Feisty Kerri-Anne Kennerley testing mettle of Studio 10 anchor Sarah Harris

FOR a few furious ugly minutes, the recently departed drifting spirit of sportscaster Ron Casey seemed to inhabit the glamorous vessel of Kerri-Anne Kennerley on television last week

FOR a few furious ugly minutes, the recently departed drifting spirit of sportscaster Ron Casey seemed to inhabit the glamorous vessel of Kerri-Anne Kennerley on television last week after Kennerley found herself seated cold shoulder to shoulder with The Chaser’s resident prankster Charles Firth on Ten’s morning show Studio 10.

It was back in 1991 that a testy Casey managed to provoke singer Normie Rowe on Channel 9’s Midday Show during a debate about whether the nation should become a republic. The then host of The Midday Show, Ray Martin, was left dumbstruck as Rowe rose from his seat and shoved Casey prompting Casey to respond with a swinging — and connecting — right punch to Rowe’s face.

Kerri-Anne Kennerley give The Chaser’s Charles Firth a tongue-lashing on Studio 10 this week.

Kennerley had the good grace to stay in her seat during Tuesday’s panel segment about The Chaser’s guerrilla stunt that saw the radio pranksters project broadcaster Alan Jones’s private phone number on the Opera House sails in the aftermath of Everest race day advertising controversy.

But she could not and would not hold her tongue when given an opportunity to lash Firth over The Chaser’s unoriginal stunt and treatment of the “fabulous” Jones.

Kennerley is clearly revelling in her new role as a born-again daytime TV panel regular — a role that has evaded her since Channel 9 cancelled her Midday contract in 2010.

While blasting Firth for a stunt she believed was “rubbish” — though it attracted solid media for 48 hours — the once agreeable and some would say saccharine Kennerley proved the years out of a gig have mellowed her not one bit — as her 2017 Logies’ Hall of Fame speech bitterly hinted.

All of which may, in the short term, be great news for Studio 10’s ratings but will test the mettle of amiable program anchor Sarah Harris, who looked exasperated as Kennerley shouted down Ten’s forbearing guest Firth — who suddenly found himself cast in a role not dissimilar to the one Louise Herron (Opera House CEO) helplessly found herself in during Jones’s offensive grilling on 2GB a week earlier.

Had Firth been a woman, there’d have been an uproar, but there are evidently two sets of rules for broadcasters behaving badly.