Karl’s rating downfall revealed
Today show ratings have trended downwards since the departure of Lisa Wilkinson - so what does that mean for Karl Stefanovic’s wage?
TV
Don't miss out on the headlines from TV. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Are executives at Nine hiding Karl Stefanovic’s report card from newish CEO Matt Stanton?
One has to wonder, given claims this week Stanton has inked a new deal with Today show host Karl Stefanovic.
Someone at Nine is surely pulling the wool over Stanton’s eyes, for when last we checked – on Thursday – the Today show’s rating were plummeting and for the past three years had achieved record figures.
To put this in the plainest terms, here’s a graph which shows Today has been cascading downwards since the departure of Lisa Wilkinson in 2017.
Back in 2017, in the two-month period of May and June, Today reached an average of 445,043 viewers nationally. In the five capital cities that figure was 294,255.
In 2025, for the same two-month period, Today reached 267,422 viewers nationally and 177,621 in the five capital cities.
That represents a decline of 60 per cent over nine years and, without exception, Today’s consistent loss to the stronger Sunrise on Seven.
Nine years of losses to Seven in the breakfast TV slot.
And if you look back further, one finds that with Stefanovic at the helm Today has lost convincingly every year to Seven’s Sunrise since he was moved into the anchor’s chair in 2005.
There was only momentary blip is that devastating record. That was in the opening months of 2016 when Today, with Wilkinson seated next to Stefanovic, topped Sunrise.
After that, his marriage unravelled along with the gains the duo had started to make on Seven after a decade.
Yet Wilkinson, one of the most eloquent and best researched commercial TV breakfast anchors the nation has known, would be shown the door in 2017 following a pay parity dispute with management.
Stefanovic would survive for another (almost) decade.
Surely it proves nothing’s fair in love and war and television ladies, nothing.
And maybe less than nothing if reports prove true that for his two decades of successive ratings failures, Stefanovic has been handed a $200k payrise taking his salary to more than three times that of his female co-anchor, Sarah Abo.
Stefanovic may be able to fool his blokey bosses at Nine (firstly David Gyngell, then Eddie McGuire, then Gyngell again, then Hugh Marks, then Mike Sneesby, then Stanton), but as the ratings amply prove, you can’t fool an audience.
That’s who should always determine the net worth of a performer.
It should be said that in this year’s May/June period, Today has achieved figures lower even than it did in 2019 – the year declared a disaster by Nine bosses following the installation of two women, sterling newsreaders Georgie Gardner and Deb Knight, at the program’s helm.
An experiment deemed a failure at Nine and killed off after a year.
PROJECT STAR’S SAD ADMISSION
As stars of The Project prepare for their final show on Friday night, Sarah Harris revealed sad details about its axing — saying “she’s old enough” to cope, but that more than 50 job losses will devastate more junior workers.
Harris opened up about her uncertain future this week but stopped short of confirming one media report claiming Ten had not sacked her but offered her a role on the program that replaces The Project from Monday.
Harris twice dodged the question when close buddy and ex Studio 10 colleague Joe Hildebrand put the question to her on his The Real Story Nova podcast on Thursday.
Rather than respond, Harris confirmed this column’s exclusive report that more than 50 people lost their jobs when The Project was axed.
Dozens more casuals are said to have been impacted.
“More than 50 people have lost their jobs now. I can cop it. I’m old enough and ugly enough to deal with that but the kids who’ve lost their jobs … Lots of people behind the scenes who are about to have babies – who have scrimped and saved and bought their first place …” she said.
Harris opened the interview with the line “Hello, I’m Sarah Harris and I’m open to any sort of employment. You can check me out on LinkedIn.”
She later acknowledged it was a tough time in the TV industry, that a “reckoning” is occurring, and that “social media killed the TV star.”
Industry sources claim that while dozens of behind-the-scenes production staff were given a couple weeks notice, a number of presenters were offered contract extensions to the end of the year.
Harris and co-presenters Waleed Aly and Georgie Tunny are believed to have been offered brief extensions.
Tunny, who had been a star in the making on ABC Breakfast before jumping ship in 2021 to Foxtel and subsequently making the move to Ten following Carrie Bickmore’s resignation from the Project in 2022, has spent recent days doubling down on promotions for two podcasts she’s associated with.
Tunny took to Instagram to promote a sporting podcast, Two Good Sports, which she co-hosts with Abbey Gelmi, as well as a second Taylor Swift-inspired podcast, Ready For It.
Harris flatly didn’t rule out the likelihood a podcast might be in her future.
BIVIANO NEXT BIG MOVE?
In the midst of the emotional turmoil and high drama that engulfed – and for a while threatened to capsize – the latest series of Real Housewives of Sydney, came a whisper Terry Biviano had struck upon an idea.
Sources close to the Real Housewives of Sydney (RHOS) production have told this column that as Rome was burning around Biviano on the set of the reality show the one-time “It” girl Biviano was hatching a plan to pitch a programming idea to the program’s broadcaster, Foxtel.
The concept, or so we heard, would see the Sydney WAG star in a reality show alongside some of her “friends”.
By “friends” our insiders believed Biviano meant members of the Housewives’ cast with whom she’s still on speaking terms.
When last we checked, that extended to two members of the cast, vet Kate Adams and reinvented wellness spruiker Sally Obermeder.
Not so much Krissy Marsh, Nicole Gazal-O’Neil and fashion retailer Victoria Montano, with whom Biviano reportedly had a public spat at an eastern suburbs party earlier this year.
We’re unable to confirm the current status of Biviano’s relationship with the feisty Caroline Gaultier and the one with the parasol.
We note Biviano has already road-tested the title Real Girlfriends of Sydney to her 70k Instagram followers.
This tag accompanied a post showing the one-time shoe designer lunching with Sydney pals including fashion designer Rebecca Vallance.
The wife of retired NRL player Anthony Minichiello seemed surprised by the talk when Sharpshooting reached out to her for comment this week.
“News to me,” she said via text from a mystery “family holiday” location, just days after a regular reader spied her taking a turn around an airport in Copenhagen.
A Foxtel spokesman declined to be drawn on any discussions the broadcaster may have had with Biviano.
So maybe it is just talk.
In the unlikely event such a concept might appeal to Foxtel’s soon-to-be-hired new head of content, not to mention the honchos at production partner Matchbox who, so we hear, are still assessing the cost of the toxic cast feud that almost sank the final episodes of RHOS season three, there could be an issue finding a suitable location.
When last we checked, Biviano’s still-under-construction house in Vaucluse was, well, still under construction.
That was March, some 11 years after the owners acquired and started designing their dream pile in 2014.
We’re awaiting word on whether the exclusive suburb’s most detested front yard fixture, a green port-a-loo on the Biviano/Minichiello site, might finally have been cleared away so the couple can at last take up residence and get on with the task of dreaming up schemes to pay it off.
JOINING FORCES
The name of departed ABC executive Chris Oliver-Taylor was on everyone’s lips this week as the court’s verdict on Antoinette Lattouf was finally handed down.
The man the court found to be chiefly responsible for casual presenter Lattouf’s sacking was no where to be seen on Wednesday however, having departed the ABC in February to take up a job as global director of digital content monetisation platform Totem Global.
Oliver-Taylor has landed on his feet in a role that will include international business development and company expansion.
It’s not clear meanwhile where Lattouf had landed although we were interested to learn this week that she’s signed to an influencer stable.
Stage Addiction, a company we’d not heard of until this week, is promoting the self-described “human Headline Hottie” with the inducement “Get your people to call my people etc”.
Also in the stable is Abbie Chatfield, Jess Eva and a bunch of dudes we wouldn’t recognise from Adam.
Meanwhile Lattouf has joined Lebanese-Australian journalist and sometime ABC contributor Jan Fran in a new media enterprise called Ette which is derived from the women’s names, Antoinette and JEANETTE.
TAJER TATTLE
Seven Media’s chief commercial officer, Henry Tajer, is due to wind up his role today after just six months in the chair.
According to well-placed sources Tajer has set his sights on winning the top job at ad company ooh! media.
In April that company announced that CEO Cath O’Connor was stepping down after O’Connor and the ooh! media board decided it was the right time for a leadership transition.
That followed a static year in revenue at the company to February.
This column was unable to reach Tajer for comment yesterday.
Sources claim Tajer had long lusted after the top job of Seven CEO Jeff Howard, something that may have contributed to his quickie departure.
From radio comes chatter that former Nine sales boss Michael Stephenson would be a good fit for Tajer’s soon-to-be vacant role.
Stephenson left Nine last year to move the radio company ARN as chief operating officer.
Many believe the role, as chief wrangler for a company that has tied its success to the Kyle & Jackie O show, is an ill-fit for the longtime TV executive.
Originally published as Karl’s rating downfall revealed
Head missing in reality star murder case
The head of a man allegedly murdered by his reality star girlfriend is missing, with police pleading for information to help find it.
Aussie TV star shares career news
She’s earned a reputation as a passionate, knowledgeable sports reporter during her decade on-air with Fox Sports. Now Hannah Hollis is looking for her next challenge.