Not Today: Nine’s new line-up delivers lowest ratings in 10 years

Ouch … Nine’s excruciating changes to its Today show line-up have hit where it hurts — delivering the show’s lowest ratings in 10 years. VOTE, HAVE YOUR SAY

Nine’s painful changes to its on-air personnel have hit where it hurts — posting its lowest Today show ratings in 10 years.

The unenviable record continues the decline of the once-dominant breakfast show which purged its talent roster — including long-time host Karl Stefanovic — over the summer break, in a bid to stem the audience bleeding.

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Deborah Knight and Georgie Gardner on Today this morning. Picture: Supplied

But attempts to patch up the problems by casting new anchor Deb Knight, newsreader Tom Steinfort, and entertainment newcomer, Brooke Boney has seen the audience react with their remotes — turning off the first show yesterday in their droves.

Expecting a bounce from the “perve factor” — playing on the curiosity of viewers to the changes — instead, Today sunk below the all-important 200,000 audience mark — pulling just 197,000 viewers across the five-city metro markets.

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Nine’s new breakfast line-up was poorly received on Monday. Picture: Today

Sunrise won the 2019 return, with 266,000 viewers — a margin of 35 per cent, in a battleground where five per cent margins are considered adequate.

The national figures were even more stark, with Sunrise drawing 427,000 viewers (including regional markets) to Today’s 312,000 people.

The new Today would have had a taste of viewer sentiment on social media yesterday, with the revamped line-up widely panned as boring and lacking news value.

Nine will hope those figures improve as their coverage of the Australian Open delivers bigger prime-time audiences, in the hope that audience sticks around for its breakfast program.

But despite their emphasis on luring Melbourne audiences back to the program by broadcasting from the grand slam, the city continued to desert the program — with Sunrise pulling 71,000viewers to Today’s 41K.

Originally published as Not Today: Nine’s new line-up delivers lowest ratings in 10 years