By Kristin Perissinotto (she/her)
The news of Karl Stefanovic’s return to Channel Nine’s Today has been widely commented on across traditional and social media platforms since it was announced in the first week of November. Stefanovic, who was dropped from Today following what Channel Nine (and many other Australian media outlets and commentators) called a ‘scandal’. After a public separation from his now ex-wife, a showy wedding to his second wife, and the release of a damning phone call (#UberGate2018), Channel Nine relieved Stefanovic from his anchoring duties on Today.
After Karl Stefanovic made his exit, Today was anchored by two women - something rarely seen in the format that is morning television. Today’s viewership has been declining slowly (and some months, rapidly) for the past few years, and Nine have decided this is because the two-women set up doesn’t work. Channel Nine’s new boss Darren Wick said they made a “a bold decision to try something new with two women hosting” that “sadly… has not worked.” Let’s take a moment to congratulate Wick and Channel Nine for such a bold and brave decision… Okay, moment over. The fact that having two women fronting a show is ‘bold’ is a sad, sad reflection of the Australian public and its feelings towards women in the public eye. The falling number could have more to do with Lisa Wilkinson’s famous departure from Today in October 2017, or it could simply be due to the decline in television viewing and the rapidly changing ways we get our news - just a thought!
Image description: Karl Stefanovic anchoring on Channel Nine’s Today, Fair Dealing
Karl Stefanovic was so famously ‘cancelled’ after #UberGate2018 and the drama that surrounded his personal life and marriage. When a phone call between Karl and his brother complaining about their colleagues in an Uber went viral, the tabloids and the Australian public went crazy. Images depicting his ex-wife as a sad spinster were splashed across a multitude of Australian media outlets. His wedding to now-wife Jasmine Yarbrough was the biggest news in the nation, and every journalist and their dog were desperate to share their thoughts on the age-gap relationship, expensive wedding, and A-list guests. The drama that was Stefanovic’s wedding put the nail in his coffin and Australia and Channel Nine wanted nothing more to do with him.
Stefanovic’s fall from grace was infamous. What was he even doing in the time post-Today? I don’t know - does anyone? Does anyone care? Now he’s been brought back to Today, reportedly with a one million dollar pay cut due to his tarnished image, to host once again. His salary before being booted from the show was estimated at two million dollars, a sum allegedly more than what the entire cast of Today was being paid in his absence. Stefanovic has been given something a woman in the same position would never be lucky enough to receive - a second chance. Does anyone remember Lena Dunham? Creator of Girls? Jennifer Lawrence? Both famously cancelled to never return to the level of fame they once had. In contrast, we have comedians Louis CK and Aziz Ansari who have returned to the spotlight after only a brief period of ‘cancellation’. It’s the reboot we never asked for.
Image description: Georgie Gardner and Deborah Knight co-anchoring on Channel Nine’s Today, Fair Dealing
In 2013, Melissa Doyle left Sunrise seemingly to be replaced by a younger woman. She was 43 at the time, and let’s not forget she was anchoring with David Koch (Kochie) who is now 63, still on Sunrise, and doesn’t show any signs of showing down. What happened to Mel-from-Sunrise? What are the chances she’ll come back into the limelight? Pretty slim I would say, and her only crime was ageing. Speaking of cancellation, let’s not forget that NASA cancelled what was to be the first all-women space walk in March 2019 because they didn’t have enough appropriately-sized space suits. Netflix has cancelled eight series created by women in 2019 (so far), after being given very limited runs. The list of women influencers who have been cancelled on Instagram is so large and rapidly growing that I wouldn’t know where to start it. Pandora Sykes wrote a piece on this for Elle, saying:
Recently, I’ve noticed a worrying trend. When a male celebrity screws up, he is duly lambasted, before rising, a few weeks later, from the keyboard’s ashes. But when a woman screws up, her error is used as a calling card for her total erasure. Her mistake is no peccadillo; it is proof of her worthlessness.
A woman would never be afforded the second chance that Karl Stefanovic has been given, pay cut or no pay cut, and that’s a fact. The Australian public, and Channel Nine, do not have it in them to forgive a woman for such a ‘scandal’ as ending a marriage, complaining about a colleague (career ending for a woman), or, god forbid, ageing past 35.