Today host Karl Stefanovic loses it over job takeover: 'Is that real?'

He’s known as the larrikin of Aussie TV and Karl Stefanovic absolutely lost it when TikToker Michael Drake played a prank on him on the Today show.

Michael has gained a legion of fans on the social media platform for his hilarious stunts, which sees him modifying famous billboards across the country with his own face.

He went viral when he recreated an Anaconda billboard, spending six weeks on the side of an Anaconda store before anyone noticed anything was amiss with it.

Now, he’s appeared on Today, where Karl Stefanovic got a rude awakening after Michael decided to replace him in the ads for the show.

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The camera cut to a bus billboard, which showed Karl's co-host Sarah Abo posing alongside Michael instead of Karl.

Other images showed Michael switching out the posters in the corridors of Channel Nine for snaps of himself with Sarah.

Sarah Abo couldn’t believe her eyes when the images appeared on the screen, saying: “That’s so good. Oh my goodness, Is that real?”.

Meanwhile, Karl lost it with laughter, hilariously saying: “It was only a matter of time.”

Michael doubled down on the prank, telling Karl: “I’m coming for your job Karl.”

Karl’s rollercoaster past with the Today show

In 2018, Karl Stefanovic was famously dumped from the Today show, soon after marrying Jasmine Stefanovic.

He quietly returned to the couch in 2020, after hosts Georgie Gardner and Deborah Knight struggled to regain viewers and Today's ratings hit an all-time low.

Two years later, in 2022, the new Today team, Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon, beat Sunrise in the September ratings, cementing Karl’s place back on Aussie TV.

Now, viewers can’t get enough of the golden boy, seemingly having made his way back into the public’s good books after a stream of earlier controversies, including Lisa Wilkinson’s revelation that she left the show due to pay disparity between herself and Karl and his messy divorce from former wife, Cassandra Thorburn.

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