Monday (22.04.2019) - Friday (26.04.2019): Tom Steinfort is co-hosting with Deb, as Georgie is now on holidays. Brett McLeod is reading the news and sport.
Lara Vella is on weather duties.
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We used to have so many good fill ins on the News over the last few years (Deb, Alicia Loxley, Natalia, Lara, Wendy Kingston, Aislin Kruikelis). I get just about none of them are avaliable now, but why are they going for the worst people fill ins for breakfast tv?
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Agreed.
But surely Lara, Jayne (who I don’t think has ever filled in on weekdays) or Tim Davies would be available to read the news. Not a fan of Mark Burrows or Brett McLeod.
Tim Davies would be the obvious. Clearly they want a male. He’s now part of the Today regulars. Natalia had often filled in as a newsreader when she was weekend weather presenter.
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Exactly. Using him would expose him more to viewers, as he certainly is a young and rising star. He would be my choice.
I wonder what their plans are for Natalia when she returns. Will she just return to the newsroom? Sonia’s TE fill in?
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As reliefs is one of my many triggers, I like to settle on that Today’s philosophy for substitutes is ‘never get someone to fill-in if they are more capable or more talented than the permanent presenter’. So, Deb, Alicia, Amber and Wendy used to fill-in for Georgie. Then when Sylvia came along, a shift happened in the substitutes and less experienced presenters like Aislin, Lara and Natalia filled in for her. Now that we have Tom, they have to resort to the likes of Mark Burrows.
Tim would be great. But is having a tunneled vision of finding a male substitute the best course of action when there are several female presenters (Alicia Loxley, Wendy Kingston, Tracy Vo, Amelia Adams, Davina Smith) who would run rings around any male candidate.
Brett was an improvement on Mark. And that is all that I asked for. 
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He’s miles better then Burrows. I don’t think I’ve seen him read before on Today. Hopefully he has good chemistry with the team.
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I didn’t mind Deb and Tom today, and I’m not generally a big fan of his - though I think they need to focus on the 3 presenter line-up a little more and less on a specific news reader type position IMO.
Lara Vella is a great fit for the team in the news reading position and adding to the conversation and general vibe.
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Deb worked on radio (2GB)this afternoon filling in for Chris Smith.
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She sounded good. Much better than Smith.
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@littlegezzybear Not surprised she is always impressive at every job she does.
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Tom is much better in the hosting role.
I’m enjoying the show this week. First time, in a long time.
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Today extending until 10am tomorrow for Anzac Day coverage. Thanks for the tip Rob. 
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Thursday (25.04.2019): Tom Steinfort is co-hosting with Deb live from Anzac Village, NSW for special coverage on ANZAC Day. They are also doing Entertainment today as Brooke is away. Brett McLeod is reading the news and sport alongside them, on location.
Lara Vella is presenting the weather from Currumbin RSL on the Gold Coast.
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Shane Crawford did an interview today, regarding the AFL games today. Any suggestion that he is (was) the (or even an) answer to Today’s woes is absurd. Very bland interview.
Also, glad they started to include Brett in the wideshots, after doing tight single-presenter shots for the first few hours. What’s the point of having the newsreader on location if they aren’t and seen to be involved in the discussion and OB?
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