Today show: Brenton Ragless to stay as Adelaide newsreader for Channel 9
Channel 9 newsreader Brenton Ragless will concentrate on spending time with his family in Adelaide after the station announced all-female hosts for its flagship Today show.
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Channel 9 newsreader Brenton Ragless will concentrate on spending time with his family in Adelaide after the station announced all-female hosts for its flagship Today show.
Ragless was in the running to replace Karl Stefanovic, who was axed last month after mounting negative attention surrounding his personal life.
But in a move never before seen on Australian breakfast television, Deborah Knight will join Georgie Gardner as Today co-host as Nine attempts to win over some of the female viewers who abandoned the show in droves last year.
Knight, a 46-year-old mother of three who has served as a fill-in and Weekend Today host since joining the network in 2011, was chosen over several rumoured male replacements for Stefanovic, including Ragless and Ben Fordham.
In a statement to the Sunday Mail, Ragless said he was hugely grateful for the opportunity to have filled in on the show and looked forward to still being involved.
“(My wife) Hayley and I are thrilled to be home investing time and energy with our family, friends & community in South Australia,” he said.
“Thank you for your hometown support and congratulations to the dynamic new line-up of Today showpresenters.
“I am humbled by the experience and it’s an honour to have been considered.”
In another gender turnaround, Nine has appointed young up-and-comer Tom Steinfort in the news reading role previously held by Sylvia Jeffreys.
Knight’s appointment, which follows the appointment of former ABC reporter Brooke Boney to replace entertainment editor Richard Wilkins, also kiboshed rumours that Gardiner was to be joined by Alison Langdon in the hosting chair.
However Langdon, who is expecting her first child and is due to return from maternity leave around April, will co-host Weekend Today alongside David Campbell.
Campbell, meanwhile, will also co-host Today Extra with Sonia Kruger from Monday to Wednesday, with Wilkins to host Thursday and Fridays.
The new team will broadcast from the Australian Open in Melbourne for their first two weeks in a move designed to capitalise on Nine’s multimillion-dollar tennis TV rights deal.
The Today show has seen ratings plunge after Stefanovic left his wife Cassandra Thorburn for shoe designer Jasmine Yarbrough.
Following the infamous Uber tapes, in which Stefanovic and his journalist brother Peter were recorded criticising their colleagues at Nine, the show’s fortunes fell even further on the back of Stefanovic’s flashy Mexican nuptials last month.
Today executive producer Steve Burling, himself a new appointment after Mark Calvert’s shock departure several weeks ago, didn’t hold back about his plans to get the beleaguered breakfast show back on track.
He wants to see Knight and Gardner help lift their five-city metro ratings from 230,000 to 350,000 within six months and surpass Channel 7’s all-conquering Sunrise, which ended 2018 with 267,000 viewers.
At its lowest ebb last year, Today dropped to 200,000 viewers, a 12-year low.
“I am super competitive and I want to see the show get back to number one and I think this team will attract more numbers,” Mr Burling said.
But one rival network executive, who asked not to be named, dismissed the new line-up as “too dramatic” and said major changes to panels needed to be more subtle or viewers will “freak out”.
“Karl had to go, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “But to blow up a whole show and change everything except one person, it just won’t work. It’s too much.
“Viewers don’t like dramatic change.”
Knight, who also filled in as host after Lisa Wilkinson’s high-profile departure, admitted it is bittersweet replacing Stefanovic, whom she described as “a great mate”.
The pair previously worked alongside each other as US correspondents — Knight with Channel 10 and Stefanovic with Nine.
“What goes on in people’s lives is complicated and families are complicated, and when that impacts professionally, you know, it’s tough,” Knight said. “But I really respect Karl as a journalist and I’m really pleased he will still be a part of the Nine family and I wish him all the best because I know that he has a long career ahead.”
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