It was February 2007 and Britney Spears was getting a hard time from the media after her breakdown, which culminated in her shaving her head and then smashing a paparazzo’s car with a massive umbrella.
About that time, disgusted superfan Chris Crocker uploaded a video on YouTube that became one of the first ever viral videos. And – second only to the “chk chk boom girl” – one of the best.
Crocker is crying and has the camera right up against his face. He’s a mess. Mascara is everywhere, there’s snot, there’s tears, he is screaming, he is pleading with every fibre of his being: “LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE! LEAVE HER ALONE!”
It’s January 2019. I stand outside a newsagent in Martin Place station. Karl Stefanovic is on the cover of New Idea (again). The headline reads “Shock twist! What Karl never saw coming”.
I feel a Crocker moment coming on. I want to scream, so people on all the platforms (digital as well as actual) can hear me: “LEAVE KARL ALONE! LEAVE HIM ALONE!”
“All you people care about is readers and making money off of him.
“He’s a human! What you don’t realise is that Karl is making you all this money and all you do is write a bunch of crap about him.
“LEAVE HIM ALONE! You are lucky he even performed for you bastards! LEAVE KARL ALONE! Please.”
I also want to scream: “Do this to someone less talented, do this to Kochie.”
I don’t care that Karl got divorced. I mean, you would care if you were his ex-wife or his kids. But us, the public? It’s none of our business. It’s not even that interesting. People get divorced all the time.
I don’t think it’s a big deal that’s he has remarried someone ten years younger. There are far more obscene age gaps around.
But what I do care about is that for a year, when I did early morning shifts in a newsroom that was filled with televisions all showing the Today show, I had to watch his goddamn program every single day. If he had sucked my mornings would have been hell.
But he didn’t suck. The opposite. He was a delight. Each day, I actually looked forward to when 5.30am rolled around and I could watch the entirety of the Today show. All because of Karl.
I’m a mega Stan, but it wasn’t a crush (even though he is a babe). It was more an expansive feeling of admiration. How many people could do three hours a day of live breakfast television where you are required to segue from the federal budget to weather banter to pet of the day, without breaking a sweat?
Not only that, even in the deep sludge of breakfast television (promos, prizes and announcing competition winners) he always had a twinkle in his eye, a ready one-liner and a mind that appeared to be going 100 miles a minute. All of this with a relaxed, Queensland bloke, feet-on-the-desk physicality.
I guess it’s what they talk about when they talk about charisma. He had it. He still has it. Because when you have it, it never goes away.
(Karl! Karl! Why are they pulling you from hosting duties?!)
You can’t fake enjoying yourself. Not on breakfast television, not for 14 years – and in my year of watching the Today show, Karl looked like was having the time of his life. He could laugh at himself. But he also did excellent political interviews, had strong opinions that I mostly agreed with and didn’t seem shy about expressing himself. He called BS on the marriage equality plebiscite on air when other more timid hosts sit on the fence about everything but the most incontrovertible topics.
Lisa was great too. They were great together.
It was that chemistry and the pairs’ complementary talents that made the show what it was in its heyday. (She tweeted this week about her time with Karl on the show “Because when it was good, it was great”.)
Wishing @karlstefanovic all the best. Because when it was good, it was great...@thetodayshow https://t.co/4r3F8sZ1Vx
— Lisa Wilkinson (@Lisa_Wilkinson) December 19, 2018
Both of them were super smart and they didn’t treat their audience like idiots. Switch on other breakfast shows and it’s almost like you’re watching children’s television. The hosts speak to you, the viewer, as if you were a child.
Now Karl’s been given the flick because the ratings are down. In this all sorts of assumptions are being made: that the show is mostly watched by what would have once been termed housewives and that they disapprove of his divorce. Really? The kindest term for this assumption is “lazy.” Just like the assumption people who watched breakfast television have low IQs.
At least Karl never suggested that Indigenous children be removed from their parents.
We are now at risk of being returned to the usual type of breakfast TV host – painful hours of faked fun, a mouth full of too-white teeth, but quietly terrified of any opinions or genuine laughter or jokes.
Brigid Delaney is a columnist for Guardian Australia.
