Ally Langdon's sly jab at Karl as Today ratings rise

Ally Langdon and Karl Stefanovic have kicked off the brand new Today lineup this morning with their first official episode and it looks like the pair are more than comfortable with each other.

Intended to debut this morning, Karl, who recently confirmed that he is expecting a child with his wife of one year, Jasmine Yarbrough, and Ally made their show debut two days earlier than expected, to cover the bushfire crisis over the weekend.

It looks like the hosts have had plenty of time to get to know each other already, with Ally Langdon pulling no punches when it came to teasing Karl on air this morning.

The veteran reporter made a not-so-subtle dig at her co-host during a cross to the Golden Globes red carpet, when reporter Charles Croucher described the Hollywood events saying, “it’s pretty well known as the drunker awards”.

“Karl will be right at home,” Ally quipped, raising eyebrows everywhere.

Ally was, of course, referring to Karl’s infamous appearance on the show after the 2009 Logies, back when he co-hosted with Lisa Wilkinson.

Karl appeared to be visibly intoxicated from the night before during the show, and later admitted her very likely was in an interview.

This time around the host is being praised for balancing his professionalism, while still letting his larrikin persona shine through with a witty comment here and there.

This morning the host joked about the pair’s premature appearance over the weekend.

The host joked about his ‘loser mates’ who clearly hadn’t tuned in over the weekend, given away by Sunday night texts wishing the returning host ‘good luck tomorrow’.

“Thanks for watching over the weekend,” the host joked in a faux-angry tone.

Rating on the rise, but the true test to come

Jokes aside, the pair’s pull power for audiences is still being tested, with the mammoth task of taking on rival Sunrise’s ratings on their shoulder.

And it seems Karl’s ‘loser mates’ are the outliers in this case.

The duo kicked off their run on the show with a bang, their weekend appearance nudged the program up to 231,000 viewers, up 34,000 from the weekend before.

They are still trailing Sunrise, however, with the rival program pulling 312,000 viewers without the star power of weekday hosts Samatha Armytage and David Koch.

What has everyone on tenterhooks is the rating over the week when the two famous pairs will go head to head for numbers.

A new beginning after ‘bloodbath’

The new-look show comes less than a month after what was described as a ‘bloodbath’ at the flailing program.

Channel Nine officially confirmed a whole new line-up for the Today show on December 18th, with a host of new faces joining the program.

Karl and Allison are joined by Perth reporter Tracy Vo in the newsreader role, with Alex Cullen, formerly from Sunday Night, doing sport.

Veteran weatherman Stevie Jacobs also departed the program, replaced by Sydney reporter Tim Davies.

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