Seven recalls holidaying Sunrise stars as Karl Stefanovic returns to Today

With Karl Stefanovic to return to Today, Sunrise’s hosts have been called back from holidays early.

Sunrise has called its breakfast stars back early from holidays as Karl Stefanovic, pictured with wife Jasmine, prepares for his return. Main image: Matrix

Samantha Armytage and David Koch have had their summer holidays cut short, with the Seven Network recalling Sunrise’s biggest stars from leave a week early to ­ensure it maintains its 15-year dominance over rival Nine’s ailing Today show.

The decision came after Nine revealed that Karl Stefanovic, who was sacked from Today just one year ago, would make his return to breakfast television — alongside an all-new line-up — a week ­earlier than expected on January 6 as the network sought to revive its lacklustre performance in the crucia­l timeslot and get a jump on its staunch adversaries.

Koch, who has been with Sunrise since 2002, said he understood Nine’s strategy and was looking forward to the challenge. “It’s how we built Sunrise when I started: we only had 10 per cent of the Today audience back then, in some markets we rated so poorly we were just an asterisk (in the ratings figures),” he told The Aust­ralian.

Karl Stefanovic and wife Jasmine.

“So we figured, if the opposition A-team is on holidays, we will work through the summer and hope people give us a chance. I’m very grateful that they did and we’ve built a very strong and loyal audience as a result of that.

“When I told my wife we were starting a week early (because Today was trying to do the same thing), she just laughed in that cynical way that only wives can and started listing all the holidays we’ve been brought back from over the years to cover major news events.

“She understands breakfast television is extremely competit­ive and the entire team appreciates this just goes with the territory. We’re really proud of what we have and don’t want to lose that.”

Samantha Armytage. Picture: AAP

While he was pleased to see Stefanovic get a second chance, Koch said he was unfazed by the new line-up at Today and that Sunrise would continue “to play our own game”.

“We’ve been fortunate to have a really settled combination on Sunrise. (Fellow hosts) Natalie Barr and Mark Beretta both ­started around the same time as me … and Sam (Armytage) and I speak more than I talk to my wife.

“You can’t fake that friendship. We’re like family and we feel like the audience is part of our family.

“We don’t take them for granted and we want to deliver for them every day regardless of what the opposition is doing.”

Stefanovic’s resurrection at Nine comes a year after he was axed from Today for attracting too much attention, while on honeymoon with second wife Jasmine Yarbrough, in a mass bloodletting that also included his brother Peter Stefanovic and sister-in-law Sylvia Jefferies.

Natalie Barr. Picture: John Appleyard

The move proved a ratings catastro­phe for Nine, with Stefanovic’s replacements, Georgie Gardner and Deborah Knight, failing to resonate with audiences and Sunrise recording its biggest win over Today, and beating it every single day this year.

Gardner and Knight were in turn dumped last month.

The executive produc­er behind Sunrise’s ongoing success, Mich­ael Pell, said he was “absolutely stunned” by Nine’s decision to go with a third line-up in just 12 months. “I’m shocked by that culture­ of sacking people they have at Nine,’’ he said. “This has been yet another bloodbath.

“It’s really disappointing to see good, hardworking people being treated so poorly. It’s not how we do things on this side of the fence.

David Koch. Picture: Adam Taylor

“Consistency has been the key to everything we’ve achieved at Sunrise. We don’t make knee-jerk, emotional changes: the audience feels like they own our show, and in many ways they do. It’s ­really disrespectful to them to do that … If you look at breakfast shows around the world — and I do, obsessively — it never works to blow up a show, least of all three times.”