Piers Morgan: When you decided to interview him (Tommy Robinson) did any part of you think this could be a problem?
Karl Stefanovic: I know that he’s hot, but it didn’t seem to me, when you’re from Australia, you’re over in the UK, It was just a legitimate interview. He’d just done that debate in Oxford….
Piers Morgan: He’d just done a huge march, 100,000 people or more, marching at his rally, to unite the kingdom, as he calls it. I mean, look, I don’t like Tommy Robinson, but I’ve invited him on my show repeatedly. He hasn’t come on yet, and I would welcome opportunity to platform him, to challenge him because he is a culturally significant figure.
This is from Karl Stefanovic‘s chat with Piers Morgan yesterday that was recorded immediately after Nine Entertainment had announced they were parting ways with Karl, effective immediately.
The rhetoric espoused is true, Karl Stefanovic and his ‘I’m all for free speech’ can ask what he wants to whom he wants and we are free to decide for ourselves whether we want to listen to or watch it.
We should also ask ourselves why Tommy repeatedly turns down Piers but says yes to Karl. Based on the evidence my thoughts are that was because Karl wasn’t going to challenge the far-right activist at all.
June was a tough month for the radio industry with job losses to local radio teams within the newly merged Southern Cross Media Group. Tomorrow, July 3, is also Danny Chifley‘s last breakfast show on Sydney community station 2SER, a training ground station struggling after University funding was pulled. So much of this news, and some of the podcasts that are emerging from those who have lost their radio jobs, has been overshadowed by what Kyle Sandilands and now Karl Stefanovic are doing.
The squeaky wheels that get oiled.
The most bitter pill for the industry, from yesterday’s news that ARN have now cut ties with Karl Stefanovic and his involvement in the Friday lunchtime The Long Weekend show alongside Eddie McGuire, was that that contract, according to the Australian Financial Review (subscription required) was worth around $200,000 for the rest of the year. There has still been no official statement from ARN or Karl’s management, or response when asked for comment.
Last week I spoke with Tyrone Pynor and Abby Butler, who commence on triple j breakfast on Monday July 13 and have worked their way through the ranks to earn this new show. Tyrone talked about having an idea for a TV show (he has a background in screen and media) for SBS, where he was working at the time. SBS allowed him to make the show, on his own time and money, and a couple of episodes were aired late at night, which was how the ABC first discovered him.
Tyrone was not then a familiar voice and face like Karl is. But with Karl knowing that his Today and Nine contract was up at the end of 2026 (worth an estimated $2 million a year), he and Eddie McGuire had been shopping around The Long Weekend concept for a while before ARN picked it up.
You would have thought, based on lessons learned the very hard way from the end of the $200 million Kyle and Jackie O deal, that when it came to negotiating the show contract that the ball would very much have been in ARN’s court, that Karl and Eddie would have six months to prove the show worthy for some nominal amount and then, towards where the show would sit at the start of 2027, the real contract negotiations would begin.
“I’m very excited. I’ve got to tell you, I’ve made my way up from the Today Show. I came into the studio to get all the preparation done, and you’ve done all the research. Fantastic. I was half expecting, even though I’ve never done radio before, a gold microphone. No gold microphone.” – Karl Stefanovic on the first episode of The Long Weekend
Karl, who had never done radio before, was getting around $200,000 for six months, for the Long Weekend multiplatform show, which airs from 12-3pm only on a Friday and, all told, based on the two existing podcasts, had one hour of content in total. As well as his Nine contract, which he appears to have paid out in a six figure sum.
Most breakfast radio talent across the country would not be getting $200,000 per annum for their full time gigs. Let along for six months and one day’s work, which may not even require any prep, based on the above.
I hope that this time ARN had enough of an adequate prenup that they don’t have to pay out the contract. As it is they now need to change all the imaging, messaging and possibly some of the advertising. And who knows what will happen with the TV side that aired, live, on 9Now and Stan.
It has turned from a Long Weekend into a painfully short week.
The show will continue in some new form with Eddie leading it, more to come on that tomorrow Friday July 3 at midday, but for ARN and their aspirations to become an entertainment business, the investment in Karl has been another example of wasted time, resources and money.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Email: [email protected]. You can subscribe to this publication for just $199 per annum (less for community stations, students and pensioners) and support local media. Celebrate Radioinfo in its 30th year.
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