Canberra medico Dr Nick Coatsworth has scored the plum role of hosting the Today show over the Christmas break, filling in for TV star Karl Stefanovic.
He'll be co-hosting the Channel Nine breakfast show with Mia Glover - who spent a year in Canberra working for WIN News in 2015 - from next Tuesday to Friday.
"Excited and terrified at the same time," was how he was feeling ahead of next week's gig.
"I think appropriately nervous because it's not something I've done before and there's a lot of people who have, and do it very well. I'm conscious of that."
Dr Coatsworth, who is also the Today show's medical expert, was the deputy chief medical officer of Australia during the COVID crisis, becoming one of the most recognised medical spokespeople during the pandemic.
Now he is back on the frontline, working as a physician at the Acute Medical Unit at the Canberra Hospital. He's enjoying the change.
"For the first time in 12 years, I'm not in a leadership role in a public hospital, which is not a bad place to be," he said.
He'll finish his Today hosting gig on the Friday and then be back on shift at the hospital on Saturday.
"It's going to be quite bizarre," he said.
The Acute Medical Unit is located on the 6A floor at the Canberra Hospital, which is to treat and assess adult patients to take the pressure off its emergency department.
"Basically, any patient who doesn't need a procedure or surgery in the first 24, 48 hours will come to us," he said.
"You see everyone, everyone in Canberra comes through."
Dr Coatsworth did he was looking forward to "the different style of communication", co-hosting a national television program as opposed to speaking bedside to a patient.
"You've got your one-on-one style with patients from all walks of life and obviously the crisis stuff of COVID. And this is daily news and current affairs. It's a great time in Australia - those four days," he said.
"If there's no major disaster, no Boxing Day tsunami and the Sydney to Hobart runs well, it's actually a really cool time. There's a lot of good stuff, fun stuff going on. So just talking about that is going to be fun."
The father-of-three has been the Today health expert since the beginning of the year. He contributes about one segment a week, usually filming from Canberra but also joining Karl and co-host Sarah Abo on the Today show couch from time to time.
And to get ready for his hosting gig, he was "the intern with Karl".
"I was like the work experience kid," he said, with a laugh.
And he has been getting his alarm ready for the early-morning starts on Today.
"I think I'll need to get up at about half past three," he said.
"I haven't done it for a long time. I have so much respect for the people who do it. Not just the hosts, but you've got the guys on set, the producers, the control room people, hair and makeup, every day they have to be there at a time when physiologically you're at your lowest.
"So it's going to be back to instant coffee like when I was an intern."
- The Today show is on WIN-TV from 5.30am.
