History
Officially launched as The National Today Show, Today is Australia's longest running morning breakfast news program. The show premiered on 28 June 1982 and celebrated 25 years of broadcasting in 2007.
The original hosts, Steve Liebmann and Sue Kellaway, spent four years together before Liebmann left to present the evening news for Network Ten in Sydney. Former 60 Minutes reporter George Negus took over the male presenting role. After four years, Liebmann returned to the Nine Network, hosting Today with Liz Hayes and Tracy Grimshaw. However, in December 2004, Liebmann suffered a mild heart attack, prompting him to retire from breakfast television. In 2005, National Nine News reporter Karl Stefanovic replaced Liebmann as co-host. Grimshaw left Today at the end of 2005 to replace Ray Martin as host of A Current Affair. While it had been widely speculated in the Australian press that Seven News presenter Chris Bath would co-host Today with Stefanovic from January 2006, the position instead went to former Ten News presenter Jessica Rowe.
Rowe had mixed beginnings as the co-host of Today with some viewers and commentators attacking her because of her dress-sense and her apparent over-happiness, citing her constant nervous laughter. Following her court case against Network Ten, Rowe was subjected to comments from the media and viewers that she should be sacked and was not right for the role of Today. Rowe's replacements while on maternity leave were Sarah Murdoch and Kellie Connolly, who both saw a significant increases in ratings. They both presented until Rowe's departure from the show, when the Nine Network released a press statement on 5 May 2007 saying that Rowe had left the network to "take up other opportunities for her career". In May 2007, former co-host of Weekend Sunrise, Lisa Wilkinson, took over the female co-hosting duties.
Read more about this topic: Today (Australian TV Program)
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