Paddy Gower's next chapter

His popularity hasn’t waned since his swift exit from mainstream TV screens in July, with a couple of fans stopping him for a yarn or a fist pump during our Property Style photo shoot at QT Hotel in Auckland.

“They usually just come up to me and say, ‘This is the f***ing news’,” he says.

The jibe is in reference to a line from a 2014 skit, which went viral around the world and made Paddy a household name. Ten years later, the catch phrase has come in handy for Paddy’s new biography – This Is The F#$%ing News – and an upcoming nationwide tour of the same name. And yes, the phrase has been trademarked for PG use only.

The book represents somewhat of a silver lining for Paddy, who signed up for it before international Newshub bosses announced they were closing the operation. At the time, he was busy with the TV series Patrick Gower Has Issues and visiting Antarctica to film the documentary, Patrick Gower: On Ice, so he enlisted his good mate and long-time journalist Eugene Bingham to write the book on his behalf.

“It was almost like something, somewhere was saying, ‘Hey, you’re going to need a book to come out later this year as you won’t have much else on’,” he jokes.

“But it has been a great experience and an awesome collaboration with Eugene. We had a lot of fun and I laughed and cried a bit. It’s an interesting process, you’ve got to expose a lot of yourself.”

Paddy had a few motivating factors for writing the book. The title was already a given, and he’d kept a collection of funny, often scandalous, stories from his career as TV3’s political editor. But most importantly, he saw an opportunity to share some common ground with everyday Kiwis, a certain comradeship of, ‘I’ve been through it too, mate’.

“I knew I would be able to talk about things that people can relate to such as mental health, feeling bad about the way they look, carrying things from childhood bullying, burnout from being workaholics, cancer … all of these things are common for many of us.

I thought that if I could put these parts of my life together, it might just be able to help someone,” he says.

This rings particularly true since revealing his rollercoaster relationship with alcohol on his 2022 documentary Patrick Gower: On Booze. On camera and in real life, he committed to sobriety and has now clocked up more than 1000 days without alcohol. Paddy didn’t even reach for a beer when Newshub closed.

He did, however, toy with the idea of becoming a lawyer “for about a day” but decided that, at age 47, he wasn’t going to let his journalistic skills go to waste. Those skills had enabled him to connect with all walks of life, from presidents and prime ministers to everyday community members.

“Connect” is a word that Paddy uses a lot. In fact, it’s now the foundation for his new role at Stuff, and as a journalist-comedian-presenter for his upcoming nationwide tour. In this chapter of his life, he wants to focus on positive news – human interest stories on people overcoming the odds, incredible business ideas and people doing the mahi for their community.

It’s also a step into entrepreneurship. With the new book, contracting to Stuff as a reporter and self-funding the The F#$%ing News tour, he’s taking charge of his own destiny during what is a tumultuous time for mainstream media.

“Positive news is my new kaupapa – I want to go around the country spreading positive vibes,” he says.

“I’m on a mission to help connect NZ and part of that means going to see everybody. The tour will be a mix of journalism, stand-up comedy and motivational speaking. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever done anything like this before. I reckon Kiwis will love it.”