Horror show! Viewers savage Today’s spoof Hannibal Lecter promo
Karl Stefanovic has made light of his high profile fall from grace in a new promo for Nine’s Today show. The spoof video features Stefanovic as Dr Hannibal Lecter and Allison Langdon as Clarice Starling.
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Karl Stefanovic has made light of his high profile fall from grace in a new promo for Nine’s Today show in what appears to be a bid to regain trust from viewers.
The spoof video features Stefanovic as Dr Hannibal Lecter and Allison Langdon as Clarice Starling.
“Apparently I have been a very naughty boy,” Stefanovic said in the video, standing in a suit in a jail cell behind bars.
Langdon responds: “This time Karl things are going to be different. Everyone is watching Karl, are you going to behave?”
To that, Stefanovic looks straight to camera, saying: “Well, you are just going to have to trust me.”
The promo premiered on the network during Monday night’s season debut of Married At First Sight with the slogan: “This year breakfast television gets juicy. It won’t be boring.”
Industry executives described the promo as “odd” and “disturbing”.
“Female viewers will hate it, who wants to wake up with a serial killer?” one exec noted. “If the aim is to sell a new era in Today, it is a big fail that is frankly creepy and completely off the mark.”
The official television ratings don’t start until next week with both Seven and Nine teams on deck early throughout January in a bid to get a strong start to the year.
Early indications though are that bringing Stefanovic back has not made a difference with Nine’s beleaguered Today show continuing to struggle in the ratings despite director of morning television Steve Burling promising an increase of 10 per cent.
The new look team lead by Stefanovic and Langdon broadcast live from the Australian Open for the past fortnight, which was expected to provide a boost in ratings but did not.
Stefanovic made his return to Today on January 4, the first show attracting an audience of 231,000 in metro markets compared to 312,000 on Seven’s Sunrise.
Viewer numbers dropped to a low this year of 183,000. The national five city average for 2019, with Georgie Gardner and Deb Knight hosting, was 195,000. The lowest figure for Today last year was 155,000, which prompted executives to bring Stefanovic back and take a broom to the rest of the office.
The new promo received a mixed response on the Today official Facebook page.
“You can make all the spoof adds you want but I doubt even Hannibal Lecter would get into the new today show,” one follower wrote, another responding: “I can’t take it!!! It’s all very fake!!! I stopped watching, they’re trying so hard to entertain using make believe humour,”.
Another commented, “Getting more like play school every day! And we think Sunrise is childish!”
The new look Today team sees Stefanovic and Langdon supported by newsreader Tracey Vo, weather presenter Tim Davies, sports journalist Alex Cullen and entertainment reporter Brooke Boney.
