Stars pay tribute to Georgie Gardner after Karl Stefanovic’s Today show return amid ratings struggle
Deborah Knight and Tom Steinfort were left to pick up the pieces after Georgie Gardner left the Today Show once Karl Stefanovic’s comeback was revealed. HAVE YOUR SAY
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Today Show hosts Deborah Knight and Tom Steinfort have paid tribute to Georgie Gardner, who walked out on the show after it was declared that Karl Stefanovic was making his TV comeback.
Knight and Steinfort were left as fill-in hosts after Gardner left on Friday as it was revealed Stefanovic will host the show with Allison Langdon.
“We wanted to acknowledge our colleague and friend Georgie Gardner,” Knight said.
“You might have read over the weekend that Georgie has left the Today show. After a really challenging year we want to wish Georgie all the very best.”
Steinfort went on, saying: “She has been a committed and passionate member of the team here. I think particularly when she’s been sharing the stories of every day Australians who are doing it tough; these are issues that she wanted to focus on.
“She has always been a woman of strength here, a woman of class, and also who could forget very wicked sense of humour that would just pop up from time to time as well.”
Knight added: “She gave it a red hot go.”
“For now though, Georgie is enjoying the time with her family, friends, taking Wilbur the dog (for a walk) and we look forward to seeing you on our screens again very soon.”
“Enjoy the sleep ins,” Steinfort also said.
Stefanovic’s Today show comeback has been well received with Aussies saying they want to see Nine’s golden boy back on their screens.
A News Corp poll of more than 4900 readers showed 67 per cent wanted Karl to return to the breakfast show, while 33 per cent did not.
He will be part of an all-new team with Weekend Today host and 60 Minutes reporter Allison Langdon.
Network bosses believe Karl could reinvigorate the ailing breakfast show despite sacking him from the program last year. He is also willing to take a major pay cut to return to his seat on Today.
Karl and Langdon will replace the current Today hosting duo of Georgie Gardner and Deb Knight, who have struggled with low ratings.
Last Friday the show drew in just 155,000 viewers in the five capital cities in what marked its worst result for the year.
Insiders described the result as the “the nail in the coffin for the current crew”, according to The Daily Telegraph.
One News Corp reader wrote it would be a “great move” for Karl to return “as long as the current duo is removed.”
They weren’t the only one to sledge Gardner and Knight, with another writing: “Anybody would be better than the current two sitting in the chair right now.”
Others said they would tune back in to the show if Karl was back on screens.
“If Nine brings back Karl, I’ll certainly start watching Today again,” one wrote.
“Karl was the best part of the Today Show and I haven’t watched since he left. If he returns so will the viewers,” another declared.
Others, however, weren’t so sure his return would bring the ratings the Nine network craved.
“The format and content are also very tired so they really need to do a lot of as just putting Karl back in the seat is not a fix, that’s my belief anyway for what it’s worth,” one said.
“Can’t distinguish between the Today show and advertisement/advertorials. Karl Stefanovic’s possible return would still not encourage me to watch,” another reader wrote.
Another put it bluntly: “Sick to death of seeing this bloke. Don’t care, please just go away.”
Karl currently files stories for Nine’s 60 Minutes and has one year left on his contract believed to be worth $2 million a year.
When Nova FM’s Fitzy and Wippa interviewed him last week, Stefanovic used a cricket analogy only half tongue-in-cheek: “That’s what I keep trying to tell Channel 9, that I’m the lucky charm. If they want to pad me up and send me in, I’m ready to go in and we’ll have a win.”
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WHY NINE AXED KARL
Controversy surrounding Karl’s personal and professional life was largely attributed to his Today show sacking.
Issues began in 2016 when he and his ex-wife Cassandra Thorburn split. Soon after, he met shoe designer Jasmine Yarbrough who he tied the knot with at a no-expense spared Mexican wedding last year.
Soon after they finalised their divorce in 2017, Thorburn opened up about the “dark days” she experienced following their split.
“I realised I was going through stages of grief, and to me it was like someone had died,” she told the magazine.
“The children still have a father but I don’t have a husband. He really is dead to me and no, we won’t ever be friends again.”
The show’s ratings began to falter around the same time, and the shock exit of Karl’s long-time co-host Lisa Wilkinson did nothing to help the situation.
Wilkinson left the show after 10 years as they refused to pay her the same as Karl which was reported to be $2 million.
Following her departure, current host Georgie Gardner stepped into the role. Gardner would go on to admit she and her co-host weren’t besties.
“Good chemistry doesn’t necessarily equate to being best friends,” Gardner said when addressing talk of good chemistry between she and Karl.
Then the Ubergate scandal reared its head in 2018.
News emerged that a taxi driver was trying to sell a recording of a private phone conversation between brothers Karl and Peter Stefanovic.
In the Uber call, Karl reportedly declared Gardner needed to “step up” if she “wanted to stay on the show.”
Karl reportedly also went into detail on the phone call about what was wrong with 60 Minutes — which he claimed was suffering poor ratings — before pointing out that Nine bosses “didn’t know anything and … are out of touch.” During the trip, Peter, who hosted Weekend Today and reported for 60 Minutes, said he “hated his job”, according to the driver, and Karl told him to demand $60,000 and “not to take no for an answer.”
Later that year, Nine’s chief executive Hugh Marks said: “Clearly, it’s been a tough and challenging year for Karl and Today.”
“No doubt the constant publicity surrounding issues with his personal life have had an impact on Karl, his colleagues and on the show. We can’t hide from that. And as a result we know there’s a lot of hard work to be done to win back the audience.”
Originally published as Stars pay tribute to Georgie Gardner after Karl Stefanovic’s Today show return amid ratings struggle