Of all the questions that were put to the celebrities on the first season of The Assembly, there’s one that viewers remember more than any other. It was a question that student journalist Dale asked actor Sam Neill: would he consider going out with the show’s host, Leigh Sales?
“Ever since then – thanks so much, Dale – people keep asking me if I’ve gone out with Sam Neill,” Leigh, 52, tells TV WEEK with a laugh. “And I’m like, ‘No, I have not gone out with Sam Neill – he’s about 25 years older than me!”
The Assembly, which sees Leigh mentor a group of autistic journalism students as they interview a different celebrity every week, is now into its second season. There’s a fresh group of students and six new stars, including actor Richard Roxburgh, singer Guy Sebastian and comedian Julia Morris.
But the original students haven’t been forgotten. Leigh is happy to report that some have gone on to other media roles – “Angus has a full-time job at Triple J” – while others have been working behind the scenes on the second season of The Assembly.
“That was really fantastic, just to see them again,” she says.
It’s been three years since Leigh stepped down as host of ABC current affairs show 7.30. It was a high-profile, high-pressure job that saw her under constant attack on social media.
“It’s great being off that daily news cycle where people have really inflamed passions about things and they sit online all the time and so they’re trying to direct their anger at something,” she says. “Not being in that world is actually really kind of nice.”
Leigh says The Assembly and the other show she currently hosts, Australian Story, “celebrate good things about human nature”. She’s also loving the positive energy of being surrounded by people who are much newer to journalism than she is.
“When I’m around the students on this show, their level of excitement and joy at something like visiting the set of Gruen or Guy Sebastian singing a song for them… it’s so awesome.”
Born and raised in Brisbane, Leigh joined the ABC in 1995. She was the Washington correspondent and co-host of Lateline before becoming anchor of 7.30, a job she held for more than a decade.
“I definitely felt burnt out, for sure, and took six months off before I came back, which helped a lot,” she reveals. “I think I’ve got better work-life balance.”
For most of her career Leigh felt as if her life was controlled by the news cycle.
“So I could be having a chat like this and then I can feel my phone buzzing and pinging, and it makes me think, ‘Oh God, what’s going on?’ and then suddenly there’s a siege at the Lindt Cafe or the prime minister’s locked in for an interview that night. I only realised when I stepped away from it what a heightened level of hypervigilance you’re under the whole time. So having the removal of that stress has been really good.”
The mother of two says, however, that the stress didn’t stop her loving 7.30 and her years as a news reporter.
“But I feel like I have more control over my own life and over my own time,” she adds. “That, I think, means I’m just a bit calmer, a bit more content. And the kids love me being home in the evening. They’re just so happy that I’m there at 5.30 and around to have dinner and hang out with them.”
With her sons now 13 and 11, Leigh says, like all parents, she stresses about things like social media.
“But I constantly just try to say to myself, ‘Well, you’re just doing your best. You’ve just got to love them and be there for them.’
“Mine are still young enough that they’re still cuddly. They like holding my hand when we’re out or putting their arm around me, so I’m just making the most of that, because everyone keeps telling me that pretty soon they’re going to find me massively embarrassing and not want to walk with me.”
Having experienced the highs and lows of parenthood, Leigh is thrilled that she got to voice Coco’s mum in ‘Baby Race’, the Bluey episode that was voted the second-favourite of all time, largely thanks to her character’s line: “You’re doing great.”
“All those Bluey episodes, for some reason, strike an emotional chord with me,” Leigh says. “But that one, in particular, when I saw the script, I was so stoked that I was playing the role of the encouraging mum.
“I think every woman that’s had to care for a young baby knows that horrible feeling of: ‘Am I stuffing this up? Everyone else seems like they know what they’re doing. It’s only me who’s useless.’ You just have that horrific sense of vulnerability. So I knew when I saw it that it would pack a punch.”
Although she’s happy to have done Bluey, Leigh has no plans to branch out into reality TV. She knows exactly what she’d be like on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! or Survivor.
“I hate going in the sun; I hate eating horrible food; I hate being outside,” she admits. “I’d get cranky because of the food situation and I’d hate everyone and I’d just be not interacting. I would be the absolute worst!”
What Leigh is keen to do more of is mentoring – not just on The Assembly, but away from the cameras. Recently, she’s spent time with younger journalists, regional reporters and a group of Bangladeshi women working in the media.
“Even though that’s not publicly visible, it’s really important to me because I feel it’s a way to give back,” she says. “I’ve had such a fun career and so many great opportunities – I’d just like to see other people get a chance to have that.”
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