Karl Stefanovic has been completely freed from his mainstream media shackles.
ARN has dumped the embattled former broadcaster from his still-new radio hosting gig. Stefanovic had been a co-presenter with Eddie Maguire on The Long Weekend, a weekly Friday program on the network’s Pure Gold.
Stefanovic is not expected to return, according to reports by the Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Financial Review. McGuire had previously said Stefanovic would be in the chair this Friday, and would expound on his experiences over the past couple of weeks.
The deal was reportedly worth about $200,000 for the remainder of the year. McGuire is expected to continue hosting the program, which may now be reshaped around him.
Stefanovic and McGuire had only recorded two episodes before Stefanovic’s absence last week amid the fallout over his softball “interview” with thrice-convicted criminal and ultra right-wing British anti-immigration agitator Tommy Robinson.
Stefanovic featured Robinson on The Karl Stefanovic Show, an independent podcast he launched at the start of the year, unconnected to his long-time job as the host of Nine’s breakfast program, Today.
Stefanovic was criticised for his favourable treatment of a such a divisive figure. In the hour-long interview, Stefanovic physically embraced Robinson, whose convictions include those for assault and fraud, and told the agitator he admired him for his “courage” and “tenacity”.
After days of controversy, Stefanovic and Nine came to terms to end his decades-long tenure at the TV network with immediate effect. The terms of his exit from Nine, where he had $1 million remaining on his contract for the rest of 2026, are not publicly known.
Nine had given Stefanovic permission to launch the podcast at the start of the year and had intended to keep a distance between the network and its former star’s independent project, but reportedly became increasingly concerned at Stefanovic’s roster of right-wing, populist and conspiratorial guests.
More notably, it was Stefanovic’s approach of not challenging them with journalist vigour that raised red flags within Nine’s headquarters.
The two Stefanovic public personas - one a culture warrior podcaster who platformed anti-immigration and anti-vaccine views, and the other a mainstream TV host and the face of one of Australia’s free-to-air networks - became harder to reconcile.
The Robinson furore appeared to be the final straw.
The network said in a statement, “Nine Entertainment and Karl Stefanovic have agreed it is no longer possible for him to continue hosting Today at the same time as his independent podcast”.
Stefanovic has been attempting to frame his ousting from Nine as a “free speech” issue, even though it had been his and his team’s call to remove the Robinson episode from his feeds. Although the full episode still made its way onto Pauline Hanson’s platform, which republished it in full.
In a video published to Stefanovic’s social platforms, which was shot in Cannes, France where he had been at the end of last week, he gleefully said he was now “free” and “truly independent”. He added, “Freedom of speech is what this show is about”.
He attempted to further ingratiate himself with so-called free speech absolutists, and over the weekend, thanked Elon Musk for social media platform X.
Many studies have found since Musk in 2022 took over what was formerly Twitter, hate speech and disinformation have spiked after the trillionaire dismantled safeguards and reporting structures.
The Nightly has reached out to Stefanovic’s agent and ARN for comment.
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