Seven’s Sunrise reasserts dominance over Nine’s Today, despite Karl Stefanovic’s return

Seven’s Sunrise reasserts its dominance over Nine’s ailing Today show as Australia’s breakfast TV wars resume.

Sunrise's Samantha Armytage (left) surveys the bushfires from a helicopter while Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon report from the studio for Today. Pictures: Supplied

Seven’s Sunrise duo Samantha Armytage and David Koch have walloped Nine’s ailing Today show, led by the resurrected Karl Stefanovic, in the first clash of the networks’ fiercely contested breakfast television wars.

Sunrise spared no energy or expense reminding viewers which program ruled the timeslot when the shows’ star presenters went head-to-head for the first time on Monday, with Armytage filing a special report while hovering over a blazing firefront on NSW’s bushfire-ravaged south coast. Her co-host also boasted an exclusive interview with Terri and Robert Irwin.

Extensive coverage of the bushfire crisis lifted the ratings of both programs, but Sunrise easily reasserted its dominance with 485,000 people tuning in across the country, while Today lagged behind with 335,000.

.@Sam_Armytage took to the skies to reveal the devastating scale of Australia's bushfire crisis from above 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/fd7A4Y5R28

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) January 5, 2020

Seven spares no expense

Samantha Armytage is in a helicopter hovering over a blazing firefront and delicately describing the “apocalyptic” devastation below while, after the break, her Sunrise co-host, David Koch, has an exclusive interview with Terri and Robert Irwin on their fight to rescue vulnerable koalas displaced by the bushfires crisis.

It is the duo’s first day back on air for the year — going head-to-head against Nine’s revamped Today show and its resuscitated host, Karl Stefanovic, for the first time — and no energy or expense has been spared in reminding viewers which program rules the timeslot.

Channelling scenes reminiscent of popular tele-drama Morning Wars, which stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, and parodies the extreme lengths to which commercial networks will go in the battle for eyeballs, both shows have been trying to capitalise on their bushfire coverage, and using it to promote their newsbreaking prowess.

Armytage’s aerial story from the fire frontline was an expensive exercise, reinforcing just how fierce the breakfast television battle will be this year.

Samantha Armytage in the chopper for Seven’s Sunrise yesterday. Picture: Supplied

Gone are the days when each network boasted its own helicopter — Seven and Nine have shared one in each capital city since 2016 as part of corporate cost-cutting at both networks.

Instead, it is understood Sunrise had to stump up about $15,000 and spend two days planning the special report to ensure its star host could on her first day back in the hot seat take her viewers closer to the carnage than her competitors.

It was a significant outlay at a time of shrinking budgets, particularly when it comes more than a month before the official ratings season begins.

Sunrise executive producer Michael Pell said the report was part of a larger swath of exclusive interviews and live crosses that demonstrated the show’s commitment to bringing its viewers the nation’s best breakfast television news coverage.

“We will do whatever it takes to achieve that, including chartering planes and helicopters and boats and deploying reporters and camera crews to every key ­location,” Pell told The Australian. “With so much going on in this country right now, our biggest objective is to provide the best, most up-to-date information to the public — and to deliver shows with compassion.

“Our priority is always to produce the best show possible. We have a very strong and experienced production team with a firm focus on storytelling of the highest quality.”

It also marked an even earlier face-off than usual between the shows this year. Armytage and Koch had to be recalled from holidays a week ahead of schedule after Nine announced Stefanovic and his newly installed co-host, well-regarded former 60 Minutes reporter Allison Langdon, would debut on Monday in an attempt to get a jump on Sunrise in the ­crucial television timeslot.

Scott Morrison has been slammed as "tone deaf" for rolling out a political ad boasting the government's controversial response to the bushfire crisis. Do you agree? #9Today pic.twitter.com/vanx1cuuKZ

— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) January 4, 2020

On Friday, Nine brought that forward again, with Stefanovic and Langdon leading a “bushfires special” edition of the program on Saturday and Sunday. The network had been desperate to right the sinking show, which suffered a diabolical ratings slide last year after Stefanovic was sacked while on honeymoon for attracting too much attention.

While Stefanovic and co had every right to be buoyed by their early hit-out, which attracted modest rating increases, Nine’s new A-team still lagged significantly behind the Weekend Sunrise crew, trailing by more than 170,000 viewers nationally on Saturday and 180,000 on Sunday. Nine director of morning television Steven Burling said: “We’re happy with our new line-up and the feedback has been positive.”

Television industry insiders said the feud between the networks was only just beginning to heat up. With revenue and audience numbers in decline across much of the free-to-air schedule, the stakes could not be higher.

“Both networks will throw everything at it,” a leading network news executive told The Australian. “Seven has so much to lose. Nine has everything to gain.” Still, the executive said, it would be extremely difficult for Today to mount a serious challenge for the breakfast television title.

“It’s only week one, and breakfast TV is an endurance race,” he said. “Right now, though, you’d have to say Today is looking like a Toyota Yaris that somehow got ­itself onto the starting grid at Bathurst 1000. They’re excited to be in the race. But all common sense would tell you they’re probably doomed to failure.”