Crikey

The Catch-Up , penniless sister of America’s The View , has been canned by Nine execs. Thus another five ill-fated women — presenters Libbi Gore, Zoe Sheridan, Mary Moody and Lisa Oldfield and creative services director Mia Freedman, for whom the show was a pet project  —  exit Nine hastily.

It’s said Freedman, an Eddie appointment, tendered her resignation three months ago, only to have it rejected, reports The Daily Telegraph . Suggestions are that management was keen to keep her on board as a fall girl for when The Catch-Up eventually keeled over.

Freedman’s resignation ends a 16-year relationship with PBL.  

So, in a record for Nine, five ladies leave as a job lot. The sacred cow that is Karl Stevanovic, meanwhile, stays on. Glenn Dyer’s question from a month ago  remains poignant:  

Is Karl Stefanovic a protected species? After all, he and Richard Wilkins have been tried and found wanting by viewers — so why aren’t they boning candidates?

Another question: Is a show’s long-term impact measured by actual on-air time or headline-generating ability? If it’s the latter, then The Catch-Up will linger in the memory a while yet, thanks largely to Lisa O who represented the best controversy-bang-for-buck.

Don’t mourn, just remember:

• The ladies chat hair and love with Julia Gillard

• Lisa gags at footage of a man eating corgi.
• Libbi and Zoe’s l-sbian kiss (includes bonus footage of Libbi pashing Rupert Everett)
• The ladies model Stella for Target
• The ladies discuss reverse chivalry (warning: contains too much information about the Oldfields’ love life)
• Lisa’s drug confessions
• Lisa’s botox  regret. (Reader says Lisa had a “little cat’s bum mouth”, Lisa gets botox, blames horse fall for swollen lips) 
• The ladies discuss adultery . Lisa reveals, if a loved one murdered or cheated, “that person would be dead to me”.
• Oldfield tells how she froze David’s sperm post 9/11 following a series of death threats he received.