Viewers switched off as Karl Stefanovic’s personal life became the story

Karl Stefanovic’s exit from the Today breakfast show is well overdue, analysts believe.

Stefanovic has been co-host of Today for 14 years, but his popularity began to wane following the end of his 21-year marriage to Cassandra Thorburn two years ago. Picture: Supplied

Karl Stefanovic’s exit from the Today breakfast show is well overdue, and should help Nine rebuild its relationship with advertisers, analysts say.

Veteran media analyst Peter Cox said Today struggled against rival Seven’s Sunrise this year as Stefanovic’s personal life played out in the media.

“The show hasn’t performed well this year, which would have been a great disappointment for them,” Mr Cox told The Australian, noting competition between the two networks for ratings and ­advertising share was intense.

Stefanovic has been co-host of Today for 14 years, but his popularity began to wane following the end of his 21-year marriage to Cassandra Thorburn two years ago. A few months later, the journalist was dating shoe designer Jasmine Yarbrough, who he ­recently married in Mexico.

Advertising on the breakfast shows is worth about $120 million a year, and the programs also kick-start the day, driving viewers into the network program schedule.

They also punch above their weight in terms of the unique viewers that make up ratings figures.

The decline in Today viewers, particularly women, was exacerbated by an Ubergate scandal with Nine colleague and younger brother Peter Stefanonvic in March. The pair were secretly recorded berating Nine’s management, in particular 60 Minutes and Today co-host Georgie Gardner.

Nine announced on Tuesday the departure of Peter Stefanovic, who was with the network for 15 years, calling it a mutual decision.

Mr Cox said the bad press around Karl Stefanovic’s personal life led to viewers switching off, which didn’t happen with former news readers, including Brian Henderson, the face of Nine news in Sydney for decades.

“There’s no doubt Karl has copped a lot of flak … which has hit ratings,” he said.

“That breakfast show (Today) is worth quite a lot of revenue every year. They don’t want to lose that revenue and they don’t want to lose the cross promotion for their other programs,” Mr Cox said.

He added that Sunrise co-host David Koch had survived for so long because he kept a low public profile.

Karl Stefanovic’s departure from Today, which has been running for 33 years, was the talk of the Twitter world, trending among the top 10 topics last night.