No doubt everyone in Australian TV breathed a sigh of relief Thursday morning when news spread that former Nine CEO, David Gyngell was not coming back near the industry, for the time being.

For that piece of news we have the Sydney Morning Herald marketing writer, Paul McIntyre to thank with this snippet from his column today.

Gyngell said he had been offered a “lot of things” in TV but “I’m not doing it.” “I’m looking at other things at the moment, not TV-related”

The sigh of relief was palpable around the TV stations in Sydney.

Even though there’s plenty of chat about the sorts of ideas people were tossing at Gyngell, it was only on the basis of whatever perceived links he has with the Packer family and Nine.

The SMH used Bob Campbell, the former Seven CEO, as an example of a successful former network head now a successful producer. Well, the comparison isn’t strictly valid because Bob Campbell was a successful TV Network CEO, David Gyngell wasn’t.

No track record at all to speak of except cost over runs, management instability and revenue downturn. If luck is what you make of your situation then David Gyngell could consider himself to be a bit unlucky. But many of the problems at Nine were his responsibility – although others interfered and played a part, he had the CEO’s role and CEO pay.