Viewers rate Georgie Gardner on Today with Karl Stefanovic
GEORGIE Gardner returned to the Today show desk this morning, making her debut as the new co-host of the breakfast show alongside Karl Stefanovic. But what did viewers really think of her?
Confidential
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LISA who? Georgie Gardner made a triumphant return to the Today show desk this morning, making her much-anticipated debut as the new co-host of the breakfast show.
Three months after Lisa Wilkinson dramatically quit the show, Gardner was welcomed into the hosting seat, almost four years after stepping down from her newsreading role.
Viewers took to social media to welcome Gardner back to the program, saying she was the “perfect” replacement for Wilkinson.
“Yea. Just love Georgie,” wrote one viewer. “Great choice Today Show bosses. I miss Lisa heaps but to have Georgie is just fantastic, best morning show on TV.”
Added another: “Georgie is the perfect fit. Great team this year! I love watching Sylvia, she’s so beautiful and professional. My favourite but as a team they’re all great.”
While others acknowledged they missed Wilkinson, who will make her debut on Ten’s The Project this Sunday, they conceded Gardner was “the best alternative” and it felt like Gardner had only been away on holidays and was back where she belonged.
Stefanovic even decided to decided to make reference to Gardner’s first day performance, telling her an hour into the program: “You haven’t made any significant errors yet!”
To which Gardner fired back: “Oh, you reckon? What about the off-air stuff?”
While Karl joked: “That’s being recorded too”.
Gardner: There’s part of me that feels wary of returning
Gardner told Confidential the enormity of the job was not lost on her.
“It came from left field, I wasn’t expecting it and I gave it plenty of consideration,” she said.
“I discussed it at length with my family and I recall did write a list of pros and cons and looked at it all and after a while I decided it is an opportunity that only comes around once in your career, and I felt the timing is was just perfect.
“I feel I’ve got a bit of life experience, the family is on track, my family has a job that brings with it some flexibility which is wonderful and I was looking for a new challenge and I felt it was too good an opportunity to pass up and I didn’t want to die wondering.
“I conferred with people who I respect and the outcome was the same with each of them and that was ‘you don’t want to die wondering’. So here I am and obviously there is some risk that comes with it, but I’ve always been an advocate of ‘the greatest risk is not taking a risk’”.