Lisa Wilkinson: shock celeb exits that made headlines
LISA Wilkinson’s surprise departure from the Today show isn’t the first — we look back at other stars who famously left their jobs.
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AS THE dust settles on Lisa Wilkinson’s shock departure from morning television’s Today show, the Herald Sun looks back at some of the other celebrity exits that have made headlines.
JESSICA ROWE GETS BONED
Jessica Rowe’s short tenure on the Today show was marred by poor ratings and cruel jibes from viewers about her looks and laugh.
It all came to a head when then Nine CEO Eddie McGuire decided to “bone” Rowe.
The phrase, quoted by former Nine current affairs boss Mark Llewellyn in his book, has since become part of the Aussie vernacular.
McGuire has said he feels bad that Rowe became an “unwitting victim” of the ratings battle but denies ever using the crude term.
McGuire believes he’s been misquoted because Llewellyn misheard the word “burned”. Whether she was “burned” or “boned”, Rowe says the experience “hurt like hell”.
“That year was a terrible time in my life and it was not helped by public abuse, abuse from within the network that I worked at and abuse from someone who was in charge of that particular network,” Rowe has said on her new show, Studio 10.
GERI HALLIWELL LEAVES THE SPICE GIRLS
Five became four in 1998 when the outspoken Geri Halliwell announced she was leaving the Spice Girls in the midst of their world tour because of “differences between us.”
Halliwell fled to pal George Michael’s pad, while her band mates attempted to soldier on with the Girl Power.
It wasn’t the same without their Union Jack-wearing leader and the band ultimately broke up.
Fellow Spice Girl Mel Brown later denied a feud was behind the split, instead claiming Halliwell just couldn’t handle the pressure of their global fame.
The girls reunited in 2007 and performed at the 2012 London Olympics but subsequent attempts to reform have failed to get off the ground.
THE FOOTY SHOW’S REVOLVING DOOR OF HOSTS
After 10 years hosting The Footy Show, Garry Lyon left to deal with “personal issues”.
It soon emerged that Lyon had been having an affair with his co-star Billy Brownless’ ex-wife, Nicky, causing irreparable damage to their friendship and the show.
Soon after, James Brayshaw also exited the program when Nine failed to meet his salary demands.
Brayshaw’s replacement, Craig Hutchison, didn’t even last a year in the hot seat before he was unceremoniously dumped for Eddie McGuire amid falling ratings.
CHANTELLE BARRY BOWS OUT OF BARDOT
A 17-year-old TV mystery was this week solved when Chantelle Barry finally revealed the real reason she left the TV-manufactured girl group, Bardot.
It seems Barry was a bit light-fingered back in the day and was sprung pilfering $100 from bandmate Sophie Monk.
While Monk said she’d happily forgive her thieving co-star, the Popstars’ series producers weren’t so lenient and instead gave Barry $1000 to disappear.
She did, until now when she’s been doing the media circuit to cash in on Monk’s starring role in The Bachelorette.
SHELLEY LONG QUITS CHEERS
The will they/won’t they chemistry between Shelley Long’s Dianne and Ted Danson’s Sam was part of what made Cheers a huge hit in the 1980s.
But fame went to Long’s head and, after winning multiple awards, she decided to exit the series to focus on her film career.
One B-grade flop followed another for Long, while Cheers went from strength to strength.
Eventually Long came crawling back for a cameo in the show’s final episodes but it was too little, too late.
Long’s arrogant exit continues to be the cultural reference used when actors think they’re bigger than the TV show they’re in only to find their careers stall when they bail.
Case in point: David Caruso’s much-ridiculed departure from NYPD Blue, Katherine Heigl’s leap from Grey’s Anatomy into obscurity and Shannon Doherty’s foolish decision to walk out on Beverly Hills 90210 and then later Charmed.
SONIA KRUGER TAKES KERRI-ANNE KENNERLEY’S JOB
TV legend Kerri-Anne Kennerley found out her job was being given to Sonia Kruger when a journalist from the Herald Sun rang her for comment on the high-profile move.
Nine had used KAK’s morning show as a carrot to lure Kruger away from arch rival Seven, where she was co-hosting Dancing With The Stars but eager to do something new.
The two blondes have since buried the hatchet, with Kennerley defending Kruger when she came under fire for her controversial comments calling for a ban on Muslim immigration to Australia.
JEREMY CLARKSON IS PUSHED FROM TOP GEAR
Hugely popular with Top Gear fans but disliked by the show’s producers because of his temper and ego, Clarkson was sacked in 2015.
His crime? Clarkson became enraged when he was offered soup and a cold meat platter instead of the steak he had ordered on set and attacked a producer.
Clarkson’s co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond followed him from the top-rating show. The BBC’s attempt to reboot the series with Chris Evans and Friends actor Matt LeBlanc was an epic failure. Meanwhile Clarkson, May and Hammond’s much-hyped new series, The Grand Tour, is now screening on Channel 7.
HELEN KAPALOS LEAVES 10
Within minutes of presenting the 6pm nightly news bulletin at Ten, Helen Kapalos was grabbed on the arm by her boss’s PA and told not to leave the office.
The news anchor, who had been with Ten for six years, was then bluntly told her contract would not be renewed. By 6.30pm her computer access and security pass had been cancelled.
Kapalos was a high-profile victim of Ten’s 2012 cost-cutting.
A press release was drafted and Kapalos left the country on holidays.
Kapalos rose from the ashes of her much-talked about axing to become the new host of a revamped Today Tonight for Seven but suffered a series of on-air gaffes and resigned to focus on making documentaries.
MEL DOYLE IS REPLACED BY SAMANTHA ARMYTAGE
In 2013, after 14 years co-hosting Sunrise alongside David Koch, it was announced that Melissa Doyle was being replaced by Samantha Armytage.
Doyle put a positive spin on the announcement saying she was keen to take on some new prime time challenges.
But the rumour mill soon went into overdrive with speculation Seven chiefs had made Doyle fall on her sword so that they could sex up the show with a younger host.
There was talk too that Doyle’s promotion to prime time had also come with a sizeable pay cut. Both Armytage and Doyle have denied there is any bad blood between them over the moves.
SAM MORAN LEAVES THE WIGGLES
In 2011, without warning, Sam Moran was stripped of his yellow skivvy for requesting a pay rise.
The sacking was a PR disaster for the children’s entertainers as it lifted the lid on the not-so-friendly side of the multimillion-dollar Wiggle empire.
Moran, who replaced the original yellow Wiggle Greg Page as the group’s lead singer in 2006, has since gone on to become an award-winning presenter on Foxtel.
All the original Wiggles, bar the blue one, Anthony Field, have retired and been replaced with a new generation of young performers.
Moran says he was hurt and shocked by his ousting, adding that he’d never wear yellow again.
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