The Today show has lost a valuable member of its news team.
WATCH: Today Show host Tracy Vo falls for fake story about ‘fugitive Ed Sheeran lookalike’
Channel Nine has announced that newsreader Tracy Vo is leaving the troubled breakfast TV show to move to Western Australia.
The 37-year-old journalist is making the move to be close to her elderly parents during the coronavirus crisis.
While it hasn’t been confirmed if or when she will return to the show, Tracy will be replaced by sports reporter Alex Cullen for the foreseeable future.
Before joining the breakfast program, she’d worked at Nine for more than a decade, having landed her first job at the network in 2007.
Her Today show future is uncertain, with her move to WA likely to last some time.
“I felt it was the best thing to head back west to be close to my family at this uncertain time,” Tracy told TV Blackbox on Monday.
“I just want to make sure everyone stays safe, looks out for each other, and of course, always practise social distancing.”
Tracy and the Today show team were caught out by a fake news story in February featuring a “fugitive Ed Sheeran lookalike”.
Viewers tuned in as they were informed about a “major manhunt” that was underway in the US for a thief who’d been posing as the British singer.
Unfortunately for Tracy who reported the story in her news slot, the story was completely made up as the news source for the story was the “Portsmouth Ohio Official”, a Facebook page with almost 40,000 followers that is clearly labelled as “Satire/Parody.”
“A major manhunt underway in the US: The Ohio Fugitive Taskforce hunting a man who’s been taking cash from churches, fooling them into thinking he’s Ed Sheeran. This is his mugshot,” Vo announced.
Hosts Karl Stefanovic and Ally Langdon were taken in too and they laughed at the unlikely side-by-side images of the fugitive and the star he was impersonating.
Today admitted to their blunder later in the show.
“It turns out it was a fake news story all along. We did fall for this one. It was from a satirical news site,” they said. “Still a good laugh.”
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