How Channel Nine’s Today Show dramas unfolded
NINE’S Today Show continues to run in damage control mode, as Karl Stefanovic is separated from his co-stars after the fallout from an Uber phone call. This is how the show’s dramas began.
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NINE’S Today Show has been fraught with one drama after another personal issues affected their popular, high-profile co-hosts.
Karl Stefanovic, 43, has been at the centre of it after the breakdown of his marriage to Cassandra Thorburn and his new romance and recent engagement to Jasmine Yarbrough.
A shake-up involving Lisa Wilkinson’s exit after a contract despite and her replacement of Georgie Gardner has left the breakfast TV show in a rocky spot.
Now Karl and his brother Peter’s latest antics involving a phone call in an Uber which they have been forced to apologise for hasn’t helped, as the show struggles to beat Sunrise in the TV ratings war.
Now Nine is in damage control as it tries to separate Karl from his co-workers while on-air to try and mitigate the fallout.
This is how the Today Show has gone from one drama to the next:
SEPTEMBER 20, 2016: Karl pulls out of hosting duties on the Today Show amid reports that he and his wife Cassandra had split after 21 years of marriage. At the time, his co-host Lisa Wilkinson and Sylvia Jeffreys briefly referenced his absence at the top of the show, with Lisa claiming he was off doing “a 60 Minutes tidy up”.
OCTOBER 2016: Karl’s marriage to Cassandra ends after he moves out of the family home.
When the couple announced their split they also immediately put their Lindfield property in Sydney on the market while Stefanovic moved out to stay at his close friend James Packer’s Bondi apartment. After less than two weeks on the market, the family home sold for $3.8 million.
NOVEMBER 2016: Nine news boss Darren Wick confirmed Karl was being rested over summer, to allow for him to deal with his family issues. “Previously what we’ve done with Karl is that he has often shot 60 Minutes stories over the summer,” Wick said.
“We don’t want him doing that this year — just have a break. Obviously what he’s working through with his family situation ... he needs to have a break and just rest and spend time with his family. He’s going to do that and come back fresh next year.”
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2016/2017: Karl goes on a two-month sabbatical. During this time, he and his new girlfriend Jasmine Yarbrough appear to be together on social media and celebrate Christmas as a couple. The pair met after he left his ex-wife Cassandra.
FEBRUARY 5, 2017: A week into his return from a two-month sabbatical, The Today Show found itself soundly beaten by Sunrise every single day last week across the five-city metro ratings figures. The Daily Telegraph reported that the biggest disparity came on Monday, with Sunrise out-rating Today by 95,000 sets of eyeballs (Sunrise drew 337,000 viewers to Today’s 243,000).
MAY 7, 2017: Karl and Cassandra reportedly finalise their divorce.
APRIL 10, 2017: Karl’s best mate and temporary Today show replacement Ben Fordham defended him, “because his family is going through a tough time.” Fordham had to clarify why he was sitting in for Stefanovic, after he told his Instagram followers Karl was taking a “well earned break” — only for Lisa Wilkinson to then tell viewers her co-host was “on assignment.”
JULY 23, 2017: In an interview with Stellar magazine, Karl Stefanovic revealed he’s felt ashamed and that he had failed. But he hoped he would become a better man after his marriage breakdown and his new romance with Jasmine Yarbrough. He said he had “been through some personal stuff that’s been difficult on everyone in my family”.
“That has been the hardest aspect: the increased public interest, or coverage, makes it more intense to navigate through. But it isn’t a world event, it’s not a national event, it’s not a community event. I don’t know where to place it. It confuses the hell out of me.”
OCTOBER 16-17, 2017: Karl’s long-time co-host Lisa Wilkinson quits The Today Show after 10 years, as they refuse to pay her the same amount as Karl which was reported to be $2 million. She then joined Ten and The Project with a pay packet reported to be worth in excess of $2 million. On air, Karl told viewers: “It all came as a bit of a shock to us”.
OCTOBER 21, 2017: The Daily Telegraph reports that a network insider has revealed that Karl is ready to move on after more than a decade at the helm of Today. “Karl has been begging to get off there forever and surprise, surprise, the joint has imploded because they never listened to this bloke,” a network executive told the publication.
“They haven’t let him off and he’s been like a hostage.”
OCTOBER 23, 2017: Karl’s ex-wife Cassandra Thorburn opened up about the “dark days” she experienced following their split. She told Woman’s Day magazine she grieved the end of her relationship and that Stefanovic, 43, is now “dead” to her. “I realised I was going through stages of grief, and to me it was like someone had died,” she told the magazine. “The children still have a father but I don’t have a husband. He really is dead to me and no, we won’t ever be friends again.”
NOVEMBER 23, 2017: Georgie Gardner is announced as Lisa Wilkinson’s replacement on the Today Show. Gardner held her new co-host’s shoulder and said: “Nothing’s changed. Are you still predictably unpredictable?” Gardner told Karl that she respected him as she took on the role. “Jokes aside you know how much respect I have for you. There’s been interesting, a bit of conjecture over the last few weeks about how much we feel about each other,” she said.
“We’ve had our bumps, we’ve had our laughs, it is a very open and honest relationship. It is robust. Strap yourselves in everyone because anything could happen. It is going to be great, I hope.”
JANUARY 10, 2018: Nine reveals that Peter Stefanovic and Allison Langdon are the new hosts of Weekend Today. Peter told Nine.com.au that he still calls his brother for advice.
“He’s a great mentor for me, Karl, he tells me things to work on or things I can do better or things that might not be working or how to move to different levels. He’s a good brother and a good man …” he said.
JANUARY 23-24, 2018: Karl and Gardner failed to take advantage of its novelty factor on their first day on air together — with Seven’s Sunrise winning both five-city and national ratings on January 23. They were beaten by market leaders, Sam Armytage and David Koch, who won the national battle 480,000 viewers to Today’s 378,000 people. While the ratings took a hit, they steadied in 2017.
FEBRUARY 18: Gardner appears in a Stellar magazine interview where she addresses the talk of her having good chemistry with Karl. “Good chemistry doesn’t necessarily equate to being best friends,” Gardner says. “Good chemistry, to me, is interaction and respect and knowing when to let one shine [or] pull back. Drawing out people’s strength, having their back. Making each other laugh, finding the humour. Relationships by their very nature are often complex, and when it’s in those hosting chairs on national TV, you’re exposed. But that’s interesting.”
FEBRUARY 6 2018: Karl and Yasmine get engaged after meeting in 2016. The pair went public with their engagement after she flashed her enormous ring at the Harper’s Bazaar Australia’s 20th anniversary party in Sydney. The Daily Telegraph later confirmed the high profile couple were engaged, according to a friend who spilt the news. “They are very happy and enjoying this special time together,” they friend said, adding that the proposal was “very new”.
MARCH 10-11, 2018: Karl and Jasmine held a commitment ceremony in Palm Beach. While not legally binding, it was held at a private house. He told The Sunday Telegraph afterwards: “We are very much in love. We clicked right from the start. It’s a commitment ceremony. It was lovely.” Among the guests were Stefanovic’s youngest children Ava, 13, and River, 11, who were surprised by the ceremony. Karl’s eldest son Jackson, 18, did not attend. His brother Peter and wife Syvlia Jeffreys also attended the event.
MARCH 11, 2018: News emerged that a taxi driver was trying to sell a recording of a private phone conversation between brothers Karl and Peter Stefanovic, according to veteran Australian entertainment reporter Peter Ford. Ford made the allegations on the Kyle and Jackie O Show, after teasing the story on Twitter. He told the radio hosts the private phone call happened when Peter was in the back of an Uber late at night, speaking to his brother and fellow Nine Network celebrity Karl on speakerphone. Karl was said to have been discussing ongoing problems about his working relationship with Gardner, his new co-anchor.
MARCH 12, 2018: More details came to light about the nature of the phone conversation, as inside sources claimed to The Daily Telegraph that Nine’s senior management held extraordinary talks with executives in an attempt to manage the mounting crisis.
Nine News and Current Affairs boss Darren Wick, the executive producer of Today Mark Calvert and executive producer of 60 Minutes Kirsty Thomson were said to have been notified by executives to prepare themselves as they allegedly were named by the Stefanovic siblings in the conversation.
MARCH 14, 2018: A Nine spokeswoman said the siblings would not be made to offer a formal apology to Georgie Gardner, and also denied the Network had bought the ‘secret tape’.
“We have not bought it,” Nine publicity boss Victoria Buchan said. She further denied whispers Wick and Calvert were seen exchanging heated words in Calvert’s office earlier in the week.
MARCH 16: 2018:
Entertainment reporter Peter Ford claimed on an on-air segment on 3AW that New Idea would run explosive details in their upcoming Monday issue. However, he said there was no secret tape as previously reported, and that the reports of a scandalous discussion between Karl and Peter were just memorised by the anonymous Uber driver. “New Idea have got the Stefanovic tapes — now, what they’re saying in the story is there are no tapes. The driver in the car says he’s remembered all the details of the conversation. He must have an extraordinary memory,” Ford said.
MARCH 17: 2018: Both brothers broke their silence and publicly apologised in an interview with News Corp’s Sunday Telegraph. “We talk a hundred times a day and hardly ever about work,” Karl said. “But we did, and the conversation was recorded. And we are sorry. I was angry with myself at first that I could be so stupid.” Peter also apologised for the conversation. A spokesman for Nine said: “Clearly it was school behaviour between brothers but that’s no excuse.”
MARCH 19, 2018:
Details of the widely talked about phone call finally emerged as Nine sent Peter Stefanovic out to cover the bushfires for the Today show. Sylvia Jeffreys was also not in her usual newsreader chair. In the Uber call, Karl reportedly declared Gardner needed to “step up” if she “wanted to stay on the show.”
And viewers tuning in to Today witnessed first signs of tension between the anchors, with a number of awkward moments. Gardner snapped, saying on live TV: “Well, that’s right. That’s coming up, don’t you worry about that,” after Channel 9 newsreader Deborah Knight suggested: “You’ve got to face your fears, Karl.”
“Well, it’s probably about now I should call you pathetic,” Gardner told Karl.
Karl reportedly also went into detail on the phone call about what was wrong with 60 Minutes — which he claimed was suffering poor ratings — before pointing out that Nine bosses “didn’t know anything and ... are out of touch.” During the trip, Peter, who was with his wife Sylvia, said he “hated his job”, according to the driver, and Karl told him to demand $60,000 and “not to take no for an answer.” Jessica Rowe later blasted Karl, as she defended Gardner against the Stefanovic brothers.
MARCH 20, 2018: Karl appears on Today with Deborah Knight. Georgie is sent out to cover the bushfires at Tathra in NSW. He removal from the desk at Nine’s Sydney HQ comes after she called out Karl for being “pathetic” yesterday. Knight’s appearance on the Today Show comes after she revealed she had hopes of getting Wilkinson’s job after she left.
Karl’s brother Peter, who was involved in the controversial Uber phone call is still out reporting from the bushfires in Bega, NSW today.
Sylvia Jeffreys was also still out of the office in Victoria, covering the bushfires.
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