Karl Stefanovic’s love affair with the British far right blooms

July 10, 2026 — 3:00am

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In this week’s On Background, Karl Stefanovic continues his love affair with London, why Foxtel says Kayo subscribers won’t be slugged under a big new NRL rights deal, and the courtroom fallout from the Bruce Lehrmann saga continues.

Keep Karl and carry on

It’s been a fortnight since Nine’s former golden boy Karl Stefanovic blew up his circa $2 million contract so he could pal it up with Britain’s far right while doing spon-con for energy supplement powders.

So how is everyone faring so soon after that acrimonious separation? Well, in the first full week of the post-Stefanovic era, Today averaged 255,400 viewers, still far behind Seven’s rival Sunrise, which averaged 446,000 over the same period. Ouch.

To be fair, the show from the Nine Network (this masthead is also owned by Nine) experiences similar numbers during every school holiday period. And the show’s cause hasn’t been helped by the FIFA World Cup drawing eyeballs away during the mornings.

‘We know the bloke’: Karl Stefanovic sponsor backs ousted broadcaster

As for the recently red-pilled Stefanovic, he appears to be living some version of a middle-aged opportunist’s best life. His eponymous podcast is No. 2 on Apple Podcasts’ Australian charts (beaten only by Mamamia Out Loud) and fourth on Spotify, where Stefanovic’s guru, Joe Rogan, still reigns supreme.

All of this must be very exciting for the newfound culture-wars enthusiast, but On Background remains sceptical about whether Stefanovic’s new empire will be able to rake in the millions he’s left behind at Nine. Low-end outback-wear chain Ringers Western is hardly a blue-chip advertiser.

Stefanovic’s YouTube numbers are also revealing.

His interview with British broadcaster Piers Morgan, the first we’d heard from him after he left Nine, got about 414,000 views, narrowly beaten only by his........

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