Nine has challenged reports in News Corp titles claiming the network plans to recruit Ten talent and The Project host Carrie Bickmore for the Today show.
The story, which ran across News Corp Sunday newspapers and online over the weekend, reported that Nine was planning to "poach" Bickmore and team her with former Today host Karl Stefanovic in a bid to improve the show's ratings.
Nine director of news and current affairs, Darren Wick, says the network has no intention of approaching Bickmore.
"Nine has not approached, and does not intend to approach, Carrie Bickmore or her representatives about joining Nine as a host of the Today Show, nor in any other role. News Corp's story is not a beat up - it is completely made up," Wick says.
Wick says Bickmore is an outstanding broadcaster but emphasised that she did not factor in to Nine's "plans for the future".
He also took aim at the reporter behind the story, Amy Harris, who Wick claims was contacted by a Nine spokesperson and informed that the story was incorrect.
Since the departure of former hosts Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson, who defected to Network Ten in 2017 to join Bickmore and her team on The Project, the Today show has struggled to compete in the morning ratings race against Seven's rival breakfast show, Sunrise.
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