Shock truth behind Sonia Kruger's big new Channel 7 gig

After weeks of speculation, ex Today star Sonia Kruger was announced as the new host of Channel Seven’s rebooted Big Brother on Wednesday night.

While the appointment may not come as a surprise to many considering 54-year-old’s shock exit from her former network, Channel Nine, late last year - and the fact that she has helmed the controversial reality TV show before - there was one person who was taken aback: Sonia herself.

The industry icon opened up to Kyle and Jackie O on KISS 106.5 the morning after news of her big role broke, revealing that the Seven big wigs didn’t tell her about the gig until very recently.

“Literally like last week they said to me you know, we want you to host Big Brother and you could have knocked me over with a feather because I know that there were a lot of people in the mix,” Sonia said.

She went on to admit that when she jumped ship from Nine - where she had hosted Today Extra for eight years - to rival Seven she didn’t have the plum Big Brother role in mind.

“I know everyone was kind of speculating about it but it actually wasn’t part of why I was going to Seven,” Sonia revealed.

She explained that her move was motivated by a seat on the judging panel on Australia’s Got Talent as well as ‘lots of other stuff’ including the Tokyo Olympics.

Sonia’s stacked schedule

Sonia’s Big Brother announcement comes just a few days after her debut gig at her new home network - presenting bushfire relief concert Fire Fight Australia - was revealed.

She’ll appear alongside Sunrise hosts Sam Armytage and David ‘Kochie’ Koch as well as comedian Celeste Barber, who has raised a whopping $51 million for NSW Rural Fire Service.

Sonia is also locked in to front a number of new programs including reality shows Mega Mini Golf and Australia’s Got ­Talent: The Champions as well as Seven’s coverage of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Sonia quits Nine

Sonia’s shock departure after eight years with Nine was just one part of a mass exodus from the network at the end of 2019.

In November it was announced that Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon would be taking over hosting duties on Today in 2020, ousting existing hosts Georgie Gardner and Deb Knight.

A week later, Today Extra and The Voice host Sonia revealed she was leaving to spend more time with her five-year-old daughter Maggie and was farewelled on-air the very next day.

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