Today weather host Steve Jacobs moves to weekend gig

AFTER 12 years, Today weather presenter Steve Jacobs has announced he’s moving on to a new gig in the Nine Network.

AFTER 12 years waking up with Today, weather presenter Steve Jacobs is moving on.

The 49-year-old announced today that he’s stepped down from the gruelling weekday role, and taking up a post on Weekend Today.

Breaking the news on Today in an emotional segment, Jacobs said: “Monday to Friday, for the past 12 years, I haven’t been able to wake up once with my wife, haven’t been able to get the kids to daycare.”

Amid tears from everyone on the panel, he revealed that while he’ll be leaving his regular role, he’ll take on a more flexible position within the extended team.

“I’ve decided to hang up my boots from Monday to Friday, but the good news is our beautiful esteemed leader Mark Calvert [Today show’s executive producer] has come up with a great program to make my work more flexible so I can stay with you guys. So I’ll still be on the show doing the Knock of Cash and little heroes and I’ll be joining the weekend team and doing some weather there,” he said.

“I am still as passionate about Today as I have ever been and proud of our success this year. I want to continue to be part of that. I love the bond I have with my on-air family and am very excited to remain part of that winning formula.”

Jacobs and his family will be relocating to their second home in Vanuatu, where they have a house, and will commute between the two countries for work.

It’s sure to be a bittersweet transition for Jacobs, who once described the weather gig as “the best and worst job at the same time”.

He’s on the road up to 300 days a year, working 16 to 18 hour days, and trying out just about every activity under the sun.

Just last year, he gave news.com.au an example of a typical day, which involved waking up in Melbourne at 3.30am, spending three hours crossing to Today from a P&O ship, flying to Sydney at 10am for a few hours work, before flying to Brisbane three hours later and catching a boat in rough seas to Tangalooma Island to shoot a story for the next day on feeding dolphins at 6.30pm.

“It’s a love of what you do, if you find your passion in life then you do what you have to do to follow it,” he said. “Since I was about five, I used to watch Hey Hey It’s Saturday and I used to say to my parents ‘This is what I want to do, I want to get paid to have fun’ and I just followed that dream and was lucky to fall into it, so I pinch myself every day that I’m lucky enough to do it and if that means 16 or 18 hour days then so be it. I feel like I’ve never had to do a real day’s work in my life.”