<\/p>\n
\n\tAustralia<\/a>\u2018s popular \u201cToday\u201d TV host Karl Stefanovic<\/a> has spokenn out following his exit from Nine Entertainment<\/a>, posting a video to YouTube<\/a> declaring himself \u201cfree, truly independent\u201d and framing the split as a stand for editorial principle \u2014 days after an episode of his podcast \u201cThe Karl Stefanovic Show\u201d featuring U.K. far-right agitator Tommy Robinson<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cNine Entertainment and Karl Stefanovic have agreed that it is no longer possible for him to continue hosting \u2018Today\u2019 at the same time as his independent podcast,\u201d the network said in a statement supplied to Variety<\/em>. \u201cWhile Karl and Nine had previously agreed he would leave \u2018Today\u2019 at the end of this year, they have subsequently decided he will leave the network immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tNine chief executive Matt Stanton, in an email to staff, described the timing as the \u201cright time\u201d for Stefanovic to move on. <\/p>\n \n\tIn the YouTube video, Stefanovic offered an emotional farewell to his free-to-air audience. \u201cI\u2019m free, truly independent. I didn\u2019t get the chance to thank my free-to-air audience for 21 great years,\u201d he said. \u201cThank you for riding the ups and downs. You have my thanks, and you have all of my love.\u201d He singled out co-host Sarah Abo \u2014 due to go on maternity leave in August \u2014 asking her to \u201clook after everyone,\u201d and acknowledged the preceding days had been difficult. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy this last couple of days, but we roll on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\tTurning to the controversy directly, Stefanovic defended his editorial approach as a matter of public interest. \u201cThe public deserve to hear perspectives,\u201d he said. \u201cThis country was built by hardworking Aussies from all around the world, and they were bound by the same values, but very different experiences. So, on my show, I\u2019ve spoken to people who have different perspectives. I know that winds some people up. Sometimes I agree with everything a guest says. Sometimes I don\u2019t. But importantly, you get to make up your mind.\u201d He added: \u201cFreedom of speech here and around the world is what this show is about. You don\u2019t have to listen to my show. You have the power. You are smart enough to make up your own mind.\u201d Stefanovic thanked existing sponsors and called for new ones, confirming the independent podcast would continue.<\/p>\n \n\tThe episode at the center of the crisis \u2013 a 55-minute interview with Robinson, whose legal name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon \u2013 was scrubbed from Stefanovic\u2019s YouTube channel, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and social media less than a day after it aired, with no explanation offered. Australian far-right politician Pauline Hanson then reposted the full interview to her own YouTube channel under the title \u201cCANCELLED: The Full Karl Stefanovic and Tommy Robinson Interview,\u201d captioning it with a defense of Stefanovic and a broadside against Nine management. At press time, the video had accumulated more than 413,000 views.<\/p>\n \n\tDuring the interview, Robinson claimed an uprising is underway in Australia and declared his admiration for Hanson, while Stefanovic complimented Robinson\u2019s tenacity and suggested some of Hanson\u2019s ideas were gaining traction with mainstream voters. Robinson co-founded the far-right English Defence League in 2009 and served as one of its leaders until 2013; prior to that he was a member of the far-right British National Party from 2004 to 2005. He has been denied an Australian visa on two separate occasions and carries multiple criminal convictions. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Australia\u2018s popular \u201cToday\u201d TV host Karl Stefanovic has spokenn out following his exit from Nine Entertainment, posting a video to YouTube declaring himself \u201cfree, truly independent\u201d and framing the split as a stand for editorial principle \u2014 days after an episode of his podcast \u201cThe Karl Stefanovic Show\u201d featuring U.K. far-right agitator Tommy Robinson. \u201cNine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2476626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21823,487381,355686,487382],"class_list":["post-2476625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-australia","tag-karl-stefanovic","tag-nine-entertainment","tag-tommy-robinson"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Karl-Stefanovic-Speaks-Out-on-Nine-Exit-After-Tommy-Robinson.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2476625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2476627,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476625\/revisions\/2476627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2476626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2476625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2476625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2476625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}