When Karl Stefanovic won the TV WEEK Gold Logie back in 2011, having just jumped off an international flight, he admits the night was something of a “blur”.
11 years later, the Today co-host once again finds himself nominated for the Gold statuette, which he describes as “very unexpected”. But things are different now – he’s different now.
“Honestly, I’m lucky to have a job,” Karl, 47, admits.
“It’s a great privilege and honour to be in front of people every morning.”
(Image: TV WEEK)And he’s right. In 2018, he was dumped from Today after 14 years in the hot seat. And then, in 2020, Karl was back on the show, this time co-hosting alongside Allison Langdon.
“In anyone’s lives there are ups and down and ebbs and flows,” he reflects.
“It’s a great privilege and honour to be in front of people every morning. I think when you go through a lot in life and you experience some of the things I’ve experienced and get removed from the show, you can learn lot from that.
“You can come back and treat it [the job] with the respect that maybe you didn’t before.”
Karl is a “love him or hate him” kind of guy. And given that he’s up for another Gold Logie, you’d say more love him than don’t.
Karl won the TV WEEK Gold Logie back in 2011.
(Image: TV WEEK)“I’m very honest with the Australian public,” he says. “And I take that responsibility very seriously. What you see with me is 100 per cent what you get.”
There’s no doubt breakfast television is one of the hardest gigs. It’s three-and-a-half hours of live TV every day. The fact that Karl is in his 17th year on Today is no small achievement.
“To stay in breakfast television for that long… there were times when I didn’t want to,” he concedes.
“But life is funny: you come to the other side and … it becomes difficult to leave because you love it. It’s like falling in love all over again.”
To see the full list of 2022 TV WEEK Gold Logie nominees, click here.
Oh, and for the record, Karl has no intention of leaving the show, despite speculation to the contrary.
“If I’m leaving Today, no-one will ever know except the bosses at Nine,” he says. “Or I’ve had enough after doing it for 36 years.
“That’s not anytime soon – I love doing the show and will do it for as long as I physically can.”
As for this year’s Logies, which are being held for the first time since 2019, Karl, like much of the industry, is keen to let his hair down.
“This is going to be the biggest Logies in a long time,” he declares. “Allison wants to have a whole night partying, so I have to be responsible this time around – I’ll be going to be bed at 4 or 4.30 for a 5am wake-up!”
