Peter Stefanovic says he won’t be waking up with the Today show when his brother Karl returns to the breakfast television program as co-host.
Almost a year after he was sensationally dumped from the show while in Mexico following his wedding to Jasmine Yarbrough, Channel Nine has reinstated the 2011 Gold Logie winner as host alongside Allison Langdon from next year.
While Karl remained with the network on other projects, his younger brother Peter, who was co-hosting Weekend Today at the time, parted ways with Channel Nine shortly afterwards.
Peter said he holds no bitterness over the departure and now hosts his own breakfast show, First Edition on Sky News, alongside Laura Jayes.
Which is why he won’t be tuning into his brother’s return to the Today Show as the two siblings prepare to go head to head in breakfast television in an Australian first.
Karl Stefanovic (left) will return to the Today Show next year, more than 12 months after he was dumped from the show while on his honeymoon with new wife Jasmine (right)
Peter believes his brother has his work cut out on his comeback to the Today show, where ratings recently slumped to an all-time low.
‘Anyone who knows us knows that we revel in sibling rivalry. This will be no exception… We have wrestled eyeballs off Today this year, and Karl is going to have to work his backside off to get them back. I’ll be doing my best to stop that,’ Peter told The Australian.
He said the pair enjoy a fierce sibling rivalry and joked Karl can ring him if he needs advice on re-adjusting to 4am starts.
Peter added the pair don’t take the rivalry too seriously and used a sporting analogy to describe his brother’s chances of a successful return to breakfast television.
‘Let me put it this way. In 2001 the great Alfie Langer led Queensland to victory in the third and deciding Origin game,’ Peter said.
‘It was a truly epic sporting comeback. Karl will need to invoke the legend of Langer, and I know he’ll give it a great crack.’
Karl will go head to head with younger brother Peter (pictured with his wife Sylvia Jeffreys), who co-hosts his own breakfast program on Sky News
On Saturday, Karl shared his delight at returning to the Today show, admitting he didn’t think he’d be able to go back after his shock axing last year.
After dismal ratings throughout the year under replacement hosts Deb Knight and Georgie Gardner, Channel Nine executives swallowed their pride and turn back to the man who they ousted at the end of 2018.
‘I thought my time was up,’ Stefanovic said in a statement released by Nine.
Both Stefanovic and his new co-host Allison Langdon assured viewers that the revamped show ‘won’t be boring’, after the program’s ratings plunged while being hosted by Knight and Gardner.
Darren Wick, Nine’s director of news, admitted having the all-female presenting team was a mistake, as evidenced by ratings which had plunged to record lows.
‘We took a bold decision to try something new with two women hosting the Today Show this year and regrettably that has not worked for the audience,’ he said.
Peter Stefanovic (left) said he and his brother Karl (right) revel in the sibling rivalry
Karl Stefanovic (right) will return to host the Today show in 2020, alongside Weekend Today host Allison Langdon (left), Nine has confirmed
After karl was dumped from Today, he continue hosting his show, This Time Next Year until October, when it was axed, and worked on 60 Minutes.
The 45-year-old said he ‘loved’ his time with the 60 Minutes team but missed using his skills for a live show format.
‘It’s a big job with enormous pressures and I know only too well some of those pitfalls, but it is also without question the best live job in Australia,’ he said.
‘The [Today] show and the audience make me feel alive. I’m up for the fight and I want to fight for our audience,’ he said.
Unwilling to directly criticise his predecessors, he told the Sydney Morning Herald Knight and Gardner had ‘been through an extremely difficult time dealing with outside forces, and I know that better than anyone’.
‘I know what great journalists they are and how hard they work, and I admire them both,’ he said.
Stefanovic also heaped praise on his co-host, Langdon.
‘Ally is her own confident, capable woman and I will be there to help her any step of the way but we are equals in this fight and I feel confident in our partnership,’ he said.
‘We’re both good journalists, we both love a laugh and it won’t be boring.’
Stefanovic and Langdon will replace Georgie Gardner (right) and Deb Knight (left) after they struggled with ratings throughout the course of the year
Stefanovic was ousted from the program last December after 14 years with the program
Stefanovic’s sensational dumping came just days after his wedding to Jasmine Yarbrough
Langdon said there is ‘a lot of hard work ahead’ but agreed the show ‘wouldn’t be boring’.
‘I love the unpredictability of live TV… and Karl. Wind him up and let him go!’ she said.
‘I’m sure we’ll butt heads, but we’ll do it with a smile on our face. I just want to help our viewers get their day off to a good, fun start.’
But under the fun will be a steady focus on rebuilding what was once the nation’s top-rating breakfast show.
He told the Herald he and Langdon would ‘fight hard’ to win back their viewership.
‘My personal life is very settled now, we are happy. my work focus is solely on our stories and the way we tell them,’ he said.
Mr Wick said everyone involved would remain within the network, and the full line-up for the revamped Today Show had not yet been decided.
Gardner will return to Nine News, with a television source telling Daily Mail Australia: ‘Georgie is an excellent news reader and reporter and will be a much better fit in the Nine Newsroom.’
Peter Stefanovic (right) joked his brother Karl (left) can call him for advice on re-adjusting to the early starts for breakfast television
Gardner (right) is expected to return to Nine News amid the Today show switch up
Gardner and Knight have struggled to compete with Seven’s Sunrise, with Today’s ratings reaching an all-time low of 155,000 last Friday. This was almost half of Sunrise’s 277,000.
In comparison, Today show ratings hovered around 300,000 throughout 2016 and 2017 when Stefanovic was host with Lisa Wilkinson.
The insider said Karl and Allison are ‘great journalists’ who will ‘make a great team’.
‘Karl has had a year off to recharge and get his mojo back and Allison has been honing her skills as a morning show host on Weekend Today,’ the source said.
‘Both have tremendous experience reporting for 60 Minutes, Nine News and Today – so they’ll make a great team.’
The source said Nine will spend the next month trying to decide who else will feature on Today and Today Extra, as well as finding a replacement for Sonia Kruger, who is moving to Channel 7.
Karl Stefanovic (pictured) will return to the Today show in 2020, with Allison Langdon
Allison Langdon (pictured) currently hosts Weekend Today and reports for 60 Minutes
‘Deb Knight is a strong journo who will no doubt be considered for an expanded role across Nine News and maybe even across Nine’s radio assets,’ the source said.
‘Expect to see Tracy Vo, Tim Davies and Sylvia Jeffreys rotate across Today and Today Extra over the coming month as Nine News management work out who are the right people to sit alongside Karl and Allison.’
The insider believes Stefanovic and Langdon are the perfect recipe to ‘challenge Sunrise once again’.
Stefanovic was sacked from the Today show on the back of a ratings dive that came at a time when his personal life was highly publicised.
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.
Gardner and Knight have struggled to compete with Seven’s Sunrise, with Today’s ratings reaching an all-time low of 155,000 last Friday. This was almost half of Sunrise’s 277,000
A few months after the split, he began dating former-model-turned-shoe-designer Jasmine Yarbrough, who is ten years his junior.
The pair were married during a lavish four-day wedding in Mexico in the month of his axing.
Stefanovic released a statement at the time of his sacking, where he praised the ‘best show’ on TV.
‘For the last 14 years I’ve co-hosted the best show on television,’ he said at the time.
‘I can’t thank Nine enough for the opportunity. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be good enough to host this grand show for so long.
‘Thanks to our viewers mostly, you are what matters most. It’s been a tough time. Thanks for hanging in there.’