EXCLUSIVE
One of Nine’s brightest stars has been forced to dismiss speculation about his possible involvement in the scandal surrounding Georgie Gardner’s on-set row with a young female producer.
The Channel Nine rumour mill collapsed this week amid suggestions that respected financial journalist Deborah Knight was the source of a complaint to management about Gardner’s alleged tirade.
But the host of weekend show A Current Affair was keen to set the record straight when Daily Mail Australia contacted her about the cruel whispering campaign on Thursday.
“We actually pre-recorded A Current Affair on Saturday, so I wasn’t actually there that night,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
“I just hope everyone involved is okay.”
He added: “I am not aware of any alleged incident and have not raised anything with Nine Management.”
The false rumour about Knight’s alleged involvement has been circulating at Nine for days, fuelled by the fact that she once co-hosted the Today show with Gardner.
Respected Nine star Deborah Knight has rubbished speculation she complained to Nine management about her former Today show co-host Georgie Gardner.
Gardner was seen looking distraught and disheveled on Monday following revelations she is under investigation at Nine over an alleged spray she gave to a junior employee at the broadcaster’s Sydney studio.
The network’s two stars spent a year fronting the show after Larrikin frontman Karl Stefanovic was “rested” from the show in 2019.
The all-female line-up proved to be a ratings flop and the experiment was quickly shelved.
Knight has since continued her successful career in both television and radio at Nine, while Gardner has returned to reading weekend news bulletins two nights a week, while retaining her exorbitant $600,000-a-year salary.
Network bosses insisted privately on Thursday that the rumours were categorically “factually incorrect”.
The feud erupted after Gardner allegedly slapped a junior producer during an on-set meltdown last month with a bone-crushing outburst, telling her to “grow up!” amid a fierce argument over scripts.
A television source told Daily Mail Australia that the alleged incident, which occurred during the Saturday night news bulletin on August 31, was sparked by the way Gardner’s scripts had been prepared before going on air.
“Georgie showed up in a very bad mood,” they said.
‘She didn’t think the summary was satisfactory or the way the introductions were written and basically said it was crap.
‘The atmosphere was tense and she insisted on rewriting the introductions herself.
‘The junior producer said she wasn’t done with them yet, prompting Georgie to walk up behind her and yell at her to “grow up.”‘
Gardner presents Nine’s news bulletin on the night of his alleged on-set tirade
Gardner and Knight co-hosted Nine’s Today breakfast show for a year (alongside then news presenter Tom Steinfort) in 2019 before the experiment was abandoned.
According to the source, the heated discussion continued in the studio as the scripts were loaded onto the teleprompter.
At least part of the exchange was allegedly recorded and a clip handed over to management for an internal investigation following an official complaint.
“It was intense but there were a lot of people,” the source said.
Gardner disappeared from her regular duties as a weekend news anchor for two weeks following the alleged altercation.
However, he was reportedly on scheduled leave and returned to work last Friday.
The high-profile news presenter was seen crying in her car following a “very animated” hour-long conversation on her phone the day after it was revealed Nine was investigating the incident on Monday.
While Nine has declined to comment on the complaint filed against Gardner, the broadcaster’s director of news and current affairs, Fiona Dear, has expressed support for the embattled star.
“Georgie Gardner is a long-standing and highly respected member of our Nine News team,” he said. “We have no further comment.”
There is no suggestion that Gardner engaged in any misconduct, only that a complaint has been filed and an investigation is underway.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Gardner for comment on the incident.
Gardner was seen sporting a “post-op” shoe on her left foot while walking her dog.
The internal investigation couldn’t come at a worse time for Gardner.
The veteran news anchor’s contract is one of those being closely scrutinized by the company’s financial controllers as the cash-strapped network desperately tries to rein in costs.
Senior network sources said her $600,000 settlement was a legacy of her brief reign on the Today show and was “no longer justifiable.”
She is known to be one of several key stars expected to take significant pay cuts in the coming months. The labor dispute is not the only battle Gardner is facing at the moment.
The news anchor was spotted wearing a ProCare “post-op” shoe on her left foot while drinking coffee on Monday, fueling speculation that her recent absence is related to medical dramas.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Gardner and Nine for comment.