Why Danika Mason hasn’t started planning her wedding

Danika Mason has no idea when she’ll get around to tying the knot. 

In fact, the journalist and fiancé Liam Knight have done very little in the way of wedding planning due to their mutually hectic schedules. All they know so far is that it won’t be during footy season.

“We have not chosen a venue, we have not done anything,” Mason tells nine.com.au.

Mason joined Today as Sports Reporter in February 2025, in addition to her sports reporting duties at Nine for the NRL and Wide World of Sports, while rugby league player Knight has been travelling between Australia and the UK to play. 

“We said when he gets back we’ll start to sort [the wedding], but we’re in the middle of footy season and things have just gotten busier and busier, so we’re thinking we’re going to do it next year.”

The only things they know for sure are it will have to be held some time outside of NRL season, and the presenter’s chocolate Labrador Charlie will not be invited to participate.

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“He has honestly embarrassed me that many times. He doesn’t have a great track record. He’s stolen food from people at picnics,” she says.

Mason has spent her entire professional career at Nine, having abandoned an engineering degree to travel before deciding to pursue journalism.

She did go back to university to study media and communications, but landed the job at Nine before completing it – and hasn’t looked back.

“Someone who I knew who knows someone got me into Nine for a week, and I loved it,” she recalls. 

“Ken Sutcliffe was the boss at the time, so I asked Kenny if I could keep coming back on the weekends and he said yes, but only for a couple of months.”

A year and a half later, she was offered a job as a sports producer.

“People were going on holidays and I started over the summer break,” she says.

“[I was] an intern first, then a sports producer. I’d write all the stories for the 11am and 4.30pm sports bulletins and then after about a year I went to Today as a producer.”

Mason wrote all the sports reports for then-host Ben Fordham and Tim Gilbert when he was the sports presenter.

Soon, she got the call up to start presenting stories herself, including with the team at Wide World of Sports. Her first few times on camera didn’t exactly feel natural.

“Honestly, nothing can prepare you for it,” she said. 

“I was just thinking, ‘Why am I so nervous? I don’t know whether I can do this.’ But you just get through it, and then you get more comfortable, and then after you’re doing something for so long it just comes naturally.”

Mason came from a sporty family and played as many team sports as possible including netball, basketball, soccer, a bit of touch footy and athletics.

“Mum wanted me to get into tennis, she was a bit of an avid tennis player herself. I had a little crack at that, but I love team sports so much better.”

Reporting on the NRL is a natural fit for her, having grown up in a household that was always tuned into Ray Warren calling the games.

“State of Origin was always a night to remember. You’d get some treats and chocolate. We’d get to stay up late and watch it,” she recalls.

“We used to go to Parramatta Eels games a lot. Then, when I went to uni in Wollongong, we’d go to a lot of Dragons games.

“But when you work in it, it’s actually really hard to go for a team. You get to know so many of the players and the staff.”

However, when it comes to State of Origin she feels no conflict, unapologetically supporting the News South Wales ‘blues’.

When she was first offered the presenting gig on Today, the first person Mason told was Knight.

“I couldn’t really tell anyone else, so for the next two or three weeks I didn’t want to see anyone because I didn’t want to accidentally say anything.”

Mason works on Today five mornings a week and the Footy Show on Wednesday evenings, in addition to Thursday and Friday Night Footy.

“[I do] Today show in the morning, then go home, grab a suitcase, fly to wherever we do Thursday Night Footy from, then do the whole game. Then go to bed, wake up, do Today the next morning,” she explains.

“Then Saturday off, then Sunday afternoon host Sunday afternoon footy. It’s a pretty wild schedule.”

Mason quickly won over Today viewers, who rallied around her after a disoriented Winter Olympics cross earlier this year, caused by having consumed alcohol beforehand. Mason later apologised, admitting she “misjudged the situation.” 

The presenter is able to stay on top of her busy schedule by putting self-care first.

“I”m really, really focused on making sure I get to bed on time. So I’ll go to bed between 8-8.30, and then eating well … once you eat well, you fuel your body with the good stuff and you reap the rewards.

“There’s the occasional hot chips on the sideline, but majority of the time I like to eat well and always get some sort of exercise in. I feel like that’s where I get energy from. 

“If I’m feeling sluggish, I might have a 20-minute nap then go for a walk and get some sunlight.”

She also loves her coffee.

“The first time we have coffee in the morning is at about 6am, so when we get on set, from about 5.50am, I’m just constantly looking at the door waiting for [a cappuccino] to arrive.”