I agree, I’ve never been a fan of Brooke either. There’s just something about her which rubs me the wrong way.
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Karl will be back next year, he is basically just negotiating contract.
Deb is back to weekend news only.
Georgie would have been out of work but for the apparent Kruger move. So she might be thrown a lifeline.
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Do you know who the newsreader will be if it isn’t Deb?
The article is basically suggesting that providing he’s willing to take a ‘major’ pay cut, Karl will co-host Today alongside Allison Langdon next year.
According to the report the deal still hasn’t been done and Nine could still turn to the likes of David Campbell or Ben Fordham if Karl doesn’t eat a “shit sandwich” by walking away from hundreds of thousands of dollars owed for the final year of his current contract.
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Which is what I’ve been saying:
Karl and Allison may be the front runners or what is planned, but there is no way Nine had them “locked and loaded” in October, three months out from their debut. I’d also suggest Brenton Ragless as another alternative to Karl.
I’ve been asked a lot what I would do with the TODAY show in2020. Here are my thoughts and I would love your feedback.
It was actually a fun exercise to do this!
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You’ve really thought this out, Rob! All of those people you’ve suggested are great breakfast talents and I think it is time to make innovative changes to the format. But I am unsure whether physically splitting the shows into an early and main is a good idea because if it doesn’t work, it will impact the Karl and Allison show.
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I think that is very poor to mentiom the return of Karls name. No one at Nine wants him and AL is not going to drive ratings beyond Sydney.
Sorry Danny, but it’s happening.
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Thanks for the feedback mate. There’s an assumption there the early show wouldn’t be a strong show. For my mind it would be stronger than Sunrise at that time because the production team will be fighting to make sure it has the best content, whereas TODAY and SUNRISE hold everything until the peak viewing time of 7.30 - 8.30am.
Why waste your talent when no-one is watching? Focus on the 7am slot when people are turning on and if you have the better show viewers will get into the habit of turning you on. Breakfast TV doesn’t require a lead-in, you make your own lead in.
Studio 10 has a better lead-in now but rates a third of what it was once getting.
CONTENT IS KING!
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That’s part of the problem. Content has been flagged as an issue for a long time , even when Lisa was there. They’ve had four hosting duos and two EPs in 2 years but the content team (especially the Head) has remained the same as it was under Calvert. You’d need to heavily monitor them, as EP, if you wanted things to change.
I get what you’re saying about giving viewers a reason to tune in. That’s easier said than done. But, S10, for example, didn’t start cold at 9.30 for the ‘switch-on’. You had the same strong panel in a similar format an hour earlier to give you the highest possible audience for when it matters. The same logic applies to The Project for starting at 6.30 and not 7pm.
Wake Up arguably started too late and viewers couldn’t be bothered (or didn’t want to) to switch over when they were already watching Sunrise/Today. Even Sunrise and Today have benefited from starting earlier than each other on multiple occasions which resulted in the competitor matching the start times.
From a production perspective, it’s important to have the divide between news in the first half and entertainment in the other half. But, I don’t think viewers would embrace two separate shows.
Huge celebrations at Nine this morning as Today managed to just climb over 200k viewers yesterday for the first time in 2 months 
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Karl’s current contract ends at the end of 2020, at which point he would have had to re-negotiate from a potentially weaker position. It’s a no brainer really to jump into TODAY and be the saviour alongside Alison Langdon. What’s a few 100k to Karl anyway?
Expect a splash in Nine papers as early as Sunday.
The move is on.
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Danny, I understand CEO Hugh Marks wants Karl back on TODAY. Enough said.
It will 100% be TODAY with Ali & Karl in 2020.
Ragless is a non starter. He blew the opportunity to stay in Adelaide. Bizarre.
He could reportedly earn more money sleeping in and doing the odd report for 60 than returning to Today. Marks would have to provide other incentives than just money. Karl is egotistical so perhaps he is keen on being a saviour and Nine admitting they were wrong?
I’m not a fan of Brenton either but he is popular with executives for his daggy and family personna. However, he was never officially offerred the hosting gig. I suspect Georgie, who we know had a say in the matter, wanted Deb, who was likely second on the list.
My understanding is to expect the story even earlier than that.
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