Karl Stefanovic snubbed for Nine’s election coverage

Deborah Knight and Peter Overton have pushed Karl Stefanovic out of Nine’s election line-up in a move seen as a huge snub to the former Today host

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KARL Stefanovic has been benched from Nine’s coverage
of the upcoming 2019 state and federal elections.

In news that sheds light on Nine’s relationship breakdown with its highest paid star, a Nine spokeswoman has confirmed the network’s prime-time news anchor Peter Overton and Stefanovic’s Today show replacement Deborah Knight will join Nine’s state and Canberra political editors Chris O’Keefe and Chris Uhlmann for Nine’s broadcast of the state election results on March 23 — a development that represents a huge snub to Stefanovic.

The same team, with guest politicians, will back up to host Nine’s federal election coverage later in the year.

Nine’s failure to recall Stefanovic (pictured) for its prestigious election coverage — he co-anchored Nine’s 2016 federal election with Lisa Wilkinson and Laurie Oakes — fuels rumours Nine CEO Hugh Marks is looking to cut ties with Nine’s problematic star before his $15 million five-year contract, which is due to expire at the end
of 2020, lapses.

Karl Stefanovic was a ficture on Nine’s election coverage in past years.

Industry insiders are tipping Nine will release Stefanovic from his contract at year’s end after negotiating a reduced payout to the news personality.

The relationship between Stefanovic and his TV bosses has been strained since the former Today host married shoe designer Jasmine Yarbrough in Mexico in December, media coverage of which may have breached Stefanovic’s TV contract.

Stefanovic has one project still in the pipes with his employer, the talk show This Time Next Year which the network recorded at Fox Studios two weeks ago.

On Friday a Nine spokeswoman confirmed the program — and Stefanovic — will not be seen on air until much later in the year: “Karl won’t be back until This Time Next Year screens later in the year.”

A source affiliated with Stefanovic said the 44-year-old hoped to remain on air at Nine well into 2020 — “and beyond”.

Karl Stefanovic’s Mexican wedding strained his relationship with Nine bosses.

With his breakfast television days behind him and his public image in tatters Stefanovic has joined an exclusive hospital fundraising committee — a move which could add some lustre to his tarnished corporate image.

Stefanovic is the newest committee member of the Sydney Children’s Hospital’s exclusive Gold Committee, presided over by his friend, charity queen Skye Leckie.

Leckie is the wife of retired TV executive David Leckie, Stefanovic’s former Nine boss, who in December described his one-time Nine hire as “dead meat” after he self-sabotaged his career and public image following his split from first wife Cassandra Thornburn in 2016.

Stefanovic, 44, polarised female television audiences after moving on quickly with Yarbrough.