Nine’s top brass are scrambling to replace Karl Stefanovic on Today, but insiders say the network’s chronic indecision is the real threat to the show’s survival.
Five television executives with vastly different ideas about what success and credibility look like will determine who will replace departed Today host Karl Stefanovic, as well as heavily pregnant Today show co-host Sarah Abo, who is expected to take maternity leave this month.
Replacing one entrenched breakfast TV star is challenging at the best of times.
Replacing two simultaneously is fraught, particularly when a company may not have had enough time to cultivate understudies who might persuade TV audiences they’re in safe hands despite recent turbulence.
That’s the situation Nine now finds itself in, as ratings for the nation’s oldest long-running TV breakfast show collapse along with staff morale at Today.
Karl Stefanovic issued a statement on last Friday morning following his departure from Channel 9. Picture: The Karl Stefanovic Show/YouTube
News of Stefanovic’s departure left former co-host Sarah Abo visibly emotional. Picture: Nine
Nine’s top brass are hard at work picking Stefanovic’s successor and signing off on Abo’s mat leave cover, something likely to have been impacted by Stefanovic’s axing.
Nine’s casting committee comprises CEO Matt Stanton, head of streaming and broadcast Amanda Laing, director of television Michael Healy, news director Fiona Dear and morning television director Steve Burling, or so we’re told.
Five senior executives who together should have enough instincts to get the job done.
Yet Nine staff aren’t confident, and point to reports claiming chairman of the board Peter Tonagh had to step in to make the call to sack Stefanovic as evidence Nine’s decision-makers will struggle to reach consensus on Stefanovic’s successor.
As one Nine insider said this week: “There are no decision makers at Nine anymore. Everyone waits for someone else to make the call. It’s been like that for years now. That’s why the Karl problem got kicked down the road in the first place six years ago and has blown up again”.
Lucky for us – and you, reader – we still have a couple of well-camouflaged insiders within Nine’s senior ranks who can break the decision making process down for us.
CEO Matt Stanton
Nine’s casting committee comprises CEO Matt Stanton Picture: Nine
Spotted in London this week sitting courtside at Wimbledon, Stanton presently has sporting rights on his mind.
He’s in London to meet with rugby league supremo Peter V’landys to discuss rugby league broadcast rights.
If V’landys wanted Stefanovic’s job he could probably have a crack at it, if it meant he’d hand over all the television league matches to Nine/Stan instead of hiving off games for Foxtel.
Insiders say Stanton’s priority in choosing a replacement for Stefanovic will be cost efficiencies and possibly resetting the salary cap for the stars attached to the program.
“He will be trying to bring salaries back under $1 million,” said one Nine veteran, who has worked with Stanton and knows his focus is firmly on the bottom line and Nine’s ailing share price, which shows little sign of recovering following the sale last year of real estate portal Domain.
The former magazine executive defers to his executive team when it comes to managing talent and is expected to do so again.
Amanda Laing, head of streaming and broadcast
Also tasked with anointing a replacement is head of streaming and broadcast Amanda Laing. Source: Supplied
Laing, a former lawyer, will have her head in the paperwork.
She would have been responsible for checking the fine print on Stefanovic’s contract last week to ensure Nine could sever the relationship without any costly blowback.
She, like Stanton, is less interested in what happens with the free-to-air network – or old tech, as some call it – than what is happening digitally and on the streaming platforms and with sporting broadcast rights.
Were she to have an opinion on who might be worth poaching to front Today, we hear she’s likely to favour talent from the ABC – possibly Leigh Sales paired with former ABC Breakfast host Michael Rowland or current host James Glenday.
Michael Healy, head of television
Nine’s head of television Michael Healy will have the ultimate say.
The decision will ultimately be made by Healy, an executive who sees his role as being to procure all the big-name stars Nine can afford.
Healy prioritises “noisemakers” when signing talent, the sort of people who generate headlines, though not necessarily ratings.
He has long been one of Stefanovic’s greatest supporters and likely was against sacking him.
“He will find it hard to go past Samantha Armytage for Abo’s mat leave role on Today. She’s on the books for The Bachelor,” said our insider.
Healy might also be tempted to try and reunite Armytage with ex-Sunrise host David “Kochie” Koch – as a PR stunt or “for the headlines”.
Others who may be on his recruitment wish list include former Today anchor Liz Hayes and Sonia Kruger – both stars who have played a role in Nine’s success – and possibly Jackie “O” Henderson.
“He’d have the research before him. He’d know who has the most followers on social, who fits best with the desired social demographics for Today.”
Fiona Dear, news and current affairs director
Nine’s director of news and current affairs Fiona Dear.
Dear, who has been in the role as Nine’s national news boss for only two years, might be regretting signing off on the appointment of veteran reporter Mark Burrows for Sydney’s weekend news reading role, left vacant by the recently departed Georgie Gardner.
Burrows has the news credibility to be seen as an authoritative substitute for Stefanovic.
Dear, however, is yet to make her mark as a cultivator of on-air talent and would likely back Melbourne newsreader Tom Steinfort, currently standing in for Stefanovic, and Today’s regular newsreader Jayne Azzopardi – both safe though unremarkable choices.
She will ultimately “manage up” and let someone else decide, or so we’re told.
Steve Burling, director of morning television
Nine’s director of morning television Steve Burling. Picture: James Croucher
Burling is a big fan of Nine journalist Charles Croucher.
Burling is a huge fan of Nine’s political editor Charles Croucher and will likely be lobbying for him.
He is also likely to back Steinfort and Azzopardi as reliable no-nonsense options.
Burling knows too what Today Extra host David Campbell might bring to the role, particularly if paired with his regular co-host Sylvia Jeffreys.
Ultimately he’s unlikely to be given the deciding vote.
Real Housewives of Melbourne set for recall
Real Housewives of Melbourne OG stars Gina Liano, Jackie Gillies, Lydia Schiavello and Gamble Breaux look set to be recalled for the long-awaited return series of the Foxtel/Binge reality show.
The news comes in the wake of reports producers have been considering recasting the series with high profile “boss babe” types including Alex Fevola, the former AFL WAG turned beauty entrepreneur wife of Brendan Fevola, and Booby Tape founders Bianca and Bridgett Roccisano.
Barrister/designer/marriage-celebrant/bowel cancer survivor Liano, psychic and Silverchair WAG Gillies, cook/interior decorator Schiavello and eye laser clinician/singer Breaux have been in talks with producers from ITV about reprising their long-running roles.
The latest and sixth series of the program is being produced by production company ITV.
This follows the shuttering, in February, of former producer Matchbox Pictures.
Matchbox had previously produced the Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland franchises of the program, to varying success.
The Real Housewives of Melbourne stars Venus Behbahani-Clark, Gamble Breaux, Gina Liano, Jackie Gillies, Janet Roach, Lydia Schiavello and Sally Bloomfield.
The Melbourne series, which ran from 2014 to 2021, is regarded as the most successful of the three local franchises.
Creating some behind-the-scenes tensions ahead of the cast announcement for the sixth season is, however, ITV’s location.
The production company is based in Sydney.
This means production crew will have to commute to Melbourne to shoot and work on the show, adding to production costs and depriving local crew – camera, audio, editors and stylists – of work.
Given the Melbourne program is the most popular and long-lived local franchise, the decision to fly the crew members in has rather surprised Melbourne production stalwarts, who consider Melbourne crews to be the best and most experienced in the country – hence the success of the first five RHOM instalments.
Heading up the production is Chloe Baker, former supervising executive producer of The Voice, Shark!, the Logie Awards and Love Island and a first timer on Real Housewives.
It’s fair to say with that line-up of programs to her credit, Baker must be accustomed to wrangling talent, dramas and sharks and will be hoping (and possibly praying) that experience will hold her in good stead among the Housewives.
No guarantees, of course.
Conman podcast gets TV green light
The television adaptation of internationally successful podcast Who the Hell is Hamish? has been picked up by 10 Paramount and is in pre-production with Jungle Entertainment.
Jungle is the producer of Mr Inbetween, A Moody Christmas and the upcoming My Brilliant Career remake, among others.
The Who the Hell is Hamish? podcast, hosted and written by Greg Bearup for The Australian newspaper, explored the story of notorious conman Hamish McLaren, also known as Hamish Watson (his birth name), Hamish Maxwell and Max Tavita.
Over 30 years, McLaren, dubbed the Bondi Swindler, scammed at least $7.6 million from Australian victims after dressing as James Bond and persuading them he was a financier, a barrister, a professional triathlete or competitive skier.
The television adaptation of internationally successful podcast Who the Hell is Hamish? has been picked up by 10 Paramount.
These included one woman he married and fashion designer Lisa Ho, who invested $850,000 with McLaren after he’d promised her a 18 per cent return on the funds which were debited from her superannuation account.
Ho would prove the fraudster’s undoing, however, after she initiated legal proceedings in 2014 that led to him being bankrupted and prompted a criminal investigation by police.
McLaren, who authorities estimate may have stolen tens of millions from victims around the world, was arrested in 2017, and in 2019 was sentenced to up to 16 years in jail for his crimes.
After having his sentence reduced by three years in 2021, he was last month released after serving nine years backdated to 2017.
Bookmaker Waterhouse recovering
Robbie and Gai Waterhouse. Picture: SDP/Supplied
Bookmaker Rob Waterhouse is on the mend following a health scare that saw him hospitalised in London two weeks ago.
The husband of horse trainer Gai was forced to miss the last two days of Royal Ascot after the episode, which forced him to forfeit fielding, at some expense, a bookmaker’s stand at the prestigious horse racing event.
Ten days on and the bookmaker and wife Gai were this week taking the waters at their favourite seaside villa in the Sicilian village of Taormina.
The couple are frequent visitors to the region and this year have been joined by daughter Kate, husband Luke Ricketson, and the couple’s two daughters who are celebrating Kate and Luke’s 14th wedding anniversary.
Source: News.com.au
