As I remember, Steve’s heart attack was sudden and kept quiet. He announced in late 2004 he was going to retire.
Karl was US correspondent at the time, he came home and got the job alongside Tracy for 2005.
Richard Wilkins had been Steve’s primary fill-in, notwithstanding a heinous period (worse than now) in late 2003-early 2004 where Today threw basically everyone at Nine on the hosting desk: at one stage it was Sharyn Ghidella alongside Michael Usher and Garry Lyon.
Late 2004 was “summer In the city” when Steve and Tracy hosted from the balcony of the intercontinental Hotel in Sydney for a few weeks. At Steve’s farewell, there was a cross to Karl and Sharyn - Sharyn to say goodbye to Today viewers after getting shafted back to the early news at 6am for 2005 alongside Chris Smith. Leila the Wife (as she was unkindly referred to on MS at the time) was Today newsreader for almost six months before Sharyn was returned.
I think Steve would have left regardless of his health. He became quite uncomfortable in genre the more Today tried to mimic Sunrise. I remember reading somewhere, him saying that no matter how much Today tried to be like Sunrise, Sunrise always did it better.
Georgie Gardner and Leila McKinnon hosted with Michael and Richard at some point too.
Yeah I agree, Steve was noticeably uncomfortable with the changes (including the set) in 2004. Was not Today’s finest year. Plus they also boned Sami Lukis just before the end of the year, which, despite Steve Jacobs’ popularity now, was not received well.
Would it be fair to say that Karl Stevanovic was also less than warmly received by viewers and media commentators from around the time he originally replaced Steve Liebmann until Lisa Wilkinson became the female co-presenter?
I actually liked that set. The desk is a little big and the paint on the soft set was a little bold, but it’s more warm and homely than what they have now.
It’s odd with Karl in the early years. He wasn’t the ratings saviour Nine had hoped, and was definitely (and not unexpectedly) was the weak link when he started. To fair he probably kept his job because of the poor response to Jessica Rowe (unfair, IMHO). I’d reckon that if Tracy had stayed another year, he wouldn’t have lasted.
Plus in later 2005, Tracy and Karl were repeatedly rumoured to be boned in favour of Juanita Phillips and Peter Overton.
Hmm, there’s another “What could’ve been” scenario to ponder.
Although in 2019 going on 2020, I’m sure both Pete & Juanita (along with many others, I’d imagine) would vastly prefer to be the main presenters of a flagship evening news bulletin than deal with the dramas of modern commercial breakfast television!
Plus - I don’t reckon that would’ve worked either. Both kinda cold personalities for breakfast.
Juanita was reportedly being wooed by Max Uechritz, her former boss at the ABC who had moved to Nine News.
The other name Nine wanted after the Juanita bid didn’t pan out was Chris Bath, who would’ve been great but she publicly stated she had no interest in breakfast TV. Thus it was Jessica and Karl (much to Sharyn Ghidella’s annoyance).
The Today Show desperately needs a new set and usually I don’t think these things impact viewers but what they have now is vast and substance-less. There’s no morning television elements or warm feelings to their set. For their mid-2020 move they don’t necessarily need an apartment living room but something that is more welcoming on the eyes in the AM.
I don’t know if this means anything but I was watching NBN News yesterday and during the weather they had a few tech glitches. One title card that popped up on screen was yellow, blue and white - a colour scheme I haven’t seen for a “STOP AND CHECK” that you can often see during their 6.30 weather update from the newsroom.
