Are Georgie’s days on Today numbered?
An allegedly tense private meeting between Today host Georgie Gardner and Nine’s head of news Darren Wick has fuelled talk Gardner’s days on the set of Today may be numbered.
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An allegedly tense private meeting between Today host Georgie Gardner and Nine’s head of news Darren Wick has fuelled talk Gardner’s days on the set of Today may be numbered.
According to well-placed sources, Gardner met with the news boss on Friday, August 30 — the star seizing the chance to sit down with Wick in his office for a closed-door chat.
While Nine has denied Gardner’s voice was raised during the meeting — which happened to coincide with Today show executive producer Steve Burling flying to Croatia for the nuptials of the program’s newsreader Tom Steinfort — sources at Nine have identified a number of items on Gardner’s personal list of grievances that she has been agitating for Nine management to address.
Chief among them is the level of experience of producers working on Today.
A quick check reveals that in recent months there has been an exodus of young producers from the show.
Gone is budding entertainment reporter and the man once charged with producing Brooke Boney’s entertainment segments, Matt Woolfrey, as well as producers Angie Raad, Sophie Upcroft and Jemma Barge, some of the stunning young women employed by Burling’s predecessors at Today.
Wick yesterday denied the four had been “moved on” by Burling to appease Gardner, who is said to have been pushing for more senior producers on the show.
He conceded Woolfrey and Raad had been transferred to A Current Affair, where they might broaden their production experience.
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Upcroft, meanwhile, has moved to Brisbane to work as a reporter, while Barge, the statuesque partner of league star Boyd Cordner, was working for Weekend Today but recently quit.
Wick denied a fifth staffer, Burling’s experienced and well-regarded deputy on the program, Lisa de Ray, had also left the show.
“Lisa has just relocated to Brisbane but continues to work for the show,” he said.
Playing an increasingly large behind-the-scenes role at Today have been 25-year television veteran Josie MacRae, who has filled in for Burling during his three-week mid-year break, and producer Ash Scully.
Gardner also is said to have ongoing issues with her very capable offsider Deb Knight.
Wick refused to be drawn on persistent talk the women’s strained off-air relationship has worsened since the beginning of the year and claims that, to address this, Burling and Wick have shaped the program to ensure the women spend a minimum of time in direct engagement on-air.
Gardner these days spends more time chatting on the Today couch with her male offsiders Steinfort, Richard Wilkins and Steve Jacobs than with Knight.
Wick insisted the formula is working and said the somewhat wet-behind-the-ears Burling “has done a great job”.
“The content is much better this year than it was a year ago. It’s a bold new experiment and one we are very happy to proceed with.”
It’s a statement that probably won’t put to bed reinvigorated rumours Karl Stefanovic will return, in Gardner’s place, as host of Today next year — the final year of his five-year $3 million-a-year contract.
Stefanovic is said to have had an astonishing change of heart concerning Today during his 10 months off-air.
“He wants to return to the show,” said one source, “and Nine have been keeping their options open — thinking they might put him back in for one year to get some value out of their investment in him — but the failure of This Time Next Year to relight a fire under him at prime time will not help his cause.”
Gardner would hardly wish to partner again with Stefanovic on air and, judging from Wick’s comment regarding last year’s program content, it’s fair to say he has no wish to revisit those times either.