"Apparent" is the word, because what we see on screen is never a true reflection of the madness that goes on behind the scenes trying to make live television look effortless. And in the case of Sales' return, there were other factors to consider.

The public discussion has centred on her return to a seat that replacement host, Sarah Ferguson, did much more than keep warm - she made it her own. And for Sales, as she revealed on Monday via social media in a photo farewelling her son and in an interview on ABC radio in Melbourne, there was also the very human challenge of facing the first day back after time off having a child.

Sales's return episode was anything but relaxed in its content, dominated by a compelling investigative report on the death in Syria of a teenager from Queensland. The report, by Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop, comprised roughly half the program, with Sales then anchoring her return studio set-piece interview. Political junkies hoping for a dramatic skewering of a local pollie instead settled for an informative conversation with former top British spy Nigel Inkster. Then came another film report on revelations at a corruption inquiry in NSW.

All up, it was a solid and comfortable return for Sales, who told the ABC 774 Drive program earlier she had been made to feel very welcome.

"I feel really loved and supported and wanted," she said.

"I think when you're on maternity leave and looking after a little baby and you're sleep deprived you feel sometimes … a bit fragile. And the first time when you're coming back and you have to say goodbye to the baby and you know it's the longest time that you haven't been with then baby… it's hard."

Ironically enough, her sign off on night one was about that very subject: babies. Clarence House had announced the royal pregnancy just as the show went to air; Sales ended then program with a beaming delivery of the Cambridge news.