Nine’s bizarre handling of Today show shake-up rumours has only added fuel to the fire, but the woman at the centre of them is taking the storm in her stride.

Today host Sarah Abo is entitled to feel increasingly nervous about her breakfast gig as Nine lets each day pass without shutting down rumours she is about to be replaced by Samantha Armytage.

The network’s bizarre handling of the reports – including a fumbling CEO Matt Stanton declining to shut down the suggestions in an interview this week – has increased speculation the switch is on.

To her credit Abo, put on a brave face while completing her corporate duties at the network’s annual Upfront events this week, despite Armytage being front and centre at the same event.

Armytage was active on social media after the event, posting selfies with some of the network’s biggest stars.

“Wait til you see what @channel9 has in store for 2026,” she gushed. “… good things ahead.”

Following days of the fevered media speculation this column put two sets of questions to Nine.

Today host Sarah Abo put on a brave face at Nine’s Upfronts event, amid speculation around her role.

Samantha Armytage has been rumoured to be a possible replacement.
Conjecture about the possible pairing of Stefanovic with Armytage on Nine’s ratings-challenged breakfast show began last summer after Armytage signed on to Nine in October 2024 to host The Golden Bachelor and was subsequently tapped to fill in for Abo in the off season.

The rumours were given a push along last week when Stanton clumsily distanced himself from the particulars of network talent negotiations by telling The Australian newspaper he didn’t know if Armytage was locked and loaded for Today next year.

The pronouncement from the man who pays the cheques at Nine would make him the first* Nine CEO in seven decades to not be across contract negotiations involving key talent, highly unusual given the money involved.

(*It seems more likely Stanton’s only the second with insiders pointing out his predecessor Mike Sneesby handed off a lot of traditional day-to-day business matters while in the chair.)

When the question about the substitution was pointedly put, the network said it didn’t comment on speculation about the contract negotiations of its stars.

That failure to emphatically and publicly back Abo then created the perfect vacuum in which rumours inevitably grew.

Among them, talk Abo was ready to have a family.

This column has no evidence to support the speculation, but that’s what happens when the network fails to publicly back its talent.

Abo said there were ‘good things ahead’ at Nine.
With Armytage currently employed on a short-run series of The Golden Bachelor, she could be seen as a potential candidate for a maternity leave stint and would explain Nine’s pregnant pause on addressing the question.

The talk concerning Armytage’s future role at the network coincides, it’s understood, with her network contract coming up for renewal.

It is 12 years since Armytage was tapped to anchor Channel 7’s top-rating breakfast show Sunrise in 2013.

It prompted one Seven executive at the time to dub her the “barmaid” Sunrise was meant to have.

The comment was intended as a compliment as Armytage was considered by Seven executives to be more relatable and less “passive” – not to mention younger – than outgoing anchor Melissa Doyle.

Nine sources claim the talk of pairing Seven’s former “barmaid” with Nine’s casino-hawking rum-spruiking Logies “barfly”, Stefanovic, has found few supporters within the Today show unit.

On Wednesday Abo put on a brave face as she fronted media at a Nine showcase.

An earlier version of this column stated Nine had labelled “preposterous” the suggestion Armytage could bring to Nine’s national breakfast show anything incumbent host Abo doesn’t already deliver. We accept that response related to a separate question.

Nine radio under pressure

Judging from the amount of press the crew at Sydney’s 2GB radio have been doing of late, it’s fair to say executives at Nine Radio are under pressure to talk themselves up as negotiations to offload the division roll into a second calendar year.

While the Sydney and Melbourne stations performed well in the sixth GfK radio ratings survey of the year, released Tuesday, radio insiders point to the fact 2GB’s strongest audience sectors remain people 65+ (24.4 per cent share) and people 55-64 (10 per cent market share).

On Melbourne’s 3AW that ageing audience is even larger and fast growing with 29.5 per cent of listeners falling in the 65+ category and 17 per cent into the 55-64 demographic.

It is the same story, though on a much smaller scale, for ABC Local radio.

Radio rivals KIIS’s Kyle Sandilands with 2GB’s Ben Fordham. Picture: Supplied
Despite the ageing demographics Nine Radio execs must know the latest results will move the dial not one bit in Nine’s favour.

The majority of prospective radio station buyers are still obsessed with the younger 25-39 demographic.

In Sydney that demographic is dominated by ARN’s KIIS FM with a 20.2 per cent share.

In Melbourne KIIS runs third in the demo with a 10.8 share.

These results are what is now driving industry talk Nine is kicking the tyres of ARN as it prepares to substitute radio for radio after offloading its talk radio stations.

Ariarne’s dad under fire

Ariarne Titmus’s decision to retire from competitive swimming went down like a lead balloon at the Seven Network on Thursday.

The reigning 400m Olympic swimming champion announced her retirement via social media at 9am making no reference to future career plans.

Some 12 hours earlier Nine confirmed it had signed the swimmer to participate in its new reality program Shark!, a program which will see Titmus take the plunge in the shark-infested waters off the Bahamas in a series of shark-related challenges.

Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus with her mum Robyn and dad Steve, who reads the evening sports bulleting for Seven News Brisbane. Picture: Instagram
While Nine was still taking questions about the program yesterday, over across at Seven newsroom bosses wondering how they’d been left out of the loop.

Particularly as they employ Titmus’s father Steve to read their evening sports bulletin on Seven News Brisbane.

As this column revealed last month, Seven’s director of news and current affairs Ray Kuka has gone old school and has been openly touting his plans to hire sports reporters who can break sports-related news stories rather than just recycle stories from other media outlets.

The strategy coincided with the departure of Seven sports reporter Matt Carmichael at the weekend.

Ariane Titmus is swapping with swimming pool for the ocean after signing to be one of the first contestant on Nine’s new Shark! reality show. Picture: Michael Klein
Under pressure to come up with their own spin on Titmus’s retirement, Seven went to work recording an interview between newsreader Ann Sanders and Titmus Sr who confirmed his daughter had “achieved everything she wanted to achieve” in the pool and “wants to chase other things in her life”.

Titmus Sr ambiguously added that his daughter has “had a taste of broadcasting … so who knows what is ahead for her…”.

In the short term, Nine does.

Nine meanwhile will apparently trial Titmus on the reality show before deciding whether she will make the cut for its 2028 LA Olympics commentary team, although given she was one of the only bright sparks in its otherwise lacklustre coverage of the recent world swimming titles a Games gig would be almost certain if the money is right.

Walsh doco premiere

Television heavyweights and personalities alike flocked to the Randwick Ritz cinema on Thursday night for the premiere of a documentary which celebrates one of Australian television’s greatest ambassadors and most dedicated promoters, Brian Walsh.

The late legendary Foxtel executive Brian Walsh. Image Supplied.

Walsh helped launch and promote the careers of countless Aussie stars notably among whom are Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. Picture: Foxtel
Nine chairman Peter Tonagh, Sky News Australia CEO Paul Whittaker, Foxtel Group CEO Patrick Delany and former Seven commercial director Bruce McWilliam rubbed shoulders with Deborah Hutton, Matt Shirvington, members of Walsh’s family and longtime colleagues and collaborators including Foxtel’s Head of Scripted Original Lana Greenhalgh and producer Rudi McGregor.

Foxtel Group CEO, Patrick Delany at the world premiere of The Great Entertainer. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

Andrew Marsh and Deborah Hutton at the premiere. Picture: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images
The Great Entertainer, screening on Foxtel and Binge on October 20, tells the story of the budding seventies surf movie promoter who went on to launch and promote the careers of a hundred Australian stars, notably among whom are Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.

The indefatigable Walsh then turned his hand to sport promotions, selling rugby league – via the Tina Turner Simply The Best campaign – to the nation and world, before dabbling in music tours including Michael Jackson’s Australian tour, and later returning to his first love, television, at BSkyB in the UK and later Foxtel in Australia.