Karl Stefanovic has hired a branding guru to help repair his battered public image and ‘save his $3 million a year job’.
Mitch Catlin, a marketing strategist from the Catchy MMM group, has taken on the embattled Today show host as a client,The Herald Sun reported last week.
But the news of the hire hasn’t gone over well with executives at Channel Nine, the Sydney Morning Herald claims.
‘It went down like a lead balloon within Channel Nine’: Network executives unhappy Karl Stefanovic hired Myer branding expert to repair his tarnished public image amid dwindling ratings for the Today show
The article alleges that the news ‘went down like a lead balloon within Channel Nine, and certainly did no favours for Stefanovic’s ambitions.’
The paper goes on to claim that the the 44-year-old TV host and his manager Sharon Finnigan ‘had a high-level meeting with Channel Nine’s executives late last week.’
The purpose of the get together was to ‘discuss how they would handle his upcoming wedding’ to Jasmine Yarbrough, which is will go ahead in December at a Mexican resort.
Help: Mitch Catlin, a marketing strategist, has taken on the embattled Today show host as a client. Mitch (pictured centre) helped bring Ellen DeGeneres (pictured left) and her wife Portia de Rossi (pictured right) to Australia in 2013
Issues? But the news of the hire hasn’t gone over well with executives at Channel Nine, The Sydney Morning Herald claims, reporting that it, ‘certainly did no favours for Stefanovic’s ambitions.’ Pictured: Mitch Catlin
A spokesperson for Channel Nine declined to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia.
Karl is also said to be ‘underwhelmed’ that news of his alliance with Mitch Catlin was leaked, the paper reports.
Branding expert Mitch is best known for his work with livening department store Myer in the marketplace in the 2000s, and signing A-lister Nicole Kidman as the global ambassador for supplements brand Swisse in 2012.
Talks? The paper goes on to claim that the the 44-year-old TV host and his manager Sharon Finnigan ‘had a high-level meeting with Channel Nine’s executives late last week to ‘discuss how they would handle his upcoming wedding’ to Jasmine Yarbrough (right)
Mitch told the Herald Sun last week that his aim is to remind the public that: ‘That Karl is likeable and a good newsman.’
The move comes after a blaze of negative headlines, Karl’s divorce, his new engagement and his attitude towards colleagues, tarnished his public image.
As a result, the Today show has nosedived in the ratings as Nine executives scramble to find answers.
Split: The Today show has nosedived in the ratings. The start of the program’s downward spiral can be traced back to September 2016, when it emerged Karl had separated from his wife and the mother of his three children, Cassandra Thorburn (right)
The show’s nightmare eighteen-months continued into September, with viewer numbers now the lowest they’ve been since 2006.
The start of the program’s downward spiral can be traced back to September 2016, when it emerged Karl had separated from his wife and the mother of his three children, Cassandra Thorburn.
Months later, he met ambitious fashion designer Jasmine Yarbrough, 34, and they became engaged in January 2018 after a whirlwind romance.
Slide: Today’s ratings have been declining steadily since Karl began dating Jasmine Yarbrough 34 (left), months after his marriage split
In the months following his split with former wife Cassandra, market research by Channel Nine reportedly showed that Karl’s popularity with female viewers was plummeting.
Today’s ratings have been declining steadily since Karl began dating Jasmine in late 2016.
Entertainment journalist Peter Ford said last year: ‘The Today show ratings are bad. At the moment they’ve done private market research at Nine into Karl and it’s coming up that women have turned on him.’
Tough times? The move is said to have come after a blaze of negative headlines, Karl’s divorce, his new engagement and his attitude towards colleagues, tarnished his public image. Karl is pictured with co-star Georgie Gardner