Nine’s morning show left in the shade by arch-rival Sunrise

The decision to jettison Karl Stefanovic has done Today no favours, with Nine’s flagship morning show being left in the shade by arch-rival Sunrise for the 15th year in a row.

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The decision to jettison Karl Stefanovic has done Today no favours, with Nine’s flagship morning show being left in the shade by arch-rvial Sunrise for the 15th year in a row.

Any hopes that a new-look line-up would refresh the ratings battle were dashed yesterday when it was revealed that the David Koch and Samantha Armytage-fronted show had now won 21 of 40 ratings weeks to put it in an unassailable position.

Stefanovic still has 18 months to run on his $3 million a year deal. Picture: Jono Searle

And the crushing defeat is sure to spark calls for Stefanovic — who still has 18 months to run on his $3 million a year deal — to be called off the bench and back into the big time.

While there appear to be no clouds on Sunrise’s horizon after its latest victory, Today will be in for a spot of soul searching after its wholsale shake-up failed to reap the changes Nine so desired.

In January last year, Georgie Gardner replaced longtime host Lisa Wilkinson, who quit over a pay dispute. Gardner’s debut attracted 256,000 metro viewers about eight months later the program was making more unwanted headlines when ratings first dropped below the “critical” 200,000 mark.

Channel Nine Today Show hosts. Deb Knight and Georgie Gardner.

The gap between Sunrise and Today grew even bigger following the departure of Stefanovic — pictured with a spring in his step at Nine’s Willoughby studios alongside wife Jasmine, his sister-in-law and news anchor Sylvia Jeffreys, and sports presenter Tim Gilbert.

The new-look team — consisting of Gardner, Deborah Knight, Tom Steinfort, Brooke Boney and Tony Jones — failed to attract people back to Today, with 197,000 tuning in in mero markets in January, far behind Sunrise‘s 266,000. And things look even worse when you look at the combined metro and regional average figures, 287,000 for Today and 462,000 for Sunrise.

While insiders at Nine maintain Stefanovic will not return there remains speculation about whether he will rejoin the Today cast in a cameo role in much the same way he will be a regular contributor on 2GB as well as working sporadically for 60 Minutes.

Sunrise's Samantha Armytage and David Koch

Media Analyst Steve Allen said while it was still unclear what Nine executives will do with the 44-year-old, it was clear they are working on fixing his somewhat tarnished reputation.

“They are on a path to rehabilitate Karl,” Mr Allen said. “And it is going smoothly, but it is yet to be seen whether he would ever want to or be asked to return to Today.”

He said no matter what happened, it was clear Sunrise can once again bask in the glory.

“Unless there was a disaster on Sunrise and Koch did something like defect to Nine, Sunrise are still going to win the numbers game,” Mr Allen said.

Sunrise executive producer Michael Pell said he was elated by the show’s best ratings results since 2006.

“We are thrilled that the audience is still coming on this ride with us after all these years,” he said.