ARN has signed two of Nine’s highest profile broadcasters, Karl Stefanovic and Eddie McGuire, in a unique deal that will see a new weekly program broadcast across ARN’s Gold network and stream on iHeart, 9Now, and Stan.

The Long Weekend is “a major new entertainment format”, according to an ARN press release.

More specifically, it’s a three-hour news, sport, and entertainment show, airing Fridays 12pm-3pm, that promises “great music, unmissable banter, big personalities, big opinions, and no-holds-barred discussions that will set the tone for the weekend ahead.”

It will air live on ARN’s Gold radio network, and stream across iHeart, on video-on-demand platform 9Now, and Nine’s subscription service Stan.

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ARN and McGuire Media will also collaborate on a separate sport-focused podcast series for the iHeart network.

Both shows will be produced in partnership with Eddie McGuire’s production company Jam TV.

Mumbrella understands the ARN agreement for the video podcast is for five months, and does not impact Stefanovic’s broadcast commitments with Nine, where he will continue to present Today. He also independently produces and hosts the Karl Stefanovic Show, which airs twice a week on Youtube and isn’t affiliated with Nine. Stefanovic’s contract with Nine expires in December.

ARN’s CEO Michael Stephenson was formally Nine’s chief sales officer.

“Since I was born, I’ve been a student of radio and announcers,” Stefanovic said in the media release.

“The intimacy of the medium is powerful. Working with Eddie makes it even more exciting for me. We’ve been friends for a long time. We are both ready to disrupt the status quo and let me tell you, we’ll have plenty of fun along the way. God, don’t we all need that? ARN have given us this opportunity, now watch us go and have a proper crack.”

McGuire has a long history with Nine. He was the organisation’s CEO for an 18-month period in 2006 and 2007, and has been an on-air presence at the network since 1993 across a variety of programs, including The Footy Show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, This is Your Life, and A Current Affair. His Jam TV production house also creates Nine programming, such as AFL show Footy On Nine, and crime-series Naked City.

Eddie McGuire in 1999, hosting Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on Nine

Jam TV also produces sports and documentary programming for Seven, Ten, Amazon Prime, Disney, and Foxtel, including delivering coverage of the AFLW, A-Leagues soccer, and National Basketball League.

McGuire said: “This is a wonderful new chapter. Karl and I have been talking about working together for years, and to do it on this scale, nationally on GOLD, internationally on iHeart, on 9Now and Stan and with Jam TV as a production partner is a once in a career opportunity. We’re going to bring our audience along to wherever the big news, sport and entertainment is happening, with great music in between. Karl is one of my closest mates in the industry. Now we get to do this together. Off we go.”

Michael Stephenson, CEO of ARN, said: “Karl and Eddie are two of the biggest stars in Australian media and they are now at ARN. The Long Weekend is an excellent example of our strategy coming to life, premium audio and video content distributed across every platform, amplified on social and distributed across the globe on the iHeart Network. This is going to be brilliant.”

The Long Weekend will launch on June 19, 2026.

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