Danika Mason: Karl Stefanovic forced to defend sport presenter’s slurs on-air during cold live TV cross

A bizarre situation has played out live on TV, with host Karl Stefanovic forced to jump in and defend a sport presenter’s slurs.

Max Corstorphan
The Nightly
Nine host's unusual live cross.
Nine host's unusual live cross. Credit: Instagram (The Today Show)

Today Show sports presenter Danika Mason has left viewers baffled after a bizarre live TV cross where she slurred, struggled to form coherent sentences or even pronounce her words.

The seasoned reporter was crossing live to the Today Show from Livingo Italy, updating viewers on the winter games, when she began to have a moment.

It was 10pm over in Italy and 8am in Sydney when Mason went into a bizarre tirade about coffee and iguanas.

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“The price of coffee over here is actually fine. It’s actually the price of coffee in the US we have to get used to. I’m not sure about the iguanas?” she said, as Karl Stefanovic and Jayne Azzopardi looked on, both amused and confused.

“Where are we going with that one?” she added.

“Anyway, let’s get into today’s sport because there’s plenty happening back home.”

As Mason delivered the unusual remarks, her speech became slurred and she stumbled over words while reporting outside in the cold.

Later on, she even jumped down into a pile of snow and made snow angels while completing her live sports update.

Stefanovic could be seen giggling as Mason described how much “snow” there was in Livingo.

On screen, viewers could see that Mason was battling the conditions, with a watcher graphic stating it was -8C. The show’s sports host even paused at one point as she attempted to speak to say: “Mate. Oh my god, that is so cold.”

Sections of Mason’s updates were posted on the show’s social media pages, but eventually, someone was forced to step in and turn the comments section off.

Before comments were switched off, some joked that the host’s bizarre antics had brightened their day, while others speculated if there might have been more than just the cold that contributed to the unusual cross.

Stefanovic forced to defend presenters slur

Although some could question if the reporter had been enjoying the late-night hospitality of Italy’s winter hotspots, like that infamous moment the show’s host Stefanovic had indulged at the Logies before going on-air in the early morning, a quick excuse was offered up to viewers,

Speaking to former US correspondent Alison Piotrowski, Stefanovic suggested it was just cold weather that was impacting the reporter’s speech.

“The cold weather is a thing, right, I remember being in Washington DC a few years ago, Ally (Piotrowski), you would have been familiar with this,” Stefanovic said, springing in to defend Mason’s condition on air.

“You get out of a car over there (in Italy) and there is such a cold wind, you can’t actually move your lips,” he added.

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