Danika Mason announces departure as Today show sport presenter ahead of maternity leave

Danika Mason announced during a live Friday edition of Nine’s Today show that she will leave the program, ending her stint as the program’s sport presenter. Mason told viewers the decision coincides with her going on maternity leave earlier than planned and said the timing was on “doctor’s orders,” according to reporting that covered her on-air remarks.

Colleagues on the set responded as the announcement was made: Sylvia Jeffreys and Tom Steinfort both spoke during the broadcast, with Jeffreys saying she was “selfishly sad” that Mason would not return after her leave, and Steinfort offering supportive comments in the moment.

One outlet reported Mason is 35 and is expecting her first child with NRL player Liam Knight, a detail included in coverage that focused on her personal circumstances alongside her professional exit.

The Sydney Morning Herald described Mason’s departure as the fourth prominent exit from the Today show since June and noted the program is Nine’s flagship morning show; that framing places Mason’s announcement in a string of personnel changes at the program.

Nine’s live broadcast platform gave Mason the opportunity to speak directly to viewers and colleagues, and contemporaneous reporting emphasised the emotional tone of her sign-off and the production’s immediate acknowledgments.

Coverage differs in emphasis: some accounts foreground the maternity-leave timing and medical note that advanced her leave, while other pieces situate the departure amid broader turnover at the program. Available reporting does not state a specific return timetable for Mason or confirm any future role at Nine or another outlet.

The pieces citing colleagues’ reactions relay the broadcast exchanges but do not include a network statement setting out succession plans for the sport presenting role.

Headlines from additional outlets corroborated that Mason’s exit was reported widely, and coverage links the announcement to recent staff changes on Today without providing documentation of network decisions about replacements beyond reporting that Sylvia Jeffreys and Tom Steinfort have featured as co-hosts on the program.

Mason’s public sign-off emphasised the personal significance of her decision; she described the past two years as “just such a fun two years” and framed her departure as the start of a new chapter as a parent.

Reporting stops short of presenting the departure as forced or contested by Nine: no source in this set reports a disciplinary action, contract termination, or an offer of an alternate role from the network.

Similarly, there is no reporting here that the network has announced an immediate successor for the sport position or that an internal search process has been publicly detailed. The available coverage is consistent that the announcement occurred on a Friday broadcast and that the early start to maternity leave was attributed to medical advice.

Beyond those points, outlets vary in the level of personal detail they include and in whether they emphasise the departure as part of a broader pattern of exits from Today since June.