Sunderland have appointed former Netherlands and Rangers boss Dick Advocaat as head coach until the end of the season.
The well-travelled Dutchman, who has had two stints in charge of his national side and spent four years at Rangers, will lead a late charge against relegation following Poyet's dismissal.
The Black Cats moved quickly in their pursuit of the 67-year-old, with Saturday's trip to West Ham one of only nine games left to lift them away from the Barclays Premier League drop zone.
"Sunderland is a big club and I am very much looking forward to the challenge ahead," Advocaat said.
"We must now concentrate on Saturday as a priority and I can’t wait to get started."
He will be joined at the Stadium of Light by Zeljko Petrovic as first team coach and former Swansea and England under-20 goalkeeping coach, Adrian Tucker.
Advocaat has won league titles in three countries during his lengthy coaching career, claiming the Eredivisie with PSV Eindhoven, the Russian Super League with Zenit St Petersburg and two SPL trophies during his spell at Ibrox.
But the nature of the challenge that awaits at the Stadium of Light is of a different order entirely.
Poyet left the club a single point above the bottom three and reeling from a calamitous 4-0 home defeat by shot-shy Aston Villa.
That result, and images of thousands of Sunderland fans pouring out of the ground in disgust, hastened what had already become an expected departure for Poyet.
He was in post for 17 months, winning just 23 games from 75 at the helm.
The Uruguayan was permitted to take training for one last time at the Academy of Light before being summoned for a meeting that confirmed his fate.
Sunderland are thought to have given some thought to an internal appointment with three-time caretaker manager Kevin Ball and development coach Paul Bracewell already on the pay-roll.
But with QPR's fortunes hardly having been improved by Chris Ramsay's temporary promotion, the mood appears to have shifted quickly to an experienced campaigner in Advocaat.
He would be presented with a similar problem to the one that greeted Poyet's predecessor Di Canio when he arrived two years ago.
The controversial Italian had even less time to secure top-flight status, but collected eight points from seven games to do the job.
Sunderland had four more points then than their current haul of 26, but the survival threshold is likely to be low this term.
Poyet now joins the likes of Di Canio, Martin O'Neill, Steve Bruce and Ricky Sbragia in failing to turn around Sunderland's fortunes in recent years.
