Karl Stefanovic appears to take a swipe at former colleagues Georgie Gardner and Deborah Knight

The circus surrounding Karl Stefanovic’s departure from Today has been rife, and you can be sure Kyle Sandilands is always waiting in the wings to ruffle a few more feathers.

Just as the dust appeared to be settling, the radio shock jock took the opportunity to stir the pot as Georgie Gardner and new co-host Deborah Knight appeared on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Tuesday.

The 47-year-old claims he extended an invite to his ol’ pal Karl to take part in the interview too, but the former Today host declined, and understandably so.

However, it was Karl’s reply, according to Kyle, which could be seen as a bit of a swipe at Georgie and Deborah – he replied with a snap of horror film character, Freddy Krueger.

Just for context, Freddy Krueger is a character from A Nightmare on Elm Street, who wears gloves with razors on them to kill his victims. Er, okay then.

“I wrote to him, ‘We’ve got the two ladies who do the Today show on, the replacement and your ex-co-host’,” Kyle recalled. “I said, ‘We should ring you’ and he [Karl] sent me a picture of Freddy Kruger.”

However, Karl has denied the image was in reference to his former co-hosts.

“Kyle and I were talking about a former Russian president, not the Today show cast,” Karl told Daily Mail Australia. “He has a fertile, funny and disturbing imagination.

“I don’t know how Jackie puts up with him.”

Last week the freshly polished, new-look Today show kicked off with Georgie and Deborah taking centre stage alongside newsreader Tom Steinfort, sports reporter Tony Jones and entertainment reporter Brooke Boney.

However, according to The Daily Telegraph, the Nine breakfast program experienced its “lowest ratings in 10 years”.

While Sunrise lured in a metro audience of 266,000, Today pulled in just 197,000 viewers from the five state capital cities across Australia – 69,000 less than their Seven rivals.

At the end of last year, long-time presenter Karl – along with brother Peter Stefanovic and his wife Sylvia Jeffreys – was culled from Today in order for the show to take a “new focus” in 2019.

Richard Wilkins, veteran entertainment reporter for the show, has also taken a step back from his role on Today as a part of the shakeup. Instead he is set to join Sonia Kruger on Today Extra on Thursdays and Fridays.

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