SHEDDING VIEWERS

Koch hit out at a women’s magazine that reported Armytage would be replaced by Edwina Bartholomew.

Nine is crowing that Today, with Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson, is finally beating Sunrise nationally.

But drill down into the figures and things aren’t quite so rosy. Today has also slipped backwards.

A year ago Nine’s breakfast show averaged 326,000 viewers across the five capital cities. In recent weeks that figure has hovered around 295,000.

Today hasn’t been helped by the headlines surrounding Stefanovic’s divorce from Cassandra Thorburn and new love Jasmine Yarbrough.

On Monday the battle tightened. Sunrise averaged 300,000 viewers across the five cities. Today averaged 294,000. But Sunrise only averaged 64,000 in Sydney compared to 92,000 for Today.

Seven and Nine wouldn’t be hitting panic stations yet but if the downward trend continues for their breakfast shows it could be time for a change of presenters.