Award winning Four Corners reporter Sarah Ferguson will take over as the host of 7.30 in 2014 while Leigh Sales is on maternity leave.

Sarah will temporarily leave her role at Four Corners, where she has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest stories in Australia over the past few years.

ABC Director of News, Kate Torney, says “We are very much looking forward to Sarah bringing her skills to the 7.30 presenting role, working with Executive Producer Sally Neighbour and the  rest of the 7.30 team.” 

Sarah has won three Walkley Awards including the Gold Walkley in 2011, as well as four Logies, the Queensland Literary Award and the George Munster Award.  She will bring her usual energy, tenacity and insightful style  to the program. 

“It’s been a great year for 7.30,” says Ms Torney. “The program brought home another Walkley for Caro Meldrum-Hanna’s exclusive interview with Stephen Danks and her ground-breaking reporting on the sports drugs scandal. That was just one of a number of big stories broken by the program. Its key interviews and extensive coverage of policy and politics in an election year saw its ratings continue to rise, and I look forward to the program's ongoing success in 2014. “

Leigh will be on maternity leave from February and Sarah’s first night in the 7.30 chair will be February 10th.