Today show ratings plummet to the lowest in 12 years as rival Sunrise comes out on top

The Today show’s nightmare month continues as ratings dropped to the lowest they’ve been since 2006.

The Channel Nine breakfast show plummeted to a measly 199,000 viewers across five metro markets on Tuesday, well below rival Seven’s Sunrise – which drew  268,000 eyeballs. 

Viewers continue to abandon Karl Stefanovic and Georgie Gardner for Samantha Armytage and David ‘Kochie’ Koch, with Sunrise now leading by 69,000 viewers.

Channel Nine declined to comment on the story. 

Earlier this month, Sunrise dominated the breakfast time slot with 263,000 metro viewers compared to Today’s dismal 206,000. 

The ratings gap proved to be even greater in the nationwide figures, with Channel Nine falling behind by over 100,000 viewers. 

Coming out on top! The Channel Nine breakfast show plummeted to a measly 199,000 viewers across five metro markets on Tuesday, well below rival Seven’s Sunrise – which drew 268,000 eyeballs. Pictured, Sunrise hosts Sam Armytage and David Koch 

Sunrise absolutely blitzed the competition with 454,000 viewers nationally, while Today drew just 330,000 across the country.

Today’s ratings have been plummeting ever since Karl separated from his wife-of-21-years Cassandra Thorburn in 2016.

It is believed that Karl’s personal life – including his engagement to fashion designer Jasmine Yarbrough, who is nine years his junior – has been a turn-off for female viewers.

Plunging: Earlier this month, Sunrise dominated the breakfast time slot with 263,000 metro viewers compared to Today’s dismal 206,000. Pictured: Today hosts Karl Stefanovic (left) and Georgie Gardner (right)

Entertainment reporter Peter Ford previously told The Kyle and Jackie O Show: ‘The Today show ratings are bad… they’ve done private market research at Nine into Karl and it’s coming up that women have turned on him’.

Last month, the Herald Sun reported that the Today show had ‘suffered its worst ratings in four years’ and Sunrise was on a winning streak. 

A media insider told the publication: ‘It would be disappointing [for Channel Nine] to be beaten so consistently but probably not totally ­surprising.

‘It was widely known that Karl and Georgie were not close and then when the Uber story came out it went worse.’ 

‘Something will have to break’: Following a run of poor ratings recently, journalist Peter FitzSimons (pictured) lashed out on Twitter and said that Today ‘could not go on in its current form past [Christmas]’

In the wake of the poor results, Peter FitzSimons – the journalist husband of former Today co-anchor Lisa Wilkinson – lashed out on Twitter.

‘Something will have to break. It cannot go on in the current form past [Christmas], surely,’ he tweeted, before swiftly deleting the post. 

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel Nine for comment.

Bad ratings: It is believed that Karl’s personal life – including his engagement to fashion designer Jasmine Yarbrough – has been a turn-off for female viewers