THE TAXI-GATE PHOTOS PUTTING KARL’S COMEBACK IN JEOPARDY
The TV host was winning until a new controversy engulfed him
Karl Stefanovic and his younger brother Peter were in particularly high spirits when they left a swanky restaurant in Sydney last week after weeks of speculation
that he was about to be handed back his old job on Today.
It looked a lot like a celebration lunch, but what happened next failed to impress Nine bosses, who are now reconsidering throwing th hi him a lif lifeline li – all ll because he appeared to make light of the Ubergate scandal that contributed to his downfall.
Joking and laughing as they got into a taxi together after a long lunch in a private dining room at posh Woolloomooloo Wharf restaurant Otto, the famous brothers hammed it up for the cameras as th they climbed li b di into th the back seat of a taxi – not an Uber.
SPANNER IN THE WORKS
Like naughty schoolboys caught in the act, the brothers found it hilarious they were sprung hopping into the cab.
Peter, 37, even rolled his head back in uproarious laughter as Karl, 44, gave him a thumbs-up – an apparent nod to the infamous controversy last year.
The brothers were caught out slagging off their bosses, and even Today co-host Georgie Gardner,
It’s a taxi this time – not an Uber, OK?!
‘The bosses sat down with Karl to work out a strategy’
in the th now infamous scandal, which eventually led to Karl, Peter and even Peter’s wife Sylvia losing their plum roles on Today.
“Karl’s antics this week really threw a spanner in the works,” reveals one Nine source.
“And I know for a fact his comeback was almost over the line. We’ve been running a series of specific focus groups asking them if they want Karl back on Today – and even the execs were surprised at just how much viewers want Karl to come back.
“The bosses sat down with Karl to work out a strategy. They asked him to keep a low profile and stay out of the limelight, attend charity functions if he had to go out, stop the long lunches and cut back on giving the appearance that he’s enjoying a lavish lifestyle. “They even discussed him taking a salary cut moving forward, and everything was agreed in principle – until King Karl came out to play again. The pictures taken of he and Pete getting into that taxi left the execs fuming. What was he thinking?”
His comeback is now in jeopardy due to this “boofhead” incident.
TARNISHED IMAGE
“How he and Pete can think it was funny to mock Ubergate when it caused so much controversy and infighting at Nine is pretty outrageous,” our source says. “Every time he appears to show regret, he ends up doing something like this that ends up in the papers.”
Nine bosses are also said to be wary of embracing Karl again because his image of a solid family man was tarnished when his marriage to the mum of his three children, Casandra Thorburn, ended in acrimony – before he fell in love with model Jasmine Yarbrough and married her last year.
“A lot of people at Nine thought he was on assignment during the past few weeks, but now we find out he was in Paris for Fashion Week with Jasmine,” our source says. “It’s just not the right look for a bloke who is supposed to relate to normal people on breakfast TV.”