Nine CEO Hugh Marks calls in Karl Stefanovic to rescue Today show, at a cut price

Karl Stefanovic will return to Nine’s ailing Today show alongside Allison Langdon, if he takes a pay cut.

Karl Stefanovic in Sydney’s Mosman on Wednesday. Picture: Matrix

Nine chief executive Hugh Marks has thrown his weight behind the blockbuster return of Karl Stefanovic to the network’s ailing Today show next year, but only on one condition: that Nine’s biggest name is willing to take a major pay cut.

Media Diary understands that Marks now wants to take a punt on Stefanovic, appropriately in Melbourne Cup week.

The Nine boss believes Stefanovic has the X-factor that can breathe new life into Today as part of an all-new team with Weekend Today host and 60 Minutes reporter Allison Langdon.

Allison Langdon and Karl Stefanovic.

The move to resurrect Stefanovic comes as another big Nine talent, Sonia Kruger, is set to be announced on Thursday as Seven’s newest star, poached on a deal that tops $1m a year.

If Stefanovic returns to Today, it will represent a huge about-face for Nine after it sacked him from the show last December after 14 years in the hosting chair, days after his no-expense-spared ­Mexican wedding to shoe design­er Jasmine Yarbrough.

The four-day wedding was the culmination of two years of negative headlines that plagued Stefan­ovic after the breakdown of his previous marriage to Cassandra Thorburn in 2016.

Stefanovic and Langdon could replace the current Today hosting duo of Georgie Gardner and Deb Knight, who have struggled as ratings have remained stubborn­ly low throughout 2019.

In the past few weeks, they have been locked in a death spiral below the 200,000 viewer mark, and last Friday sank to 155,000 in the five capital cities — an all-time low for the show, leaving Nine with little choice but to overhaul its on-air team.

The move to resurrect Stefanovic comes as another big Nine talent, Sonia Kruger, is set to be announced on Thursday as Seven’s newest star. Picture: Jo-Anna Robinson

Those familiar with Marks’s thinking say while he is willing to invest his own personal capital by bringing back Stefanovic to help rescue the Today show, he will do so only if his star talent makes a sacrifice of his own: by leaving a big amount of cash he is contract­ed to receive on the table.

Stefanovic has just over one year left on his contract with Nine that is worth in excess of $2m a year, but it is understood Nine is set to have tough conversations with him where he will be asked to give up hundreds of thousands of dollars on his ­contracted amount to take the Today role.

Karl Stefanovic and Jasmine Yarbrough’s wedding in Cabo last December.

If Stefanovic were to knock back a reduced financial offer, it is likely that Nine could turn to other candidates for the male hosting role, most likely Langdon’s Weekend Today co-host David Campbell or possibly even radio star Ben Fordham.

That would mean Stefanovic would serve out the last year of his Nine contract on 60 Minutes, where he has been filing stories in recent months.

His other Nine vehicle, transformation show This Time Next Year, was axed by Nine last month, as first revealed in Media Diary.

Serving out the last year of his current contract successfully on Today would give Stefanovic a stronger hand to play in negoti­ating a new contract with Nine or even with a rival network.

However, the days of $2m-plus-a-year, multi-year contracts in TV for stars such as Stefanovic are probably over, as major ­networks look to cut costs amid drop-offs in ratings and advertising­ as streaming giants challenge traditional media revenu­e models.

Stefanovic has done little to hide his eagerness to return to Today or another major hosting role at Nine.

When he was interviewed by Nova FM’s Fitzy and Wippa last Friday, he used a cricket analogy only half tongue-in-cheek: “That’s what I keep trying to tell Channel 9, that I’m the lucky charm. If they want to pad me up and send me in, I’m ready to go in and we’ll have a win.”

Stefanovic and Langdon worked on air together during Nine’s coverage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding last year, and appeared to have an easy chemistry during the coverage that insiders at the network think could work in 2020.

The fresh developments with Stefanovic are not the only ones involving big-name Nine talent.

Media Diary understands that Today Extra host Kruger will be announced on Thursday as Seven’s newest big-name recruit on a deal reputed to be worth as much as $4m over three years, or about $1.3m a year.

Her poaching by Seven boss James Warburton comes just a few weeks after he lured MasterChef’s Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan to Seven.

There is already speculation that Kruger will become involved with a number of prime-time roles at Seven, including the possibility that she will host the reheating of Big Brother.

Kruger’s departure will free up more plum hosting gigs at Nine: her roles on Today Extra and The Voice. This could create potential new opportunities for Knight and Gardner to land on their feet after departing Today.