Nine star Deb Knight set to axed from the afternoon slot on 2GB

One of Nine’s biggest names and highest paid media stars, Deb Knight, is set to be axed as host of 2GB’s afternoon radio show after a drop in ratings.

Nine Radio is poised to announce the axing of afternoons’ radio host Deb Knight.

Knight – the only woman presenter with her own show on the conservative talk station – was informed last week that her stint on the afternoon shift is over.

The seasoned broadcaster is said to be “shattered” by the news, insiders claimed last week.

Knight’s afternoon show ratings slipped to a 6 per cent market share in the sixth and most recent radio ratings survey of the year, down from a 2023 high of 8.9.

The result is just a pip lower than that of newly installed drive host Chris O’Keefe whose share was down to a 6.5 from an annual high of 8.6.

Unfortunately, it was Knight’s lowest result to date following her appointment to the role four years ago and well down on the heady 11.4 share results she achieved in her first year in the job, 2020, a Covid year when the radio station was drawing larger audiences across the board.

Pundits wonder if Knight will be reabsorbed by Nine’s TV arm where she has been a popular newsreader since 2011.

Deborah Knight is set to be axed as a 2GB radio host.

Our radio sources claim Knight’s television career was dealt a serious blow following her year-long stint as female presenter of breakfast show Today alongside fellow newsreader Georgie Gardner.

When the experiment was judged a failure at the end of 2019 after one year, Gardner won the tussle for the coveted weekend evening news presenter slot and as understudy to Nine’s longtime prime time news anchor Peter Overton.

A nimble Knight had held the position, as weekend news reader, during 2019, juggling that role and her hosting duties on Today concurrently – a monster workload.

At the time, this columnist reported the twin jobs was something of a master manoeuvre by Knight, who was not convinced, as neither was Gardner, or so this writer understands, that Today’s dual female hosting experiment would work.

Deborah Knight and Georgie Gardner filming the Today Show on The Strand.

In the event that it failed, which it did, Knight hoped she would continue to hold on to the weekend news reading spot.

Execs, however, were never going to put the highly paid Gardner, on her $800,000-a-year contract, on the reserve bench.

Nine bosses instead engineered a plan to return Gardner – arguably the best newsreader on Nine’s roster – to the weekend news spot and create a new role for Knight in its radio division, then in a state of transition with plans in place to pension off breakfast legend Alan Jones the following year and move drive host Ben Fordham to breakfast.

Knight and her rumoured then $600,000 contract were duly transferred over to 2GB/4BC at the start of 2020.

With Nine insiders reporting TV executives believed 50-year-old Knight’s career had “peaked” by late 2022, Knight is understood to have expressed an interest in replacing outgoing ACA host Tracy Grimshaw, who left that same year.

Ally Langdon snared the ACA hosting role.

The role went instead to the younger Ally Langdon.

Langdon has also served time on Today hosting duties.

Sadly for Knight, her big money TV contract has sat weightily on Nine Radio’s embattled books.

The radio division posted a $2.6m decline in profit in the financial year ended June, down to $12.6m from last year’s $15.2m.

Now the question remains, who replaces Knight?

Many veteran 2GB staff believe O’Keefe should be moved from the more lucrative drive shift to afternoons to give him more time to finesse his still green radio presentation (though apparently macho or so we’re reliably informed) style.

We hear Ray Hadley impersonator Mark Levy has expressed an interest.

The favourite is said to be media maverick and recent Deb Knight fill-in, the up-for-anything (and not very macho) Joe Hildebrand.

Stand by for Nine Radio’s big announcement.

PJ MODEL A STRANGE SHIFT FOR RADIO BFFs

FIVE years after separating from her husband Lee Henderson, radio star Jackie O is keeping Sydney guessing about her love life. While O’s dalliances with some rugged younger men have recently sparked renewed interest in the mother of one, it’s her public devotion to her manager and acknowledged BFF Gemma O’Neill that has left many of us scratching our heads.

Don’t get me wrong, we love a wo-mance as much as the next woman and we know sometimes the best plus one is a gal pal – think Oprah and Gayle.

Jackie O and Gemma O'Neill Papinelle Sleepwear. Photo: Instagram

It’s one thing to hang out together, maybe share clothes, advice, support, it’s entirely another to feature in a weirdly coquettish fashion shoot promoting a new range of PJs. It doesn’t exactly scream key mover and shaker coming through.

O’Neill was, for a time, “O’s” radio producer. She later enjoyed a rapid rise within the management ranks of radio network SCA. That ended at the start of 2022 when O’Neill promptly departed.

A short four-month tenure as chief executive of Business Chicks Australia followed. Then, out of the blue, she signs her former BFF “O” as a client and her management agency, Gemmie, is born.

We’re sure she’s doing very well professionally now, so what on earth would possess her to appear – a glossy naked knee propped unnaturally – as a model in a new campaign to launch a range of pyjamas?

Perhaps a marketer thought it was an excellent idea – but O’Neill looks positively uncomfortable posing in shortie nightdresses alongside O, a recognised mega brand who must hawk her brand to promote her radio show. Why on earth would you do it?

Got a news tip? Email [e-mail]