The long-time Nine Network foreign correspondent was let go by Nine around the same time his brother Karl stepped away too before he returned earlier this year.

Peter subsequently signed with Sky News and has been co-hosting the revamped Sky News breakfast show First Edition with Laura Jayes.

“I now have the best of both worlds at Sky,” Stefanovic told Mediaweek. “I love covering the day-to-day news and live news on First Edition every morning. On the side I get to do longform journalism which is something I have always loved.”

Stefanovic was speaking on the eve of the broadcast Wednesday night of the documentary MH370: The Untold Story. Last year he also hosted a Sky News documentary on Lawyer X.

He noted the MH370 story had been covered many times before since the original disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines jet. But Stefanovic said the documentary will reveal new information.

“It might well lead to the resumption of the search which is the whole point of the exercise. It would be great to give the families some closure by finding out where the plane is.”

MH370 disappeared off the radar on Match 8, 2014. Stefanovic was at the time Nine’s European correspondent.

One of the promos for the new doco has pilot Byron Bailey claiming he knows where the plane is. Stefanovic says that is not overhyping what the show will explain.

“Bailey worked in commercial aviation for many years and he is quite sure he knows where that plane came down. Up until this point though the government and the aviation authorities have been wrong. His alternate view may well be right.”

When asked if Byron is right, could the plane be recovered, Stefanovic said: “The wreckage would be recovered. He believes there was a attempt to purposely hide the aircraft. Not everyone thinks that however.”

The MH370: The Untold Story has assembled all the major players at the time of the disappearance, said Stefanovic. Including former PM Tony Abbott and transport minister Warren Truss plus Sir Angus Huston who led the search. “These interviews uncover quite a bit of new information.”

The producers have also worked with Ean Higgins, a journalist with The Australian, author of The Hunt for MH370, a book that Stefanovic called “the best account so far of what happened”.

Speaking about his move to subscription TV, Stefanovic said there are less staff to work on projects at Sky News than he was used to at Nine. “A smaller number of people are therefore required to do more. That is preferable for me as it allows me to do more producing than I have done in the past. Laura also gets to produce.

“When I do the documentaries I also get to produce as well. I like having more responsibility and having more challenges.”

First Edition ratings continue to climb, said Stefanovic. “We want to inform our viewers without gimmicks. There are no giveaways on our show. We are allowed to cover the hard news stories that interest us. There are some stories that might have been difficult to get across the line where I used to work, but now if I am interested and I book the guests, then we have got ourselves a segment.”

Of his breakfast co-host Laura Jayes, Stefanovic said: “There are not too many people across politics the way she is. She is hungry and it is great to learn off her and watch how she does it.”

Worland created the Gotcha 4 Life Foundation in 2017 and its aim is to address the issues around men’s mental health and the unhealthy culture that teaches boys and men to not express how they are feeling. This is an issue near and dear to Worland’s heart as he lost his lifelong mentor and close friend Angus Roberts to suicide. Losing Roberts inspired Worland’s involvement in the ABC-TV documentary series Man Up which highlighted the stoicism and isolation that contributes to the culture of men not wanting to ask for help with their emotions.

“Once Man Up was shot I knew that it was going to become something that was much more than a job,” Worland told Mediaweek. “Men in Australia are just hopeless at doing certain things and I wanted to help blokes out and Gotcha4Life was born.”

Worland didn’t anticipate how much the foundation would need him once it was created but it was becoming harder and harder to balance his two passions, The Grill Team and Gotcha4Life. In 2018 Matty Johns announced that he was leaving the Triple M breakfast show which followed the exit of Mark Geyer in 2017.

“When the Gotcha4Life programs were set up I thought we are right now, but then all of a sudden people started to need me a little more and I was starting to feel slightly jet-lagged in the mornings from going to schools and staying up late at night talking to blokes or going to conferences. I didn’t know if I could keep doing both much longer and this was when all the Triple M changes where happening and it just seemed right. I did miss it and I felt very sad initially I must admit.”

Mark Geyer, Matty Johns, and Gus Worland

When talking about The Grill Team you can still hear the love in Worland’s voice as he waxes lyrical about working with Johns, Geyer, and Chris Page, and he says while he thinks sport can still thrive in a breakfast show format, you need to have the right talent.

“Talent like MG and Matty are hard to find so I think when they decided to move on and do different things and not wake up at 3:30 in the morning Triple M went ‘Right, we haven’t got another Matty Johns so let’s see what the next big thing is,’ and that was Lawrence Mooney. Lawrence is obviously much more focused on comedy and that’s when they decided to make the change, and it was a big change and obviously that was hard for me initially. I was in my last year and was wondering where I fit in, but in the end, it was just my foundation and Gotcha4Life that needed me and it was nice to be able to go and stay part of the Triple M family with Dead Set Legends and go back to what I’m happiest doing which is talking about sport.”

Worland is now 14 kilos lighter and able to do the thing that he loves while also staying part of the Triple M family through his new Saturday show Dead Set Legends. 

When asked about his bucket list he said that he wants to contribute to changing the rules about what it means to be a man in Australian society while having fun and being able to mix in his passion of sport.

“After working with Steve Smith for a year, going to all the schools with him and him being vulnerable, I realised there is such a thin line between people that are healthy and perhaps going through some stuff. I want to help set some new rules about what it takes to be a man in Australia and combine a bit of fun and sport with that particular message.”

Check out the Gotcha4Life website here

Tomorrow: Gus Worland talks the new Dead Set Legends

Across the day the broadcast reached almost one million Foxtel subscribers (994,000) and propelled FOX8 to its third highest day share ever.

An average of 193,000 tuned into FOX8’s non-stop coverage from 1 pm-10.30 pm with performances from Queen + Adam Lambert, Alice Cooper, k.d. lang, 5 Seconds of Summer, Hilltop Hoods, Guy Sebastian, Delta Goodrem, John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John, in front of a packed ANZ Stadium of more than 75,000 people. 

Foxtel’s Director of Television, Brian Walsh, said: “Sunday was one of the most significant moments in Australian entertainment history and all of us at Foxtel are very proud to have been part of this landmark event. This was a day that Australia united and supported each other, saluted the heroes, remembered the fallen and began the rebuild – and the results are extraordinary. 

‘We’d like to thank our friends at TEG Dainty, TEG Live and Seven for being such generous and collaborative partners, as well as the amazing 22 music artists who gave their all to be part of the incredible event.”

Foxtel’s coverage featured hosts Peter Stefanovic and Laura Jayes, Deborah Hutton and Matt Shirvington, Rove McManus, Hannah Hollis and Jason Dundas with Bernard Curry, Shaynna Blaze and Eddie McGuire. 

The event has so far raised close to $10 million towards bushfire relief, with more donations expected from around the world following international broadcasts.  Foxtel provided its coverage to networks in the US, the UK, New Zealand and other parts of the world to secure more fund raising opportunities for the rural relief fund.  Fire Fight Australia was broadcast in the UK on Sunday February 16, in New Zealand on Monday February 17, and will air on the Fox Network throughout the United States in primetime on Saturday February 29.

All of the show-stopping performances are available to Foxtel subscribers On Demand via iQ3 and iQ4 set top boxes. 

This week Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the Witcher are the closest to knocking off the reigning champ but there is still a sizeable gap between them and the top spot.

Generally, it has been a fairly quiet week with no stand out new entries to join the charts in either market. Considering the trends established in 2019 it is likely that the show that will usurp the Mandalorian has not joined the charts yet. Considering last year was mostly dominated by three shows in Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, and The Mandalorian with Brooklyn Nine-Nine also spending time at #1 it will take quite the circuit breaker to take that top spot.

Potentially it could be the return of Stranger Things which released a teaser trailer for the show’s fourth season on Feburary 14.

As seen by the above table Stranger Things was by far the Top Digital original in Australia last year, only edged out overall by the final season of Game of Thrones.

Traditionally Stranger Things generally comes out mid-year with the latest release being season two which was released in October 2017. Can Manadlorian last that long? Or will another show take its spot before then?

Cathy and Josh tried out raunchy role play with whipping and smacking of the bum, while Aleks and Ivan learned how to win a staring competition.

Hayley and David consummated their marriage, and David wanted to make it clear to Australia that their sex was not vanilla. Moving on.

Hayley and David. Credit: 9Now

Amanda made awkward, jokes while shopping with new wife Tash for their homecooked vegan meal.

Stacey revealed to Michael how much of a jerk he was when he arrived home in a drunken state the previous night – a repeat of their honeymoon blow up. “You’re on strike two,” she told her sheepish husband. “You said to me ‘I’m going home! I never want to speak to you again!'”

Michael. Credit: 9Now

Connie was still deeply frustrated with Jonethen‘s relationship with technology; he believes she just wants an insatiable amount of attention though. Later, they draw live nude models, where Jonethen made comments that triggered Connie and she actually walked out of the couple’s activity. “I didn’t come on the experiment to marry a child.”

Connie and Jonethen. Credit: 9Now

Mishel felt she and Steve are the old married couple and said she’s bored out of her mind. She wanted to go outside and be with nature, whereas Steve would prefer to make a reservation for dinner.

They fought, and Mishel said: “For f*** sake, we might as well go to the retirement village, at least they’ll have planned activities for us.”

Married at First Sight returns tonight at 7:30pm on Nine and 9Now

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Top photo: Mishel. Credit: 9Now.

Also returning are hosts Rebecca Maddern, Ben Fordham and Freddie Flintoff who will once again take viewers on the Ninja Warrior ride as fan favourites – and new ninjas – return to Melbourne for another chance at the $400,000 prize money. 
 
Nine’s Head of Content Production and Development, Adrian Swift, said: “Australia has embraced Ninja as one of the most popular programs of the past decade. But nothing can compare to the exhilaration of seeing these athletes live, sitting right in the Ninja course.
 
“We invite Melburnians to come on down and check out our massive new course in its brand-new home at the Showgrounds.”
 
To get your chance to be part of the audience and watch the new season of Australia Ninja Warrior live in Melbourne, head to www.nine.com.au/NinjaWarrior.

MAFS ratings are love at first sight for Nine as it continues to be a consistent winner in the 7:30 pm time slot with 1,005,000 viewers continuing its streak of 1m plus audiences since the seasons premiere in January. MAFS isn’t the only winner for Nine with Paramedics also winning its timeslot with 627,000, and A Current Affair also providing a strong 769,000.

These solid numbers helped Nine have another nightly win with the top primary share of 24.3% and the top network share of 30.1% as it topped all key demos & total people. This continues a good trend for the network as it has won the primary and network shares every night that it has aired MAFS, besides on Sunday when Seven aired The Fire Fight Australia bushfire relief concert. 

Seven had the second best primary channel (16.1%) and network share (24.5%) on Tuesday night with 951,000 people tuning in for its news bulletin, while the most watched non-news show was Home and Away with 575,000.

MKR: The Rivals continues to try and find a place with fans in the 7:30 pm time slot with 461,000 viewers tuning in last night which is a slight increase on its 455,000 from last Tuesday but a decline on the 501,000 that watched the show on Monday night once again dipping under the 500k threshold. The long running cooking show fell 169,000 viewers behind Australian Survivor: All Stars last night as it continues to lag in the battle for 7:30 pm.

Speaking of Australian Survivor, the reality TV series had its best numbers of the year for Network 10 last night with 630,000 tuning in for the major twist of a double tribe vote followed by a fire challenge which saw Olympic Gold Medalist Lydia go home, and Phoebe receiving a second chance. The episode received a lead-in of 449,000 from The Project.

The ABC and SBS continued the unofficial Tuesday night train night with both channels seeing success with their locomotive centric shows. The ABC’s top non-news show of the evening was Griff’s Great Australian Rail Trip with 489,000, while SBS’s most watched program was Great Australian Railway Journey’s which had 373,000 viewers.