaked letter to ABC managing director David Anderson, Grant wrote: “In 2023, how is it at all acceptable that an election night coverage features an entire white panel?”

Grant has privately mentored Bourchier. It is believed that Grant had previously planned to front Q+A in 2023 and 2024, but sees Bourchier as a potential long-term host of Q+A beyond that.

Some within the ABC believe Bourchier could host an upcoming special episode of Q+A from the Garma festival in the Northern Territory in the first week of August, if Grant hasn’t returned.