Sunrise’s Natalie Barr declares war on Today show host Karl Stefanovic and admits there is fierce rivalry between the pair: ‘We want to win’
Sunrise host Natalie Barr has declared war on Today host, Karl Stefanovic.
The 55-year-old Channel Seven star revealed there was genuine rivalry between the pair in a new interview with Woman’s Day.
‘We look at the ratings every day and yeah, we want to win,’ Barr said.
Channel Seven’s Sunrise has continually been on top of the ratings in the breakfast TV wars against Nine’s Today.
‘I was on radio with Karl a few weeks ago,’ she continued.
Sunrise host Natalie Barr has declared war on Today host, Karl Stefanovic. The 55-year-old Channel Seven star revealed there was genuine rivalry between the pair in a new interview
‘We look at the ratings every day and yeah, we want to win,’ Barr said
‘I’ve known him for a long time and we like each other, but it doesn’t mean we don’t want to beat each other! We don’t want them to win.’
The TV rivalry between the breakfast shows came to a head back in May when Stefanovic and Barr appeared live on the radio together.
Nova FM’s Ricki-Lee, Tim and Joel drive show hosted the warring presenters for a friendly word game and tensions reached an all time high.
Despite admitting the pair get along well outside of work, Barr traded several barbs with her ‘opposition’ including pretending to forget Stefanovic’s name.
‘It’s not easy looking at each other and being such fierce competitors,’ the Today host remarked. ‘Look at the daggers.’
Tensions aside, the Channel Seven star confessed: ‘We actually don’t mind each other.’
To which Stefanovic joked: ‘That’s not true.’
‘You hate me? Okay, I hate you more,’ Barr replied.
It all ended well however, when Karl ended the playful argument by saying: ‘Well, you’re successful, and I’m not. So there.’
Sunrise was rocked last month when long time host David ‘Kochie’ Koch finally retied from the couch after 19 years.
Continuing its reign as Australia’s number one breakfast program, Sunrise drew in an impressive 235,000 metro viewers for Shirvington’s first day co-hosting with Barr. The rating beat Nine’s Today show by a 32% market share, while Today earned 188,000 metro viewers
But Koch’s replacement Matt ‘Shirvo’ Shirvington appears to have won over viewers.
Continuing its reign as Australia’s number one breakfast program, Sunrise drew in an impressive 235,000 metro viewers for Shirvington’s first day co-hosting with Barr.
The rating beat Nine’s Today show by a 32% market share, while Today earned 188,000 metro viewers.
By May ratings figures revealed that Sunrise had managed to beat Today every week of the ratings year in the five-city metro market – though Today is more dominant on the east coast.
Sunrise has an eighteen per cent lead with an average metro audience of 213,000 viewers compared to Today’s 181,000, according to OzTAM overnight figures.
