★★★★★ 0/5

Brenton Ragless relaxed about not having Today gig

A brush with paparazzi means Adelaide presenter may have dodged a bullet.

17
Leave a comment

Brenton Ragless may have dodged a bullet by not being formally offered the Today show gig, if a recent incident is anything to go by.

While hosting over summer, his car was followed by two paparazzi, prompting him to pull over and address them.

“He was wired up with cameras galore, microphones and everything… I said, ‘G’day mate, I’m Brenton, how are you going? I know what you’re doing. I realise you need to do what you need to do. I’m happy for you to take photos of me, but if we can leave it at that that’ll be great,” he told 5AA.

“He said you go and grab a coffee in a café and we’ll leave it at that.”

Ragless indicated he was fine with Nine not formally offering him the role vacated by Karl Stefanovic.

“I expressed my thoughts about the whole thing but there was no formal offer. There’s never actually been any formal offer,” he explained.

“The choice was not mine to make and I’m grateful for that.

“Naturally we did consider — this would be beneficial, but I’ve always said money isn’t everything. For the peace and the comfort, the life balance and the things that we’re afforded here in Adelaide, South Australia… this is from my heart, we were quite comfortable if they came back and said thanks but no thanks… which they did.

“It’s been very challenging. It’s not something I would like to go through again… from a personal roller coaster of a ride it’s something that has been challenging and I wouldn’t say was fun.”

The new-look Today show will launch on Monday from the Australian Open tennis with Georgie Gardner, Deborah Knight and Tom Steinfort plus Tony Jones, Ross Greenwood and Brooke Boney.

Nine is yet to confirm its 2019 weather presenter.

The changes will see Deb Knight cease weekend Nine News in Sydney while Steinfort is understood to be filing occasional reports for 60 Minutes.

Tony Jones faces some very long days ahead remaining as Sports presenter for Nine News Melbourne. Jones will present Sport on Today from Melbourne on Mondays & Fridays. Today will read sport from their Sydney desk on Tuesday – Thursdays with Jones stepping in for big AFL news.

17 Responses

  1. interesting when a Sydney guy gets in trouble eventually a Adelaide news reader gets considered. i guess that’s just breakfast tv. The Today Show is in trouble they have not transitioned well post Lisa Wilkinson exit. there will be changes coming soon i would think. maybe they should follow the US versions lead and have all female hosts.

  2. I find it really odd that the Today Show haven’t even announced their new line up yet. Thought they would have on Monday since the story broke on the weekend. Channel 9 are showing ads for it so it makes no sense.

  3. I just see flop written all over this show in 2019 neither women have personality wit humour and ad lib prowess to pull it off .i like Deb but Deb and Georgie not a good combo .Ragless is no personality as well .karl and the crew had to go with ratings down to 200,000 the show had to change .commedians make better hosts for breakfast tv.

  4. I can’t believe they were seriously considering Brenton – he’s so vanilla, it would have been a huge mistake. I agree with others that Tim Gilbert should have been left alone – he’s the most likable person there.

  6. So with TJ during the Aus Open, is this right:

    Today sport Monday and Friday at Melb Park, plus hosting the Australian Open (unknown timeslot at yet) and Nine News sport Monday to Friday?

    Holy goodness!

  7. Deb mentioned in an article on one of Nine’s websites after the announcement that she will continue with her 9 News Fri/Sat commitments.

    “It’s going to be a busy start to the new job for Deb, who will continue presenting the 6pm news in Sydney on Friday and Saturday nights for a while.”

  8. This new look Today team will either be a massive hit or big flop I’m tipping. Will be interesting to see how it goes.
    Sunrise is vulnerable with its ageing lineup (there is been one change to the key presenting lineup in 15 or so years) but I’m not sure this new lineup is enough to mount a serious challenge. If I was in charge of Today my ideal team probably would be Ragless and Sarah Harris. Time will tell.

  9. So why throw out Tim Gilbert who is there 5 days a week for Tony Jones who is only there 2 days a week & not even in Sydney. Ridiculous.
    Stevie Jacobs has to be the weather presenter. No one does it better.

    1. I would say Tony Jones is only there to give it a Melbourne voice. Stevie will be there on day 1. He said on Sundays show he will see you all tomorrow week on the new look Today Show. Not sure if it will be permanent. It will all get down to the chemistry of the team.

      2. If they want a Melbourne presence, they can interview Tony Jones or anyone else for that matter. It makes no sense to read sport from another city for only two days a week. I can see what will happen. The presenters will talk over each other, gush and guffaw and provide awkward cheesy TV.

        Good luck to them all, but I guarantee the Sport reporting will change within a couple of months (if not weeks). It needs to be hosted from the same desk.

Leave a Reply