Sarah Abo shares brutal behind-the-scenes detail as Today host prepares to leave
The 40-year-old posed for a selfie with her team at 3am while preparing the show on Friday.
Host Sarah Abo shared a glimpse into behind the scenes of Channel Nine’s Today show.
While breakfast TV careers may look glamorous to viewers, the reality on the other side of the camera can be very different.
Media commentator Andrew Mercado told Yahoo Lifestyle that morning shows can be demanding, as shifts start in the very early hours of the morning, which, over time, can take its toll.
On Friday, Sarah posed for a selfie with her team of producers and tech operators and praised them for their hard work in creating the show each day.
“While you were sleeping, this wonderful team was working away on this morning’s Today show, as they do every morning! Superstars,” she wrote on Instagram.
In the selfie, the team in the background was surrounded by computers, laptops, and screens as they whipped up the daily news, guests, and segments.
“Part of the fabulous brains trust behind 3.5hours of live television on the Today show every morning. Working around the clock. What a team,” the caption read.
She added that the photo was taken around three in the morning.
But someone was missing from the photo: Sarah’s co-host Karl Stefanovic.
He imparted a cheeky jab at her for the photo.
“Why did you cut me out of the brains trust?” Karl asked in the comments.
“I mean.. isn’t it obvious?” Sarah replied.
But Sarah will have an entirely new type of alarm clock in the coming months as she’s set to go on maternity leave in August.
The TV star will soon be welcoming her first child with her husband, and her replacement on the Channel 9 breakfast show hasn’t yet been announced.
Sarah Abo: The Today Show host opens up like never before | Something To Talk About
How early do morning show TV workers get up each day?
Aussie TV stars have opened up in the past about the gruelling nature of breakfast programs.
When presenter Michael Rowland announced he was stepping back from ABC News Breakfast he said the early alarm was brutal.
“After 15 years of 3am starts, my body is screaming ‘enough’. The hours have finally caught up with me,” he said in 2024.
ABC radio veteran Virginia Trioli described a similar pain after two decades of early morning starts.
She said her days would start with the “snap of an alarm” and “a bang of adrenaline” as she raced to get ready for work.
“There was tip-toe silence in a dark house, shoes slipped on at the door; a dash to the office then straight into bright conversation and argument with a team of similarly wired people,” she said in 2023.
A Sunrise producer also revealed in 2022 that she would start her night-time routine at 3:30pm and hop into bed at 5pm.
That would give her enough sleep before her 1:45am alarm, and her 2:30am shift start time.