What breakfast war? Why Karl Stefanovic and Natalie Barr were spotted cuddling at a Christmas party
A photo from a company Christmas party shows that the stars of Sunrise and Today can still be friends despite their ratings soaring.
Photos from Virgin Australia’s Christmas party on Thursday showed smiling Sunrise star Natalie Barr and Today presenter Karl Stafanovic hugging and beaming at the camera.
The enthusiastic breakfast rivals were part of a team of 45 journalists at Sydney’s Woodcut, hosted by CEO Jayne Hrdlicka, marking a successful year for the airline.
But the cozy photo hid tensions behind the scenes of their respective shows.
After years of Sunrise dominating the ratings, Today scored three straight days of wins this week.
And earlier this week it was announced that Seven’s Sunrise Today had roped in star producer Jake Lyle for their show.
A shocking photo from a company Christmas party has shown that the stars of Sunrise and Today can still be friends despite their ratings soaring. Pictured: Karl Stefanovic and Natalie Barr at the Virgin Australia Christmas party this week
Today this week has flipped the script on the hotly fought breakfast TV wars, according to TV black box.
Sunrise presenters Nat Barr and Matt Shirvington have suffered a series of rare ratings defeats, slipping behind Nine’s Today on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Today managed to attract a total of 196,000 TV viewers for the program on Tuesday, just slightly more than Sunrise’s 193,000 morning viewers.
There was a similar result on Wednesday, with Today attracting a total of 239,000 TV viewers, beating Sunrise’s 211,000 pairs of eyeballs.
Meanwhile, Today scored 202,000 viewers today, ahead of Sunrise with 194,000.
After years of Sunrise dominating the ratings, Today scored three straight days of wins this week. Pictured: Nat Barr and Matt Shirvington
The streak comes as Today senior producer Jake Lyle announced a move to Sunrise as Supervising Producer, according to Television tonight.
Jake Lyle spent six years at Nine, including a year on the Today Show.
Today has struggled to gain ground on Sunrise in recent years, partly due to the revolving door of presenters on the Nine show.
Despite recent setbacks, Seven Network executives are no doubt keen to pop the champagne corks after the end of the upcoming viewing season, with Sunrise believed to be the overall winner.
Today has struggled to gain ground in recent years, partly due to a revolving door of presenters on the Nine show. In the photo: Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo
This will be the 20th year that Sunrise has won first place in its timeslot, after taking first place in the overall ratings survey last year.
According to the 2022 OzTam survey year, Sunrise had an average national daily audience of 397,000 viewers.
Seven said it was ’31 percent larger than its nearest competitor’.
The streak comes after Today senior producer Jake Lyle announced a move to Sunrise as supervising producer, according to TV Tonight.