Tom Steinfort’s Today Return Brings His Career Full Circle — Years After a Very Different Chapter

Tom Steinfort has once again found himself behind the Today desk at one of the most uncertain moments in the breakfast program’s recent history.

The Nine journalist has recently been paired with Samantha Armytage as the network continues navigating its post-Karl Stefanovic era, with reports increasingly placing Steinfort among the serious contenders for a more permanent role. However, Nine has not formally confirmed him as Today’s next permanent host.

For viewers discovering a different side of Steinfort through his latest breakfast television appearances, it may feel like the beginning of something new.

But his history with Today goes back much further.

A Today chapter that began years ago

In 2019, Steinfort joined a dramatically revamped Today line-up as the program’s news presenter alongside hosts Georgie Gardner and Deborah Knight.

It was a challenging year for the breakfast show, which struggled in the ratings before Nine once again reshaped the program for 2020.

Steinfort’s time in that particular line-up came to an end as part of the wider overhaul — but it was far from the end of his career at Nine.

In fact, even before that chapter, Steinfort had already built the kind of journalism career that looked very different from the polished breakfast-TV desk viewers associate with him today.

Far beyond the breakfast television studio

Steinfort began with Nine in Melbourne and went on to work as an international correspondent, with assignments eventually taking him to more than 50 countries.

His reporting career has included rare access to North Korea, following Donald Trump during the 2016 US presidential campaign and covering the Oscar Pistorius trial in South Africa.

He later joined 60 Minutes, taking on major international assignments and interviewing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv in 2022.

Those years built a résumé that sits in sharp contrast to the calm morning television presence viewers are now seeing again on Today.

Steinfort has also previously co-hosted Weekend Today, meaning his connection with Nine’s breakfast television operation extends beyond his single year as the weekday program’s newsreader. Nine’s own profile notes that he returned to Sydney to co-host Weekend Today in 2017 before joining the weekday Today team in 2019.

Why his latest return feels different

Steinfort’s circumstances today are also markedly different from those of 2019.

Since January 2024, he has co-anchored 9News Melbourne alongside Alicia Loxley, occupying one of Nine’s most important evening news positions.

That has created an unusual dilemma around the speculation over his future.

Reports have suggested Steinfort is highly regarded as a potential long-term Today option, but moving him permanently to breakfast television could leave Nine needing to reconsider its successful Melbourne 6pm line-up.

His latest stint alongside Samantha Armytage has only intensified that conversation. Recent reports pointed to improved ratings during their week together and described Steinfort as an increasingly strong option for the vacant breakfast chair.

For now, however, the final shape of Today’s next permanent line-up remains a matter for Nine to decide.

A strangely full-circle moment

That uncertainty is part of what makes Steinfort’s current position so intriguing.

Years ago, he was one member of a Today line-up undergoing significant change.

Since then, his career has taken him through international reporting, 60 Minutes and the anchor desk of Melbourne’s evening news.

Now he has returned to the same breakfast program at another defining moment — only this time, his name is being discussed not simply as part of the supporting line-up, but as someone who could potentially help shape what comes next.

Whether that ultimately becomes a permanent move remains to be seen.

But viewed alongside the chapter that began back in 2019 — and everything Steinfort had already experienced before it — his latest appearance behind the Today desk feels considerably more full-circle than it might first appear.

Sources: Nine / 9News; The Australian; Daily Telegraph.