The Living Room on ice for a year as Ten denies axing claims

Reality program The Living Room is being put on ice for a year but although Network 10 insists it’s not cancelled, some of the stars are being pitched to rival networks, Annette Sharp reveals.

Network Ten’s assertions The Living Room starring Amanda Keller is being “rested” in 2023 is at odds with sweeping industry rumours the show has been axed.

Twenty-four hours after Ten sought to spin the news – at its annual “upfronts” season launch on Thursday at Darling Harbour’s ICC – that the reality show would not be returning next year, agents representing personalities attached to the program were on the phone pitching their clients to rival networks.

Chief among these, we hear, were agents for The Living Room anchor and star Keller, and for co-host ‘Bondi Vet’ Dr Chris Brown.

Brown, or so we hear, is out of contract and up for grabs in 2023.

What this means regarding the vet’s other regular role as co-host of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! is unclear.

Amanda Keller and Dr Chris Brown of The Living Room will be taking what’s being pitched as a halitus.

The popular lifestyle program also includes co-presenters Barry Du Bois and Miguel Maestre. The first episode aired in 2012 and has won multiple Logies over the years for the Most Popular Lifestyle Program.

Keller, 60, was also nominated personally for a Gold Logie in 2019.

The Paramount-backed Ten, whose audiences look to have migrated across the dial to the ABC in recent years, have taken their battle with the national broadcaster seriously and responded by pinching two of the ABC’s hottest stars, Gold Logie winner Tom Gleeson and Charlie Pickering.

Gleeson will host a local version of British game show Taskmaster, while Gleeson, formerly on The Project, returns to Ten on the Chrissie Swan-hosted local version of Would I Lie to You?

Weeks after Paramount’s global chief Bob Bakish asserted plans to become more aggressive within the streaming space ahead of price hikes there, speculation mounts that Ten’s executive is under increasing pressure to lift its audience share locally which in turn might boost the profile of newcomer streaming platform Paramount+.