Moving out of retirement in Queensland, Ross joined the Seven Network in 2003, "lured back by the challenge of becoming Sydney's No 1 reader" to head the station's struggling flagship 6.00 pm bulletin.

Ross previously presented the news Monday to Thursday until Chris Bath began hosting Sunday Night.

[1] On 27 November 2009, Ian Ross presented his final bulletin of Sydney's Seven News and officially retired from newsreading.

In January 2014, at age 73, Ross publicly announced that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and that it had spread to his liver.

[8] He died on 30 April 2014 at the John Flynn Hospital in Tugun on the Gold Coast, survived by his partner Gray Bolte[9] and his ex-wife, children and grandchildren, his sister Robin and step-brother Max.