After 12-year wait, Karl and Lisa poised to topple Sunrise
IT HAS taken more than a decade, but Karl and Lisa are finally on the cusp of their biggest goal — crushing their rival show.
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IT’S taken more than a decade, but Today’s Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson are just one win away from seeing the sun set on a 12-year-run of success of rival breakfast show, Sunrise.
With just six weeks of the 2016 official television ratings season to go, Today needs to win just one more week of the ratings to claim victory for the year after a very lengthy drought.
Today has won 20 of the 40 official weeks, and one more weekly win will see them take the year. A 12-year-wait could be over.
It’s been so hard-fought and long-awaited that nobody at Nine seems game to voice it, especially while the contest remains so close: this week’s five-city metropolitan ratings figures show Monday and Tuesday both won by Sunrise, and it’s feasible the show could still keep its crown. Wednesday’s ratings swung Today’s by a margin of just 12,000 viewers: the race is that close.
The ultimate result, should Today not take another official ratings week outright, could come down to viewer numbers of less than 100 because one of the ‘wins’ was actually a draw between the two shows when the figures were rounded to the nearest 100 viewers. Breaking them down would see Sunrise emerge in front.
What is certain is this is the closest ratings race in the breakfast TV wars since 2004, and a hard-fought milestone for the 10-year of Karl Stefanovic Lisa Wilkinson as hosts.
Today paved the way to a successful year with a barnstorming start to 2016 which by May had seen the Channel Nine breakfast show having back-to-back winning weeks, for the first time in years.
Sunrise, helmed by David Koch and Samantha Armytage, was boosted to a swag of wins during Seven’s Olympics coverage, but the two shows recommenced their seesawing game of dominance ever since.
It’s an even tighter scenario than last year, when after years of Today chipping away at Seven’s breakfast dominance, Sunrise still took 2015, and bragging rights ... but only just.
Previous years had seen Sunrise with a winning buffer of up to 100,000 viewers nationally, but by the end of last year that gap had almost vanished: in Sydney, Today led Sunrise by just 5000 viewers (99,000 to 94,000), while In Melbourne, Sunrise has its neck in front, 90,000 to Today’s 87,000.
A win for Today, helmed by the pairing of Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson would be good news especially for Stefanovic after a mixed year of personal fortunes.
He re-signed with Today after protracted negotiations late last year in a deal rumoured to be up to $2 million a year, making him Australia’s highest paid face on TV, but has reportedly split with his wife Cassandra Thorburn recently.
Sunrise reset its offerings at the start of the year, bringing former on-the-road weather presenter Edwina Bartholomew into a studio-based role, adding weatherman Sam Mac to its line-up and revamping its set.
Today went into the year with its central hosting personnel intact, but Channel Nine opted to rebrand its Mornings show, which follows Today, renaming it Today Extra.
Originally published as After 12-year wait, Karl and Lisa poised to topple Sunrise
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