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Network Ten golden girl Carrie Bickmore is being heavily touted as the next host of Today after quitting her long-standing post at The Project.
TV sources have revealed Bickmore – who has been linked to the Today gig on at least one other occasion – will finally take up the job in 2023 alongside Karl Stefanovic.
And in what one TV executive described as ‘an elegant transition’, current Today co-host Allison Langdon could take on the hosting role at A Current Affair in place of an outgoing Tracy Grimshaw.
Carrie Bickmore is being heavily touted as the next host of Today after quitting her long-standing post at The Project
TV sources have revealed Bickmore – who has been linked to the Today gig on at least one other occasion – will finally take up the job in 2023
The high-profile changes could signal a long-overdue boost in the ratings for Today which has long taken a battering from Seven’s Sunrise and recently dipped as low as 155,000 viewers across the five-city metro market.
Bickmore, popular with viewers and her TV colleagues both on and off screen, confirmed she had no plans to leave the small screen during her on-air announcement on Tuesday night saying: ‘Honey I’m not retiring. I’m going to move onto something different which I do not know what that is yet’.
An industry insider told Daily Mail Australia that Bickmore’s potential move to Nine’s Today ‘made sense’ given her undeniable popularity.
Current Today co-host Allison Langdon could slide into the hosting role at A Current Affair in place of an outgoing Tracy Grimshaw
Tracy Grimshaw has announced her plans to finally step down from ACA at the close of 2022
‘It is the next, most obvious step for her,’ the rival network source said.
‘As much as you’d like to say that she is not as nice as her on-screen persona, that’s not the case.
‘Everyone likes her. Viewers like her. She would bring a lot of positive energy to Today and, in terms of timing, it all makes sense.’
The bubbly presenter was previously linked to the Today hosting job back in 2019 – following the ousting of Georgie Gardner and Deb Knight – however Nine denied any formal approach had been made at the time.
‘Everyone likes her. Viewers like her. She would bring a lot of positive energy to Today and, in terms of timing, it all makes sense’, a source says of Bickmore
Allison Langdon stepped in to the Today role in 2019 following the sacking of failed hosting combination Deb Knight and Georgie Gardner
Langdon instead took up the role and has been a hit with viewers – particularly female viewers – in her subsequent two years in the chair.
However an insider says the grind of 3am starts and some recent tensions on set with Stefanovic – with specific regard to the number of his sick days – prompted Langdon to throw her hat in the ring for the ACA job.
Most recently Stefanovic was a last-minute no-show on the morning after the NRL Grand Final.
Should Langdon make way for Bickmore it will be the ninth female host to take up the Today gig alongside Stefanovic who is understood to have recently inked a new deal with Nine which would keep him at Today until 2025.
By then the 48-year-old would have clocked 20 years in the job – albeit with a highly-publicised ‘break’ in 2018 when he was benched in the wake of a ratings slide and media scrutiny surrounding his personal life.
Stefanovic, with wife Jasmine, survived a blaze of bad publicity following his bitter split from Cassandra Thorburn in 2017
The Nine veteran copped some negative flack from viewers following his divorce from ex-wife Cassandra Thorburn and eventual remarriage to ‘shoe designer’ Jasmine Yarbrough.
He returned to Today in 2019 however, almost three years on, the show is still to make up any major ground against rival Sunrise which this year clocked its 19th consecutive win as the top breakfast show in Australia.
Meanwhile Langdon is not the only name to be linked to the coveted ACA role in recent days with popular 60 Minutes reporter Sarah Abo also a contender, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Abo has been a regular fill-in for Langdon on Today and stepped in recently when Langdon took a break following the show’s marathon coverage of the Queen’s funeral.
Popular 60 Minutes reporter Sarah Abo also a quiet contender for the ACA gig according to reports
Karl, during the Queen’s funeral coverage, could remain at Today until 2025 following rumours he has inked a new deal with Nine
Speculation has also been rife at rival network Seven recently about the future of Sunrise host David Koch who recently marked his 20th year hosting the breakfast staple.
The 67-year-old, small-screen veteran appeared to tear up whilst reacting to a series of on-air tributes, prompting some to speculate if Koch was planning to step away from his long-term post.
However rumours at Seven suggest this is not the case and that Koch is currently renegotiating a deal that will see him through at least until the end of 2023.
Both Seven and Nine have been contacted for comment.
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