Karl Stefanovic’s This Time Next Year axed from Channel 9’s 2020 line-up
This Time Next Year will not return to screens in 2020 — with Karl Stefanovic’s fate on the Nine Network left unknown.
Karl Stefanovic will not be returning to his Monday night presenting timeslot next year, with the announcement This Time Next Year has not been renewed for a third season.
Nine revealed its 2020 line-up today, with Stefanovic’s show notably missing from the list.
Following his dramatic sacking from the Today show in December 2018, This Time Next Year has been Stefanovic’s main television gig, along with appearances on 60 Minutes.
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The veteran host was dropped from the Today show line-up after several months of rumours and dipping ratings, with the decision coming just days after his lavish Mexican wedding to Jasmine Yarbrough.
It came after the infamous leaked Uber call when Karl and his brother Peter were overheard on a private phone call criticising colleagues and network management. The conversation was later sold to a tabloid magazine.
In a major shake-up of the show, Deb Knight was brought in to co-host Today with Georgie Gardner.
This Time Next Year followed Australians as they set out to achieve monumental personal goals over 12 months. When it debuted in 2017 it pulled in 1.28 million (five city metro) viewers for the first episode. However, this year’s Season 2 opening episode attracted only 686,000 viewers, just behind Have You Been Paying Attention? which took out the timeslot win that night with 735,000 viewers.
It is not known what lies ahead for Stefanovic — Nine did not wish to comment on the program’s axing.
It did confirm the Today Show is on the 2020 line-up, with no word of any cast changes.
OTHER NOTABLE OMISSIONS
Along with This Time Next Year, Love Island — the second season which is currently airing — has not been announced for a third Australian season on Nine.
The current season is the first on the broadcaster’s primary channel after running on its secondary channel 9Go in 2018.
On its premiere episode, it pulled 494,000 metro viewers, and while it was a significant jump from season one’s 155,000, Ten’s H ave You Been Paying Attention? won the slot with 823,000.
The revival of Seachange does not appear on Nine’s 2020 lineup, nor does Bad Mothers.
FAVOURITES RETURNING
The Block
After an explosive 2019 season, the network’s reality reno juggernaut The Block will return for its 16th season.
Amid the “cash crisis” of the program’s ambitious transformation of a dilapidated St Kilda backpackers hostel into five luxury three-storey townhouses, the network has announced it will move to a vacant block of land in Brighton next year.
Co-host Shelley Craft along with judges Neale Whitaker, Shaynna Blaze and Darren Palmer are set to return.
Australian Ninja Warrior — the gruelling competition is back, with a new location in Melbourne and returning hosts Rebecca Maddern, Ben Fordham and Freddie Flintoff.
Married At First Sight — The social experiment that Australia couldn’t look away from this year will return for its seventh season. Experts John Aiken, Mel Schilling and Trisha Stratford will all return to the show.
Lego Masters — The family-friendly reality show was a ratings hit for the network, boastingmore than 2.3 million viewers tuning in for the final episode.
Hamish Blake will be back as host, along with judge Ryan “Brickman” McNaught, and eight new pairs of passionate creators.
The Voice — while Kelly Rowland, Delta Goodrem, Guy Sebastian and Boy George are confirmed to return to their positions in the spinning red chairs, Sonia Kruger was not mentioned as the host of The Voice in the line-up announcement. Nine declined to comment.
NEW OFFERINGS
Seven new programs will enter Nine’s line-up, including:
Halifax: Retribution — Rebecca Gibney is reprising the role of forensic psychiatrist Jane Halifax, which she played from 1994-2002, for a new miniseries. Anthony LaPaglia and Claudia Karvan will also make up the cast.
“I am beyond excited to be breathing new life into Jane Halifax as she was and still is one of my favourite characters, and I always believed there was so much more we could explore with her,” Gibney said in a statement.
“Having grown as a woman and hopefully as an actor over the last 20 years I’m really looking forward to exploring Jane’s world from a new perspective.”
Informer 3838 — a new drama miniseries based on the events involving gangland lawyer turned police informer, Nicola Gobbo, starring Ella Scott Lynch.
The Parent Duty — a reality series which will see parents take turns judging each other’s parenting styles.
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