Ever since Lisa Wilkinson quit over a gender-based pay parity dispute, less and less people are waking up with Today.
After flailing behind Sunrise at the end of their first week with new co-host Georgie Gardner, Channel Nine’s breakfast show slipped even further behind on Monday.
Perhaps tellingly, Channel Seven managed it’s huge 308,000 viewer number with two female co-hosts, as Natalie Barr joined Sam Armytage in David Koch’s absence.
Girl power! Sunrise has a HUGE ratings win over Today as Sam Armytage and Natalie Barr benefit from David Koch’s absence… and Georgie Gardner and Karl Stefanovic continue to fail
While Sunrise’s numbers were up on last week, Today’s sunk further, their 243,000 metro viewers constituting a 55,000 viewer gap between the programs.
It comes after OzTam figures showed that last week, Sunrise beat Today show by at least 30,000 viewers every single day.
Prior to Lisa’s departure, the program appeared on track to earn a rare year-end victory over Sunrise.
Waking up with Today? While Sunrise’s numbers were up on last week, Today’s sunk further, their 243,000 metro viewers constituting a 55,000 viewer gap between the programs
It capitalised on momentum from the year prior, where for the first time since 2003, Today won the year-long ratings battle in the all-important 5 capital cities.
Rumours of a gender imbalance have plagued the the Today show ever since July last year, when Karl Stefanovic admitted he took a hit with female viewers when he split with his wife of 21-years, Cassandra Thorburn.
When asking him about those rumours at the time, Stellar magazine directly referenced comments made on-air by KIIS FM star Jackie O Henderson.
No Kochie: Perhaps tellingly, Channel Seven managed it’s huge 308,000 viewer number with two female co-hosts, as Natalie Barr joined Sam Armytage in David Koch’s absence
Speaking about their split, Jackie offered: ‘This is what a lot of women would think: this is a lovely lady who stood by him for years, they have a family and they see him leave her… They also believe that could happen to me.’
‘I know that’s hard and maybe there are some women out there who are angry with me, but I’ve never tried to be anything other than myself,’ Karl replied.
‘And I have to hope that the audience, and particularly females if that is true, that one day they’re OK and they come back and say, “I’m giving him another go.”
Less and less: Ever since Lisa Wilkinson quit over a gender-based pay parity dispute, less and less people are waking up with Today – they sunk even further behind Sunrise this week
Then in October, former co-host of ten years Lisa sent shock waves across Australia when she quit Today on the spot.
It was later confirmed Lisa left the program to take a stand against gender inequality, because the network didn’t offer her a salary comparable to her male co-host.
CEO Hugh Marks later claimed the reason they couldn’t offer Lisa the same salary was because she had conflicting commercial deals that limited their access to her.
Gender imbalance: It was later confirmed Lisa left the program to take a stand against gender inequality, because the network didn’t offer her a salary comparable to her male co-host (pictured on new show, The Project)
‘We got to the point where for the level of work she did for the rights that we were able to access for Lisa, we weren’t able to come to a commercial agreement,’ he told The Daily Telegraph.
Weeks later, the publication asked him if he had any regrets for letting Lisa walk to Channel Ten’s The Project, rather than continue negotiations.
‘I don’t regret it at all. It was exactly the right decision for us to make,’ he said, gushing at the strength of their replacement options.
No regrets: ‘I don’t regret it at all. It was exactly the right decision for us to make,’ said NIne’s CEO recently, when asked if he regretted letting Lisa walk
‘When you have that depth of talent and you come to a discussion like Lisa Wilkinson, you have to eventually go: “actually we can’t agree there but we’ve got three or four, five, six, seven other options”. We’re in a really, really strong position.’
So far this year, for whatever reason, the ‘strong position’ hasn’t been reflected in the ratings.
Meanwhile, on her first day on The Project, tasked with facing both The Australian Open final and the one-day cricket final, Lisa pulled in big numbers.
She earned Channel Ten its highest-ever-rated episode of The Sunday Project, and at one point saw a peak of 1.21 million people watching the program.
Struggling to find form?So far this year, for whatever reason, the ‘strong position’ hasn’t been reflected in the ratings
Huge numbers! Meanwhile, on her first day on The Project, tasked with facing both The Australian Open final and the one-day cricket final, Lisa pulled in big numbers