Hopefully with Deb stepping in to replace her.
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They have adjusted the 7am block throughout this year, refining it to 12 minutes and to include sport, in what I would say is a response to Sunriseâs ratings. Personally, I loved the initial idea of the block- 20 minutes with no sport, weather and ad breaks from 2010.
Usually it is fairly even- Karl or Georgie always read the top story and will do the feature interviews and Sylvia tends to do bigger chunks- but maybe because Karl was also working, they viewed it as Deb being the fourth presenter.
As for the âno newsreaderâ comment, I actually think Today will implement this in the coming years; both American breakfast shows have their hosts read the news.
I noticed it today. I agree it was an inappropriate timeslot particularly because they rolled out the fake kitchen. Maybe using QTQâs logic of the more consumer reports⌠the higher the ratings.
It is Free Fuel Friday⌠dur! 
I donât mind Natalia. It wasnât until a member here mentioned her laughing at her own jokes that noticed. Unlike Sam Mac, the hosts donât banter with her mid-segment via the 2-way boxes which makes for an awkward delivery.
If only they went on a whole family vacation.
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The whole Today brand at the moment is a mess. From presenters to content.
They should do something like this:
Weekdays
Ben Fordham and Georgie Gardner
Sylvia Jeffreys
Tim Gilbert
Steve Jacobs
Richard Wilkins
Weekends
Tom Steinfort and Allison Langdon
Jayne Azzopardi
James Bracey
Natalia Cooper
At least itâs a startâŚ
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Dunno. Maybe viewers are used to it. Just was a bit confusing as a first timer. And with there being three females it was hard to tell whose voice was reading which.
Yuck if that is your ideal team, I am glad youâre not the EP. BTW, Stevie will never return to the weekday show (it is hypocritical to think so when youâre removing Karl for bad publicity). Tom Steinfort failed as host and was thankfully removed.
Changing the presenters again, especially WT, is not going to decrease the chaos. I would start with some POD, such as local news and weather every hour. Then tweak the rest of the rundown. And please promote.
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Has Steve Jacobs even been on air recently?
Since Jan 22 he has only done one weekend, in March I think. I am assuming that you know why.
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Ben would be no better than Karl, all the same traits plus a healthy dose of 2GBitis. He does at least treat his family with some respect which is a bonus.
Iâd like to see something more radical like Georgie and Deb together with a male newsreader. Strong female voices are never going to flourish while there is an overbearing male co-host who needs to be kept in check. Iâm not sure Georgie and Deb is the right pairing (they are quite similar) but something along those lines.
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Sylvia or Allison and Georgie would be a good combo.
@eddel a while ago I thought you (and other members including me) thought Ben would be the perfect successor. I suppose that impression changed quite quickly 
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Far too Sydney-centric (with token additions from other states) for a national breakfast program! Especially the idea of having Georgie & Ben as weekday co-hosts, which would be appropriate for a breakfast program aimed exclusively at Sydneysiders but not really a national audience IMO.
Thereâs a lot to criticise about Sunrise but one thing they do extraordinarily well is having a decent balance of presenters that most states can connect with. I reckon Today would be wise to do the same, find some quality presenters from each state (for weekdays, there should be at least one each from Queensland, NSW or ACT, Victoria or Tasmania, SA or NT & WA so itâs somewhat representative of the entire nation) and you might have a breakfast show thatâs actual competition for Sunrise.
How many times have Georgie & Deb been on-air together? I remember them both participating in a Gold Telethon segment a year or two ago, but thatâs about it.
Also if both Georgie & Deb were on Today, the main presenter of Nine News Sydney after Peter Overton would probably be Mark BurrowsâŚand do we really want that to happen? Probably not!
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TFW when anticipating a response, almost as exciting as a relaunch.
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Iâm not a fan of Sylvia. She seems like a genuinely nice person but for me she lacks the gravitas and real world experience needed for a show like Today. And the murkiness around her being given such a big job at such a young age (only 28!) and from a relatively junior standing in the newsroom has always left a bad taste in my mouth. There were probably a dozen people at Nine better qualified for the position but they couldnât compete with Sylviaâs connections.
I didnât mind Ben back in his days as sports presenter but I must have been on some very strong drugs if I every said anything supporting him as co-host more recently than that (either that or my account was hacked!!! 
)
Mark Burrows?!?! Definitely not!
But Iâm not sure Georgie and Deb would be a good fit together anyway, just struggling to think who else they could bring in. Lisa and Georgie would have been the dream team but that ship has sailed.
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Haha, sorry Iâm doing about ten different things at once so a reply that should take 2 minutes takes about 20 on and off instead!
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Haha all good.
Sylvia is good as a national newsreader and is a good host when coupled with Lisa or Georgie but otherwise she makes me cringe. Honestly if they wanted a Queensland newsreader then Wendy Kingston wouldâve been ideal (but that ship has sailed) as she is a good newsreader and a strong host.
As far as Iâm concerned Karl is the elephant in the room. His arrogance and QLD-obsession is a big turnoff and I feel Today would be much more palatable without him. They would need to look outside the box for replacements though. Matt Doran? A good choice but is tied up with Seven. Ron Wilson? I donât know if he would fit Todayâs demographic. A female co-host along with Georgie would be good but it needs to be someone who complements her presenting style rather than being similar (someone Chris Bath or Gretel Killeen, who can pose serious questions and hammer their interviews, would be good as they complement Georgieâs rather reserved presentation style).
As far as Weekend Today is concerned, they would be better off having two hosts for the entire 3 hours if they canât be bothered wheeling in a sports/weather presenter. Otherwise, they NEED to make an effort and appoint some presenters for these roles so it doesnât look half-arsed on weekends when it looks alright for the week.
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Amazing that News Breakfast was only 31,000 viewers behind the Today show yesterday.
I think itâs a very boring show. I would make some changes and actually go down the lines of Sunday Today with Willie Geist on NBC. I know we donât want to be too Americanised but it is something different.
I would have 1 host who conducts interviews and presents some news stories, and I would have another presenter that presents news, sport and weather every half hour.
Itâs a different format from the others and one that could be refreshing.
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Based on a few tweets it seems that Sunrise won Fridayâs breakfast ratings by more than 85,000. That puts Today at it lowest mark for this survey and just 30,000 ahead of ABC Breakfast (on 2 and 24).
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Say what you like about Kochie and Sam, but at least they have a good friendship unlike Karl and Georgie. Itâs clear that she canât stand Karl, which is a pity as she just doesnât seem as lively as she was before.
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Georgie and Lisa were the best duo (love their ABBA scene/song).
If you wanted a male newsreader (Deb would be fine though), the only option is Tim Davies ( maybe Charles Croucher or Chris Urquhart) but he is too young, like Sylvia. Oh, Peter Stefanovic too.
That is really awful. Unfortunately, producers will draw 2 conclusions from this:
- Viewers donât like our People campaigns
- They prefer Ben to fill-in for Karl.
Which is unfortunate.
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I was thinking Tom Steinfort? They could also look further afield - presenters like Blake Johnson, Alex Hart, Lachlan Kennedy, Tim McMillan, Ryan Phelan etc, or if they went with two younger women even an older face like Ron Wilson or Simon Reeve could work (though I doubt the latter would be interested).
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Well obviously Nine canât just choose the best presenters available. They need to ensure that the state and territory of origin of every possible presenter is verified (a birther scandal would be horrific), then select so there is an even spread across the week from the six states and two main territories. Obviously the minor territories would get covered by casual presenters. It must be taking Nine a while to do all the checks.
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