Lauren Phillips will leave Weekend Today to concentrate on radio gig
The Weekend Today weather presenter will make way for new talent in the coveted gig as she moves to focus on her radio career.
Fiona Byrne
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Lauren Phillips is strongly tipped to exit Weekend Today at the end of the year in a surprise shake up for the start-of-the-day program.
Phillips, 34, joined the TV breakfast show as it’s weather presenter in December 2019 and since August has been juggling her five-day a week radio commitments as the co-host of KIIS FM’s breakfast shift alongside Jase Hawkins with her weekend gig.
Before dawn starts seven days a week is exhausting to write, let alone being that person who has to keep up that punishing schedule, so it would be completely understandable for Phillips to step away from her Weekend Today role in 2022.
Her departure would open up a prime on-air spot for up and coming TV presenting talent.
Phillips has a three year deal with KIIS FM and is a natural radio talent, adding energy and interest to the show which was previously hosted by Hawkins and Polly ‘PJ’ Harding.
She has been a wise hire by KIIS, despite having to apologise to the family of murder victim Rachel Barber after making insensitive comments about her death last month.
KIIS FM breakfast recorded a tiny drop in listeners in the most recent radio ratings moving from a 4.8 share to 4.7.
It put the show on a par with the Fox FM breakfast team of Fifi Box, Brendan Fevola and Nick Cody who dropped from 5.9 to 4.7
While she has often been an on-air guest and has extensive experience in TV, Phillips was open about having limited experience as a radio host when she took the KIIS job admitting she was “learning on the job.”
“It was a huge decision for me because it was a career change,” she said.
“I love working at Channel 9, I love my job (on Weekend Today), and to dip my toe into a whole new industry, it was not a decision that was taken lightly. It is a career for me for the next three years.”
“The first thing I learnt in this job is basically your privacy is gone and you talk about your personal life a lot, which is different to any job I have had before,” she said.
“It has been really nice to be part of a team where nothing is off the table.”
Channel 9 declined to comment.
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