Karl Stefanovic joins family on Fiji holiday as pay talks continue
As Channel 9 bean counters prepare to slash his $3m a year salary in half, Today show host Karl Stefanovic has jetted off to Fiji for a family holiday.
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Karl Stefanovic has taken an early mark from Today and is en route to Fiji to spend the Easter break with wife Jasmine and daughter Harper.
The mini vacay is the Nine host’s second holiday in a month and precedes what TV insiders claim will be the toughest contract negotiations of the breakfast star’s career.
The network’s bean counters are under pressure to slash Stefanovic’s contract by half - from close to $3 million a year to $1.5 million.
TV executives are divided over whether Stefanovic remains a “golden asset” to the network, an insider told news.com.au this week.
MORE: Karl Stefanovic’s multimillion-dollar breakup
“He doesn’t attract audience numbers, he doesn’t pull in big interviews, he might put in some hours but he has become a clichéd slick-talking salesman and the view of news bosses is his is a jaded brand that has eclipsed Today’s,” a TV insider said.
Stefanovic will be forced to negotiate with Nine’s new CEO Matt Stanton who replaced the man the Today anchor called “mate” in previous negotiations, departed Nine CEO Mike Sneesby.
Sneesby left Nine in September at the tail-end of Nine’s long overdue culture review, which many insist was a contrived and superficial exercise that failed to address the real fractures within the media company but did offer an opportunity for an optical “reset”.
New CEO Stanton is under the pump to enforce real change at Nine and is said to be more broadly focused on Nine’s fragmented news division - rather than underperforming programs like Today.
It’s believed he is less likely to pander to the network’s bloated overpaid stars.
Stefanovic was planning to slip away from his Today duties after Wednesday’s show and catch the early flight to Fiji with Nine’s longtime affiliate Qantas on Thursday morning, during the program’s timeslot.
Perhaps mindful of how that might appear, having also flown to Vegas earlier in the year on Nine’s dime, his plans later changed.
He flew separately from wife Jasmine and their daughter Harper, who turns five in two weeks. They left on Wednesday.
The family is believed to be staying at exclusive Kokomo Island Resort, where they’ve vacationed previously.
One travel site currently offers five-night packages for $18,900pp.
The trip comes just a fortnight after Stefanovic returned from a two-week long pre-Easter break which sources claim he took at short notice to address a “family crisis”.
Stefanovic has three older children from his first marriage.
It was on Kokomo Island that Stefanovic and then girlfriend Jasmine Yarbrough retreated in January 2018 and where he reportedly proposed marriage.
Shortly after, in March that year, they held a commitment ceremony at Palm Beach before marrying in Mexico in December, though Kokomo was reportedly on a shortlist of considered wedding locations.
They returned again to the privately held island in December 2022 to celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary.
With stressful negotiations ahead - and family turmoil on his mind - it would serve as an idyllic retreat from the world and a perfect location to refocus on one’s marriage.
Nine sources predict Stefanovic’s chair will again be occupied in his absence by the man fast shaping up as heir apparent, Sydney evening news sports presenter James Bracey.
Originally published as Karl Stefanovic joins family on Fiji holiday as pay talks continue
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