Sunrise, ABC beat Today as viewers tune out to Karl Stefanovic
Viewers not turned on by the return of Karl Stefanovic to Nine Network’s breakfast show Today.
Despite the hype surrounding the return of Karl Stefanovic to Nine Network’s breakfast show Today, viewers aren’t tuning in.
The Today show, which has partnered Stefanovic with Allison Langdon, was beaten by arch rivals Seven’s Sunrise and the ABC’s News Breakfast.
Today recorded 173,000 across the five metropolitan cities on Tuesday, its lowest number this year. It was beaten by Seven’s Sunrise, which attracted 272,000 metro viewers, and the ABC’s 176,000.
The Today show has dropped below the “magic” 200,000 number 12 times since Stefanovic and Langdon made their on-air debut on January 4.
That compares with six Today episodes that dropped below 173,000 metro viewers last year, with Georgie Gardner and Deborah Knight as co-hosts.
The pair’s lowest metro audience during the 2019 TV ratings survey was 163,000 on October 30, but their lowest during the entire year was 143,000, albeit on Boxing Day.
Seven’s news and public affairs boss Craig McPherson recently told The Australian that the Sunrise team, led by David Koch and Samantha Armytage, don’t get enough credit for their work and are the best in the business. They have held the No 1 TV breakfast spot for 14 years.
“The ensemble is great, they’re happy, they get on, it’s not contrived, it’s not forced laughter. It’s not this is how we show personality by feigning it,” he said
McPherson said viewers are “very smart”. “If you treat them like mugs, you’re going to come second, you’re going to come third, you’re not going to be in the job long.
The new-look Today show returned to the small screen on January 4 to cover the raging bushfires, two days earlier than planned.
Nine announced Stefanovic and Langdon would return on January 6, a week earlier than usual, to get a head start on Sunrise. Seven reacted by announcing Sunrise would also return on January 6.
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