Today show hosts vow to restore trust as Nine reveals new MAFS expert and The Block spin-off

September 17, 2026 — 4:59pmThe newly crowned hosts of Today, Sylvia Jeffreys and Tom Steinfort, say they will work hard to regain the trust of the audience after a tumultuous few months at Nine’s beleaguered breakfast show.“We’re going to work our butts off. We will earn that trust from them, and I know that that doesn’t come easily, and we have to earn it,” said Jeffreys. The pair were confirmed as the new hosts on Thursday morning, and were front and centre at the network’s upfronts announcement that afternoon, as Nine looked to steady the ship after the sacking of long-time Today host Karl Stefanovic in June and the shock announcement on Wednesday of his former co-host Sarah Abo’s departure. New Today show hosts Tom Steinfort and Sylvia Jeffreys ahead of the Nine upfronts event at Barangaroo Cutaway in Sydney.Dominic LorrimerThe network also unveiled a new spin-off to its hit reality series The Block and announced who would replace Married at First Sight expert Mel Schilling, who died of brain cancer in March. It also announced a reboot of its popular 1990s soap McLeod’s Daughters.Speaking ahead of the upfronts event on Thursday, Jeffreys said: “There’s no beating around the bush. It’s been unsettled for our team, but it’s also been unsettled for our audience.”Added Steinfort: “You understand why some people might have, you know, lost a bit of faith or lost a bit of interest or whatnot, and hopefully people can come back and just start to enjoy it again.”The pair face an uphill battle in terms of ratings, with Today regularly beaten by Sunrise (288,000 national average viewers for Today on Wednesday, compared with Sunrise’s 488,000) and the complicating factor that Jeffreys is due to give birth to her third child in January.“It is very much one day at a time at the moment,” said Jeffreys, who has co-hosted Today Extra with David Campbell since 2020. “We’re just getting through this announcement and everything that comes with that, and we’ll figure out that [maternity leave] plan down the track.”The confirmation of Jeffreys in the role came as somewhat of a surprise, as it had long been assumed that former Sunrise host Samantha Armytage would snag the gig.Armytage was widely thought to be a shoo-in when she joined Nine in 2024 after 21 years at Seven. However, she has since only filled in on Today intermittently, and hosted reality show The Golden Bachelor, the second season of which returns next year.Jeffreys will be replaced on Today Extra by Belinda Russell. A replacement for Today weatherman Tim Davies, who finishes on Friday, was also not announced.Samantha Armytage at the Nine upfronts, where it was announced she would return with season two of The Golden Bachelor.Getty ImagesHowever, it was announced that psychotherapist Marryam Chehelnabi would join Married at First Sight as an expert. She has previously appeared on Couples Therapy Australia on SBS.It was also announced that The Block would be extending into Nine-owned streaming service Stan, with a spin-off show The Block: The House Next Door, as would Love Island Australia, with a new “fan experience” show, Love Island Australia: Unseen. Uncut.The new Married at First Sight experts line-up (from left) John Aiken, Marryam Chehelnabi and Alessandra Rampolla.Both shows follow in the successful footsteps of this year’s Married at First Sight spin-off MAFS: After the Dinner Party, which returns for a second season next year. Nine’s head of streaming and broadcasting Amanda Laing said the success of After the Dinner Party “created a new blueprint for further extensions to delight existing fans of our biggest shows and find new ones”.Stan also announced the resurrection of McLeod’s Daughters and a new show from Hamish Blake, Unskilled Adult, in which he tries to learn a new skill with celebrity friends each episode.On the drama front, a new Rachel Griffiths legal drama, Slander, was announced, along with the adaptation of Angourie and Kate Rice’s hit YA book Stuck Up and Stupid. It was also revealed that Jacki Weaver had joined the cast of the new six-part crime thriller Two Birds, and that medical dramedy The F Ward would return for a second season.From our partners