Karl Stefanovic’s TV no-show sets tongues wagging

He’s been oddly off our screens during a massive news week, but is there more to Karl Stefanovic’s absence from the Today show?

Karl Stefanovic’s absence from Nine’s Today show this week has sparked claims the breakfast show host has started playing hardball with bosses in contract negotiations.

Given it’s only March, it’s a bit early in the year for the host to be heading off on holiday to Europe one would think.

We put a call in to Nine’s publicists on Thursday to inquire about the absence of their highest paid news star in a big news week when the federal budget was delivered and the election campaign kicked off.

We were told he’s taken leave and will return April 7.

Surely if there was a week that called for Stefanovic’s brand of breakfast show buffoonery it was this week.

Today Show hosts Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo. Picture Thomas Lisson

But no, Nine’s prime time evening sports presenter James Bracey was in Stefanovic’s seat and doing an admirable job impersonating Nine Radio star Ben Fordham impersonating Stefanovic while demolishing a cream bun in three bites or less.

Today’s ratings have been slipping in Sydney, Stefanovic’s hometown, since the start of the year which means Seven’s Sunrise continues to thrash it by a large margin.

That can’t reflect well on Stefanovic’s contract negotiations as he attempts to squeeze a bit more cashola out of Nine without having to resort to the kind of “Lambo Guy” antics that took out his well-liked offsider Alex Cullen in January.

James Bracey doing a fine job replacing Karl Stefanovic on Today this week in the cream bun challenge. Picture: Supplied

Alex Cullen has parted ways with Nine.

Then there are the $3-million-dollar-a-year man’s long-held dreams of hosting a tonight show, something which likely took a hit this week after Ten’s new tonight show with comedian Sam Pang shed 30 per cent of its audience in its second week out.

Sam Pang Tonight was down from 799,000 to just 575,000 audience (total average national + regions audience), a result that cannot bode well for the program.

And who could have failed to miss the fact Nine snubbed Stefanovic on federal budget coverage night?

Instead of being wheeled out as the face of it’s 10pm Tuesday night coverage, the role went instead to Sydney news anchor Peter Overton and a cast of appropriately earnest reporters including Charles Croucher, Andrew Probyn and money editor Effie Zahos.

Could it be that Nine has told Stefanovic he’s in line for a large seven-figure pay cut?

If so, could this be the end of Karl’s extremely profitable run on Today?

Stay tuned.

Originally published as Karl Stefanovic’s TV no-show sets tongues wagging