{"id":933157,"date":"2026-10-19T00:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T00:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/933157\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T00:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T00:30:14","slug":"michael-atkinson-joins-today-show-as-sports-presenter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/933157\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Atkinson joins Today show as sports presenter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weekend Today host Michael Atkinson<\/a> is Today<\/a>\u2019s new sports presenter.<\/p>\n

Atkinson will take up the weekday sports duties after the departure of Danika Mason<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Michael Atkinson proving that you can\u2019t go wrong with a black tux. \u00a0Getty Images for TV Week<\/p>\n

\u201cSport is in my veins. From growing up on rugby league, swimming and cricket in country Queensland, to playing Aussie rules and tennis as a schoolboy, playing and working in rugby union as an adult, and working on netball and the Olympics in the media, I feel connected to every variety of sport,\u201d Atkinson said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith two home World Cups next year and Nine\u2019s biggest ever year of sport, it\u2019s going to be epic. I can\u2019t wait to bring the latest sports news to our viewers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He made his debut on Monday\u2019s show, being welcomed by co-hosts Tom Steinfort <\/a>and Sylvia Jeffreys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we\u2019re all very sad to lose Danika, but wonderful to have you stepping into the role,\u201d Jeffreys said on air.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a great operator and a Queenslander, which brings me enormous comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkinson began his media career as a sports presenter for 9News in Queensland and has since become a well-known face on Nine\u2019s Wide World of Sports and Stan Sport.<\/p>\n

He later joined Alison Piotrowski and news presenter Lizzie Pearl on Weekend Today in February after a summer stint on the desk.<\/p>\n

He will continue hosting Weekend Today until the end of the year and will also continue his rugby union hosting duties alongside Today in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Weekend Today host Michael Atkinson is Today\u2019s new sports presenter. Atkinson will take up the weekday sports duties…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-933157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933157","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=933157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}