Fans have taken to social media to slam Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon’s new promo for the Today show.
The clip – which has been labelled by some as “disturbing” – features the 45-year-old as cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter from the 1991 film, The Silence of the Lambs.
WATCH: Karl Stefanovic mimics Hannibal to address Ubergate and marriage breakdown in odd skit
“You better get used to those early mornings again,” Allison “Ally” Langdon, who plays Clarice Starling, tells him.
“I’ve missed the smell of morning coffee,” he replies, as he stands in a cell, just like Anthony Hopkins in the terrifying flick.
“Apparently I’ve been a very naughty boy,” he adds.
“This time Karl things are going to be different,” Ally says.
He answers: ‘I’ve missed the smell of morning coffee’ and makes a sucking motion with his mouth.
Fans were quick to slam the promo, with some saying it made them nauseous.
“Karl Stefanovic saying ‘apparently I’ve been a very bad boy’ on an ad for the Today show makes me want to spew” said one person via Twitter.
Another tweeted: “God seeing Karl Stefanovic pretending to be Hannibal Lecter is rather disturbing”.
Another chimed in: “This terrible ad for Today with Karl Stefanovic as Hannibal Lecter. No No No No No and even more No. Won’t be watching”.
Someone else joked: “Channel 9 Exec: I know how we can raise @TheTodayShow ratings AND try to humanise Karl Stefanovic again. We get him to cosplay as one of cinema’s greatest cannibals!”
The news comes after a report ran revealing that the new look breakfast TV show is struggling in the ratings war with it’s rival, Sunrise.
“Executives would be going, ‘Oh my god, we thought this was going to be hard but we are not getting an early bounce’,” media analyst Steve Allen revealed to the Confidential.
“We have been consistently saying that this will take time. Karl reappearing on screen isn’t going to mean all of the people that left the show have suddenly forgiven him. It will take time and he will need to keep his act clean and need to stay out of the headlines on anything about his personal life and his relationship with others inside the network.”
