Channel Nine: Brooke Boney steps up as co-host of the Today show
Brooke Boney becomes co-host of the Today show as new host Sarah Abo is nowhere to be seen… after she’s promoted to newsreader.
Early morning viewers of the Today show woke up to a different lineup on Friday.
Newly promoted news anchor Brooke Boney went up to the front desk to co-host the show with Karl Stefanovic starting at 5:30am.
She was filling in for rookie host Sarah Abo, who missed the first 45 minutes of the broadcast due to another work commitment.
Stefanovic explained Abo’s disappearing act at the beginning of the show.
He said that his co-host, a tragic footballer, was “preparing for a big interview” related to the start of the AFL season.
Early morning viewers of the Today show woke up to a different lineup on Friday, with newly promoted news anchor Brooke Boney (right) climbing to the front desk to co-anchor the show with Karl Stefanovic (left) starting at 5:30 a.m.
She was filling in for rookie presenter Sarah Abo (right), who missed the first 45 minutes of the broadcast because she was “preparing for a big interview” related to the start of the AFL season.
Abo returned to the desk at 6:20 am, but did not elaborate on the ‘top secret’ interview he was doing.
It comes after there was a shakeup on Nine’s breakfast show last month when entertainment host Boney took over the role of newsreader from Alex Cullen, while he stepped back to focus solely on sports.
While the network issued a statement endorsing Cullen as a key player in the show’s scheduling, New Idea reported Monday that the reversal of roles had caused “tension” between Cullen and Boney.
“You can cut through the air with a knife,” a source told the magazine.
Alex returned from tennis coverage of the Australian Open, and Brooke was in her chair. [He] it has hit him on the chin, but it has made everyone feel nervous.
There was a shakeup at Today last month when entertainment host Boney (pictured) took over the role of Alex Cullen’s newsreader, while he stepped back to focus solely on sports.
While the network issued a statement endorsing Cullen (pictured) as a key player in today’s lineup, New Idea reports that the changing roles have caused ‘tension’ between Cullen and Boney.
Two weeks ago, a column in The Sunday Telegraph about Cullen being ‘taken out of his news role and replaced by Boney’ led the network to clarify that he was still part of the Today show lineup but ‘totally focused on the sport’.
Annette Sharp’s article described the shakeup as a “demotion” for Cullen, who will now only host sports segments after being relieved of newsroom duties.
Sharp also suggested that Jim Wilson, who recently exited Nine, would have been better suited than Cullen for the role of sports reporter at Today.
Responding to the article hours later, Nine’s morning TV director Steve Burling was quoted on WWOS saying: ‘The importance of sport at Nine has led us to shift the focus on our lineup for Today, with Brooke Boney now taking over news and entertainment and Alex Cullen fully focused on sport.
“Alex is passionate about all things sports so it’s a comfortable fit.”
In recent weeks, Boney has been sitting in the news chair while also juggling her regular entertainment segments.
Boney joined the show in 2019 as an entertainment reporter after working at Triple J as a weekday morning news anchor.
Meanwhile, Cullen has taken a backseat to focus on his lead role as a sportscaster for Today. He also hosts Nine’s early 5am news bulletin.
Cullen joined Today for its relaunch three years ago. He initially he was just the jock but he took over the news when Tracy Vo left the show and returned to 9News Perth.
Boney joined the show in 2019 as an entertainment reporter after working at Triple J as a weekday morning news anchor.
Nine updated her online bio of the journalist last month to include her news duties in her title, which is now “Today’s News and Entertainment Reporter.”