Lisa Wilkinson's departure from the Nine Network has had little effect on the Today show's ratings.

The breakfast program recorded an average five-city audience of around 246,200 people last week, according to industry figures. The second last week of January was the first time Karl Stefanovic and new co-host Georgie Gardner were back on the Today show couch after the summer break.

The audience figures aren't markedly different from Today's first week back in 2017 when the program netted an average five-city audience of about 278,000 people. While that figure is slightly higher than this year, breakfast TV had the advantage of returning a week later in 2017 when the overwhelming majority of viewers were back at work and implementing their usual morning routines.

Sources close to Wilkinson cited her immense popularity among Nine viewers as the reason for her demanding more pay and, ultimately, jumping ship to Network Ten. Nine has replaced Wilkinson with Gardner, a former Today show newsreader who is considered a safe pair of hands.

Last week was a soft start for Gardner, with rival program Sunrise winning all five weekdays. Seven's breakfast show increased its lead by Friday, ending the week with a five-city audience of 269,000 people in comparison to Today's 230,000.

The pattern was repeated on Monday, with Sunrise increasing its lead to snare a metropolitan audience of about 300,000 people.

Internally, Seven is crediting the year's early win to keeping at least one regular Sunrise host on the couch over the summer – as well as snapping up live interviews with star-studded guests such as Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron and Sam Smith.

A Nine spokesman declined to comment. But a network source said while it was early days and producers and executives were "very happy" with the ratings and audience feedback so far.