The forecast for Karl Stefanovic after Today

Whenever I’m asked what it’s like to work Karl Stefanovich Open Today ShowWhile I’m researching the weather, I point out that he’s still in school and that I taught him everything he knows. When that joke fails, I am generous enough to admit that he is one of Australia’s funniest broadcasters, polarizing as he is.

I’m not alone in this. Apart from his longevity in the industry which certainly goes to his popularity, critics are no less than the late television CEO David Leckie He rated Karl as the best broadcaster in the Nine stable.

This was after Leckie left the Nine Network and tried (unsuccessfully) to lure Karl to Seven, and Karl said “dead meatFor “ruining his brand” with a messy divorce from his first wife and a flashy Mexican concoction for his second wife.

I was jealous of the “dead meat” comment because it meant that Leckie had at least considered it alive at one stage.

The highest review I ever received from Leckie was when he warned me over the phone during a difficult contract negotiation:

“Don’t make fun of me, Monte. I can find another one of you at the bus stop!”

This view was probably shared by the big dog of Nine’s News and Current Affairs. Peter MeakinKarl is the person I contact when he’s having trouble finding what he’s looking for. Today Show a voice from the early days (hard to imagine now, but true enough) with an offer to return as host to liven things up for a while.

He didn’t exactly use Leckie’s line, but I’m sure I heard the bus.

History shows that the Nine resisted Karl and took their share; whereas if the reported millions fighting are to be believed, Karl has proven to be a much better negotiator than I am.

And now, after two decades of breakfast television, he’s breaking free from his gilded cage to pursue creative freedom on his self-titled podcast.

Of course, he might also be pining for international podcasting glory (he joked by calling himself Joe Bogan, a nod to the successful American podcasting geek). rogan).

There may even be a bit of ‘the funny man’s desire for gravitas’. Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, Charlie Chaplin and others who feel compelled to show that they can do serious things. Or maybe he’s tired of the seductive banality of morning television, I can’t say.

What I can say is that things rarely turn out as planned.

I quit television 25 years ago after deciding I’d rather be poor doing what I wanted to do than be less poor doing what I no longer enjoyed.

Of course, I didn’t know then that I would be this poor, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss the company car.

Although Karl had no need to worry about these trivial concerns, I bet he didn’t realize how unemployed he would be, losing both of his old media jobs in a Tommy Robinson-esque meltdown (sic).

The long-suffering Nine (did I really say that?) Today concert and ARN followed suit and canceled his new radio showaka backup plan.

This leaves Karl with a dilemma. Does he still maintain his “cute larrikin” image, bolstered by his loyal friends? Today Show audiences (inundated with mainstream advertising)?

Or will you continue down this right-wing, shocking path and risk alienating everyone before you create your podcast?

He may even have found himself in a dead end, in a dilemma.

As a journalist Michael West observed somewhere last post On his eponymous media website, Karl seems confused about whether he wants to be in the entertainment industry or journalism.

If it’s the former, go Karl, “keep destroying” [your] You can build your “brand” by amplifying every anti-establishment voice you can find, and maybe one day you’ll pick a winner and prove us all wrong.

However, if journalism is what you’re interested in, then you need to stop with the bland nonsense and start asking some tough questions.

You’re a good broadcaster, my friend, but don’t get carried away; I have it on good authority, spare parts are easy to find at the bus station.

Monte Dwyer He is an independent journalist/author and is best known in Australia as a roving weatherman for the Today Show, a role he held for long enough to require therapy.

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