While the Logies will always be a Karl Stefanovic roast disguised as a celebration of Australian talent, this year\u2019s ceremony wound up morphing into something slightly different: a really long audition, conducted in formal wear, for the most contested job in breakfast TV.<\/p>\n
It was the question Channel 9 presenters tried desperately to avoid as they meandered down the red carpet on Sunday evening: Who are the new permanent hosts of Today? Is it \u2026 you?<\/p>\n
Despite a solid effort from the network\u2019s PR department to prepare these presenters with coy responses, the scrum of reporters on the red carpet couldn\u2019t help but lend a hand in the recruitment process. I personally spent the evening cosplaying as a HR representative and interviewing the potential candidates as the red carpet became the setting for a glamorously impromptu job interview.<\/p>\n
Former host Karl Stefanovic \u2013 who held the slot on-and-off for two decades \u2013 was nixed from the big job in June after interviewing far-right agitator Tommy Robinson on his independent podcast and attracting widespread scorn.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d have sacked him \u2013 absolutely,\u201d declared Eddie McGuire \u2013 a former Channel 9 CEO when Stefanovic was rising through the ranks.<\/p>\n
With a freshly ousted Karl, and his co-host Sarah Abo on maternity leave, right now there are two seats that need filling on Today.<\/p>\n
(Will Sarah return? Depends who you ask. She whirled up to the red carpet just weeks after giving birth, and breezed past some of the waiting media, which can mean whatever you want it to mean.)<\/p>\n
Either way, network bosses are searching for a dynamic duo that crackles with chemistry and has the potential to topple arch rival Sunrise, fronted by Nat Barr and Matt Shirvington over on Seven.<\/p>\n
At Sunday\u2019s Logies, the pressure was on. Australia was watching. And so too were the Channel 9 overlords.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more dangerous: live television, or a room full of TV execs?<\/p>\n
\u201cWith one, there\u2019s blood on the floor,\u201d warned Channel 9 morning TV veteran Kerri-Anne Kennerley. <\/p>\n
\u201c \u2026 I\u2019ll let you guess which one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The obvious winning choice for the Today gig? Samantha Armytage, who led Sunrise to victory in the ratings with Kochie before quitting the early morning alarms in 2021. Now she\u2019s in the Channel 9 stable as host of The Golden Bachelor, it only seems natural to plonk her down on the Today couch permanently.<\/p>\n
At least, that\u2019s what every journalist\/HR rep on the red carpet thought. Ever the pro, Samantha delivered her admittedly pre-prepared response when \u201c1000 people\u201d asked her about it only minutes after arriving.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really enjoy filling in, I love breakfast TV and we\u2019ll have to wait and see what happens,\u201d she said with a smirk, gleefully aware of the non-answer she was providing again and again.<\/p>\n
Samantha landed on the red carpet in a spangly, plunging jumpsuit \u2013 an outfit that seemed to declare she was the returning queen of breakfast TV, even if she wouldn\u2019t say as much.<\/p>\n
As we like to say in the HR biz: dress for the job you want.<\/p>\n
Indeed, she has been filling in on Today here and there. In her most recent stint, Armytage \u2013 who said she can no longer be as \u201coutrageous\u201d as she once was on Sunrise, before the internet took random moments and turned them into out-of-context sound bites \u2013 made headlines for introducing some sexual innuendo to a story about a beaver.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trick is to make those jokes really early \u2013 like, 5.30am when no one\u2019s watching,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Expert tip.<\/p>\n
Armytage has long been reported as the white whale of Channel 9 TV boss Michael Healy, who is said to have wanted her fronting his breakfast show for years.<\/p>\n
So, with beaver jokes in her back pocket and a winning track record, she has the danger and audience interest that cements her as one of our last true TV stars. <\/p>\n
What would it take to make her sign on permanently as the host? For the first time, she swerved around the PR-approved response.<\/p>\n
\u201cMONEY.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll note that down on the recruitment file. Perhaps Channel 9 bosses can scrap Richard Wilkins\u2019 hair and makeup budget and use the funds to beef-up the offer to Sam.<\/p>\n
Filling the Today role is tough and it comes with a price. But what does the job require?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a highwire act,\u201d said McGuire.<\/p>\n
He has an interesting vantage point \u2013 not only having signed the cheques as Channel 9 CEO, but also having demanded more money as on-air talent and co-hosted alongside Stefanovic on Gold FM until Karl was removed after just two episodes following the podcast dramas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Karl heading into the territory he\u2019s heading into, it would\u2019ve made it impossible for him to stay on the Today show to do the political interviews that are required \u2013 particularly heading into an election in Victoria,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cKarl had had enough of doing the Today show. He was doing it probably six months longer than he wanted to. The time came for him to move. There comes a time when it\u2019s time to stop. It\u2019s a bit like me with Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. The time came, and it had its run \u2013 you pivot and you go and find your new spot. But he\u2019ll come back. Bert (Newton) left and came back.\u201d<\/p>\n
I pointed out to Eddie that Moonface Newton never palled around with controversial figures. Eddie kept monologuing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got no doubt Karl will come back in a different piece \u2013 whether in a political way or a journalistic way, time will tell. What people need to realise is showbiz is a circus. You go to see people doing the high wire act. The problem is everyone is so homogenised that there\u2019s no spark and there\u2019s no stars.\u201d<\/p>\n
No spark, no star. Ability to balance on a high wire. Add these criteria to the LinkedIn job posting.<\/p>\n
It all sounds similar to the mournful sentiment of one Channel 9 talent wrangler who was lamenting the death of the TV star when I spoke to them just days after Karl was axed in June. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so few stars on Australian TV. Karl was a star,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
And what made Karl a star?<\/p>\n
\u201cKarl\u2019s value is he was warm and affable and a little bit dangerous. But one day that danger crossed the threshold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eddie had a similar view. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have a bit of danger. That\u2019s the thing. You\u2019ve got to make people either love you or hate you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
(With all this talk of DANGER, I couldn\u2019t help but think of the advertisements for the Logies ceremony \u2013 branded by Channel 7 as \u201clive and dangerous\u201d with 22-year-old host Robert Irwin. The junior wildlife warrior is lovely, but he\u2019s about as dangerous as Harriet, the 175-year-old tortoise at Australia Zoo who died two decades ago. When he hit the stage to do the cha-cha in front of Shaun Micallef and Mick Molloy, I thought I\u2019d accidentally sat on the remote and flicked over to a re-run of the ABC series Old People\u2019s Home For Four-Year-Olds.) <\/p>\n
Eddie continued to rant: \u201cIt\u2019s not always about looking good and smelling nice \u2013 it\u2019s about actually being interesting. Now, sometimes people cross that line and they lose the room. But that\u2019s the high wire act. I think we probably need to have more live, more aggressive \u2026 more things that people want to watch and talk about the next day. People talk about the watercooler style of television \u2013 you\u2019ve actually gotta put to air something people want to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n
But putting yourself in the firing line \u2013 to gamble on the chance you might be loved or hated \u2013 is dangerous for the presenters themselves. That\u2019s why for so long they\u2019ve been paid the big bucks. Call it danger money.<\/p>\n
Still, with execs across all the major free-to-air networks looking to pinch pennies, the glory days of multimillion-dollar cheques for on-air talent and long boozy lunches charged to the corporate card are getting more and more distant in the rear-view mirror.<\/p>\n
Just ask Allison Langdon, who this month marks 25 years at Channel 9. What does she miss about the golden days at the network?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had much bigger budgets,\u201d Langdon, who co-hosted Today with Karl before moving into the hosting role on A Current Affair, said. <\/p>\n
(Later in the night, she won her second consecutive Logie for best news presenter, beating her former stablemate Karlos, who didn\u2019t attend. The elephant in the room was not in the room.)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a lot more money \u2013 when travelling for 60 Minutes \u2026 But it had to get tighter and leaner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apparently, no one is safe from the cuts.<\/p>\n
The Australian recently reported Sonia Kruger was entertaining the idea of booking TV gigs in the UK and US, as her bosses at Channel 7 reconsider the portfolio of reality shows she fronts \u2013 gigs that have kept her salary hovering around the $1 million mark, making her one of the highest paid Aussie presenters, a legacy contract from a time when that kind of cash could still be tossed around.<\/p>\n
But isn\u2019t an eye-watering salary the key element that cements a TV star? It creates mystique and aspiration \u2013 enough cash to buy a mansion overlooking Sydney Harbour and private jet trips to a holiday house in Noosa and designer clothes and overseas holidays that instil just the right amount of envy and curiosity in viewers who love just catching a glimpse of it all on Instagram. All of this creates the smoke and mirrors which build up a celebrity status that gets these presenters written about in the tabloids. And in return for exposing themselves \u2013 their views, their looks, their private lives \u2013 to breathless media speculation, on-air talent is compensated with big salaries for the sacrifice. <\/p>\n
It takes a lot of cash to burn bright. TV stars aren\u2019t driving around the suburbs in a Kia. But, in 2026, TV bosses seem to be curious about making that the norm.<\/p>\n
One of the blokes reportedly considered for the Today gig was Channel 9 newsreader Joel Dry, who fronts the 6pm bulletin in Queensland. He\u2019s handsome and affable. And, according to The Australian, was prepared to do the Today gig for the low, low price of just $500,000 a year \u2013 loose change compared to the million-dollar cheques banked by stars like Stefanovic and Armytage and Kruger. The public broadcaster probably pays more for its Play School presenters.<\/p>\n
Anyway, dollars and cents are apparently not an issue for Dry. The Australian reported he was scheduled to do some test shows with Armytage, but he was dropped at the last moment.<\/p>\n
As the lead HR recruitment officer for this role, I thought I\u2019d circle back and ask Joel \u2013 who denied having any preliminary conversations with bosses to take over the gig full-time \u2013 about his experience in this hiring process and what his future goals are, should another opportunity open up in the near future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful show and I\u2019m happy to be a part of it at any stage when asked,\u201d he said of Today. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019ve got the best job in TV, as the newsreader on Channel 9 in Brisbane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Um, sure.<\/p>\n
I note down in the HR file that Dry has a humble and grateful nature \u2013 refusing to show desperation or entitlement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never thought of (the Today gig). And when I filled in a bit over summer, I\u2019m just a team player. When they ask me to help out, I help out. Wherever they need me to go. I can do that on short notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noble. But, as a fake HR executive, I need to see more passion in a potential candidate. Team players are nice but they\u2019re not stars. Less diplomacy, more diva! Where\u2019s the hunger? Do you want the job or not? This polite wellwishing \u2013 while PR-friendly \u2013 is not the danger Eddie and the Channel 9 execs are wanting from a potential TV star.<\/p>\n
Take a leaf out of Sam Armytage\u2019s book: demand more money and then make a joke about a beaver! We want aspirational and dangerous \u2013 get on board or get left behind.<\/p>\n
I asked Joel what he thinks the Today show needs right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cBreakfast TV should still primarily be news. People wake up, they want to be informed. So I like people with a news background, news chops,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Huh. So \u2026 someone like \u2026 Brisbane\u2019s 6pm news anchor Joel Dry?<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Sylvia Jeffreys was working overtime on the red carpet. As Karl Stefanovic\u2019s sister-in-law (she\u2019s married to the former TV star\u2019s brother, News24 journalist Peter), she has been dodging questions about the ousted host for weeks while also being in the mix for the Today gig.<\/p>\n
Cue: Sylvia\u2019s pregnancy announcement, just hours before the red carpet.<\/p>\n
The celebratory news may have been a nice distraction for some. But we\u2019re on a time crunch as we look to fill one of the biggest roles in Australian television, and the window for expressions of interest is closing rapidly. Is she interested?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s up to the bosses to make that decision. But I\u2019m on the countdown to my own maternity leave now, which is delightful,\u201d she said, before acknowledging that Sarah Abo is still seemingly poised to return to her co-host seat.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I\u2019m focused on is my little baby girl and whether or not she\u2019ll play goal attack or goal defence in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sylvia wouldn\u2019t be attending the after-party because she was scheduled to fill in as Today host this week, complete with 3am starts. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt least everyone will know they have a sober host on-air tomorrow,\u201d she said, poking fun at her brother-in-law\u2019s infamous drunken appearance hosting Today the morning after the Logies in 2009.<\/p>\n
As one media veteran pointed out to me recently, Channel 9 execs may be wary of installing Sylvia permanently in the gig because of her family ties to Karlos. It doesn\u2019t matter her skill or accomplishments, she\u2019ll always be weighed down by questions about her rogue brother-in-law.<\/p>\n
Questions like \u2026 how did Karl respond to the baby news?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe told him to clear his diary next year because he\u2019ll have a lot of uncle duties to step into,\u201d Sylvia said, before winding up the chat.<\/p>\n
Very cute. The publicity department will appreciate the discretion.<\/p>\n
But \u2026 where\u2019s the danger?<\/p>\n