The Nine Network has confirmed Christine Ahern has been appointed to the role of US Correspondent for Nine News.

Christine Ahern has worked in television since 1996 when she joined the ABC in Brisbane as a researcher on the Landline rural TV program.

A state swimmer for Queensland during her school years, Ahern always had a keen interest in sport, which led to her taking up the position of sports reporter and weekend presenter with ABC TV in Hobart.

Two years later in 2002, she was offered the role of senior sports reporter and presenter in ABC TV’s Melbourne bureau, however was dismisses in 2004 during a series of controversial ABC budget cuts. Since 1999 she has worked in the role of Melbourne correspondent for the Today Show.

Ahern will work with long standing US correspondent Robert Penfold at Nine's LA Bureau, and replaces Denham Hitchcock who recently defected from Nine to join Seven’s Sunday Night program