Karl Stefanovic\u2019s two-decade career at Nine has come to an abrupt end, with the veteran television presenter exiting the network immediately following weeks of turmoil surrounding his independent podcast.<\/p>\n
The Today host\u2019s departure was confirmed on air on Friday morning after Nine and Stefanovic reached an agreement to bring forward his previously planned exit from the network.<\/p>\n
In a statement released shortly afterwards, Nine said the pair had mutually agreed it was no longer workable for Stefanovic to continue hosting the breakfast program while producing his independent podcast.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cNine Entertainment and Karl Stefanovic have agreed that it is no longer possible for him to continue hosting Today at the same time as his independent podcast,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile Karl and Nine had previously agreed he would leave Today at the end of this year, they have subsequently decided he will leave the network immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n Stefanovic\u2019s departure follows intense scrutiny over his interview with far-right British activist Tommy Robinson, which triggered widespread backlash and sparked questions about his future with the network.<\/p>\n Former co-host Sarah Abo fought back tears as she announced Karl Stefanovic\u2019s departure from the Today show on Friday morning.<\/p>\n \u201cKarl will not be returning to the Today show or to Nine,\u201d she told viewers.<\/p>\n Filling in during Stefanovic\u2019s absence, Tom Steinfort explained the decision had been made because of the veteran broadcaster\u2019s independent podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you know, he has been presenting a podcast project independently of Nine for the last few months and it\u2019s been decided he will be injecting all of his energy and attention into that and doing both is no longer possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The hosts acknowledged the announcement would come as a shock to viewers, with Abo, her voice shaking, describing Stefanovic as \u201ca mate\u201d and saying his presence on the program would be deeply missed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karl Stefanovic\u2019s two-decade career at Nine has come to an abrupt end, with the veteran television presenter exiting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63,43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-760456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}