Deb Knight makes shock return to the Today Show on Good Friday
Five months after she was brutally axed to make way for a returning Karl Stefanovic, Deb Knight has raised eyebrows by returning to helm the Today Show.
Confidential
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Deb Knight has made a shock return to breakfast TV show, Today.
It is just a few months since Knight and Georgie Gardner were sensationally dumped by executives at Channel 9 in favour of a revamped team led by the returning Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon.
Proof Knight is still a drawcard with viewers, the popular TV journalist was called in to fill the hot seat alongside newsreader Alex Cullen and Lara Vella on sport.
Richard Wilkins was brought back into the fold, filling in for Brooke Boney on entertainment.
Stefanovic, Langdon and Boney were all off for the Good Friday public holiday.
Knight and Gardner were ruthlessly moved on from the breakfast show after a year of dismal ratings.
They had initially been called in with the hope of boosting ratings after Stefanovic’s marriage scandal.
By the end of February Today’s ratings had been less than 200,000 viewers across the five-city metro region almost half the number of episodes aired in 2020.
Today’s best national audience with Stefanovic in the chair was 475,000 in 2016, with 315,000 of those residing in the key five-city metropolitan viewers bracket.
Sunrise continues to dominate the breakfast show market, with even ABC News Breakfast rising above the Today Show from time to time.
Despite the consistently dismal ratings Channel Nine boss Darren Wick revealed in February he didn’t care about the Today Show’s poor performance.
“Hand on heart, I’m not bothered by the ratings,” Wick said at the time.
“Karl and Ally are absolutely the right team. The chemistry is right and they’re in a good headspace.
“What we’re doing now is trying to get Australians to watch it again. The results will come.”
Originally published as Deb Knight makes shock return to the Today Show on Good Friday
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