He may have appeared to be the cat that got the cream after his reinstatement into the helm of the Today show at the beginning of 2020. But Karl Stefanovic has a lot less to gloat over now it has been revealed the Nine breakfast show’s ratings are lower than ever.
WATCH:Karl Stefanovic unleashes on Millennials in ‘OK Boomer’ moment
The new look line-up – which includes the 45-year-old and former 60 Minutes star Allison Langdon – appears to be struggling against its rival, Sunrise, according to Confidential.
“Executives would be going, ‘Oh my god, we thought this was going to be hard but we are not getting an early bounce’,” media analyst Steve Allen revealed to the publication.
“We have been consistently saying that this will take time. Karl reappearing on screen isn’t going to mean all of the people that left the show have suddenly forgiven him. It will take time and he will need to keep his act clean and need to stay out of the headlines on anything about his personal life and his relationship with others inside the network.”
The new look line-up hit 199,000 people in the national five city metro market. Meanwhile, axed presenters Georgie Gardner and Deb Knight hit 211,000 this same time last year.
The figures will most certainly hurt Nine execs, who took a bet on Karl winning back audiences on the ailing breakfast show after ditching the presenter at the end of 2018.
“It is going to be a long game, the audience isn’t going to break their viewing habit quickly,” an industry executive told Daily Telegraph’s Confidential earlier this month.
“It was premature for people to get excited by the first week’s figures. The brief honeymoon that accompanied the return of Karl with his new on air partner Allison Langdon at this stage was short lived. Sam [Armytage] and Kochie [David Koch] don’t seem to have too much to worry about yet.”
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