Mark Latham has been booked by Channel Nine for the pilot of Karl Stefanovic’s late-night panel show, fresh from his expletive-laden performance at the Melbourne writers festival 10 days ago.
As revealed by Guardian Australia last week, the former Labor leader signed up with the celebrity agent Max Markson and was under consideration for the Nine news and entertainment panel show.
A spokesman for Nine said Latham would appear on the Stefanovic pilot, which was currently in pre-production. “He’s very good talent if that talent can be harnessed,” a Nine insider said last week.
Markson said on Tuesday he was unable to confirm his client had signed up for the pilot with Nine because any deal was commercially confidential.
“Whatever TV network has him – there is a federal election next year – he will be a fantastic asset,” Markson said.
“Whether it’s to Channel Nine or Channel Seven, Channel Ten, Sky, ABC, SBS or an online TV network, he is must-watch TV. He will be a ratings drawcard for whoever signs him up and I look forward to consummating that relationship with whoever comes along.”
The Stefanovic pilot, which may or may not lead to the commission of a series, was always going to be a pre-record. Should Latham utter any obscenities they could be edited out. But the late-night time slot has few restrictions.
Nine had been in talks with Latham before he resigned from the Australian Financial Review amid a media storm and before his bizarre appearance at the festival.
In his AFR column of eight years Latham had attacked the Australian of the Year, the domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty, and had referred to the transgender military officer Catherine McGregor as “he/she”.
But his departure from the paper was precipitated by abusive tweets made by the @RealMarkLatham Twitter account, presumed to be Latham himself.
During his writers festival appearance Latham said he had been “flattered” by all the media approaches he’d had and he was holding out for a fee.
He told his interviewer there, the ABC host Jonathan Green, that he wouldn’t tell his story for free and refused to confirm that he is behind the @RealMarkLatham Twitter account.
Before landing the Nine gig, Markson had been busy on behalf of his new client, shopping the author of The Latham Diaries around the commercial networks, including Seven.
A Seven source said Markson’s pitch to the network had been rejected.
