Karl Stefanovic has revealed for the first time where his future lies, after months of rumours that he’s preparing to leave the Today show.
The TV presenter has been on the Channel 9 program for decades, but with his contract set to end at the conclusion of 2026, questions have abounded on what he’ll do next.
He launched his own podcast recently, and it’s been extremely popular, with individual episodes racking up hundreds of thousands of views. While he’s enjoying the limelight in a new format, he has fired a warning shot to his colleagues.
Karl appeared at the Cairns Crocodiles summit on Wednesday, and admitted mainstream media isn’t what it used to be and now faces “enormous challenges”.
“No matter how big a personality or paid employee I am, I think all employees in mainstream media should be very aware and have a realisation that they’re going to be diminishing returns of talent, and that is sad, but it’s a fact of life,” he told the audience.
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He said advertisers using TV networks, magazines, radio stations and other traditional formats are looking for a “return on their investments”.
“I don’t think they’re seeing it,” he said.
“So there’s less money to circle around, less money for production, less money for talent, and that’s a sad thing.”
He said it could cost Channel 9 up to $100,000 to do a special episode of Today in a regional Aussie town, but would only cost him $4,000 to do the same thing for his podcast.
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What did Karl Stefanovic say about his future?
During his chat at the Cairns Crocodiles summit, which is an annual “creative retreat”, he also opened up about what he is planning if he leaves Today for good.
“I probably will do radio, and I will more than likely just dip my toe in the water to see if I like it before I even [think] about going to do breakfast radio,” he said.
He admitted he “will continue doing TV”, but the 51-year-old said The Karl Stefanovic Show, which is his podcast, was his “biggest priority” right now outside of his Channel 9 commitments.
He’s excited about the podcast’s potential to grow into something massive.
It has already amassed nearly 50 million views and listens across YouTube and Spotify, and he said podcasting offered so much more “freedom” than traditional media.
“About three or four years ago, I saw what was happening in the podcast world… I found it invigorating to listen to. I especially loved when they started doing visuals with it,” he said.
Karl has already done fill-in guest presenting roles on radio stations 4BC and 2GB, so he knows how the format operates.
But having a regular slot, later in the day, could be a whole new world for the star.
Karl Stefanovic has been dogged by rumours that he’s leaving the Today show as soon as the end of the year.
(Channel 9)
Aussie media commentator Andrew Mercado previously told Yahoo Lifestyle that breakfast TV can be tough to maintain.
“At a certain age, people just go, ‘Why am I getting up at 3:30am in the morning?'” he said.
“And it could be that Karl is at that point now where he wants to have a regular nine-to-five job.
“As you get older, I think it really knocks your body around to be doing those sorts of hours.”
But the big question is whether he would be able to juggle the demands of daily radio and his podcast at the same time.
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