Deb Knight is forced to address a vicious smear campaign by cruel gossips which falsely ensnared her in the Georgie Gardner media firestorm
EXCLUSIVE
One of Nine’s biggest stars has had to dismiss speculation that she was involved in the scandal surrounding Georgie Gardner’s on-set feud with a young female producer.
Channel Nine’s rumour mill went into meltdown this week when it was suggested that respected financial journalist Deborah Knight was the source of a complaint to management over Gardner’s alleged tirade.
But the weekend A Current Affair presenter was keen to lay the facts on the table when Daily Mail Australia approached her on Thursday about the vicious whispering campaign.
“We pre-record Saturday A Current Affair so I wasn’t there that night,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
“I just hope everyone involved is okay.”
She added: ‘I am not aware of any alleged incident and have reported absolutely nothing to 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-presented the Today Show with Gardner.
Respected Nine star Deborah Knight has debunked speculation she complained to Nine management about her former Today show co-host Georgie Gardner
Gardner was spotted looking stressed and disheveled on Monday after revelations emerged she is under investigation at Nine over an alleged spray she gave a junior female staffer at the network’s Sydney studio.
The two network stars hosted the show for a year after Larrikin frontman Karl Stefanovic was given a ‘rest’ from the programme in 2019.
The all-female line-up proved to be a ratings flop and the experiment was quickly halted.
Knight has since continued her successful career on both television and radio at Nine, while Gardner returns to read the weekend news two nights a week, while retaining her staggering $600,000-a-year salary.
Network executives privately claimed Thursday that the wild rumors were absolutely “factually incorrect.”
The feud broke out after Gardner allegedly punched a young female producer in the face during an on-set tantrum last month, telling her to “grow up!” during a heated discussion about the scripts.
A TV source told Daily Mail Australia that the alleged incident – which occurred during the Saturday evening, August 31, news bulletin – was sparked by the way Gardner’s scripts were prepared before they went on air.
“Georgie came in in a terrible mood,” they said.
‘She found the overview unsatisfactory and also the way the introductions (to news items) were written was unsatisfactory. She actually said it was crap.
‘The mood was tense and she insisted on rewriting the intros herself.
‘The junior producer said she wasn’t ready yet, at which point Georgie followed her and snapped at her to “grow up.”‘
Gardner presents Nine’s news bulletin on the night of her alleged on-set tirade
Gardner and Knight co-hosted Nine’s Today morning program together for a year – along with then-newsreader Tom Steinfort – in 2019 before the experiment was called off
According to the source, the heated discussion in the studio continued as the scripts were loaded into the autocue.
At least part of the conversation was reportedly recorded and a clip of it was 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 was out of work as a news anchor for two weeks after the alleged altercation.
However, she was said to have been on leave and returned to work last Friday.
The well-known newsreader was spotted crying in her car after a “very lively” hour-long phone call, the day after it was revealed Nine was investigating the incident on Monday.
While Nine has declined to comment on the complaint against Gardner, the network’s director of news and current affairs, Fiona Dear, has voiced her support for the controversial star.
“Georgie Gardner is a highly respected and long-standing member of our Nine News team,” she said. “We have no further comment to make.”
There is no suggestion that Gardner has engaged in inappropriate behavior. It is merely stated that a complaint has been filed and an investigation is underway.
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Gardner for comment on the incident.
Gardner was seen wearing a ‘post-operative’ shoe on her left foot while walking her dog
For Gardner, the internal investigation couldn’t have come at a worse time.
The longtime anchor’s contract is one of several being closely monitored by the company’s financial controllers as the cash-strapped network desperately tries to keep costs under control.
Network insiders said her $600,000 deal was a holdover from her short-lived stint on the Today show and “no longer justifiable.”
She is known to be among the stars expected to take a huge pay cut in the coming months. The labor dispute is not the only battle Gardner is currently facing.
The newsreader was seen wearing a ProCare “post-op” shoe on her left foot as she drank her coffee on Monday, fueling speculation that her recent leave was related to medical tragedies.
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Gardner and Nine for comment.