Why Kerri-Anne was really axed

A former executive boss for Studio 10 has dropped a major bomb on why he thinks Kerri-Anne has been axed from the programme she starred alongside her other co-hosts for over a year.

Rob McKnight, who worked on the show from 2013 to 2017 revealed on the TV Blackbox podcast on Tuesday that Channel 10 did not just let go of Kerri-Anne due to budget issues.

Rob claims the network may have had issue with her divisive views that often saw her in the press for entirely all the wrong reasons.

He added that Kerri-Anne is under contract until the end of the year, so the network will "pay her out" until then.

Channel 10 reportedly decided to put Kerri-Anne on "gardening leave" as a way to avoid any potential controversies that could make advertisers rethink working with them.

Gardening leave is given to an employee as a suspension with full pay for the duration of their notice period.

Employers prefer to use gardening leave rather than requiring for the employee to serve out the rest of their period in the workplace.

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"With Kerri-Anne going, she's still contracted for a while,” Rob said.

"They're paying her out because they don't want the controversy. They don't want an advertiser backlash based on the controversial comments that can come."

The former ex-boss went on to say that Channel 10 will likely not use Kerri-Anne for the remainder of her contract but will continue to pay her until the end of 2020.

Kerri-Anne has reportedly been blacklisted from appearing on The Project in any way during the remainder of her contract.