Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) has announced comedian Lawrence ‘Moonman’ Mooney will be departing the Triple M Sydney Breakfast Show today.
It follows months of poor ratings and rumours the Sydney-based comedian has not been getting along with the SCA team, including co-host, Jess Eva, which resulted in Mooney – who started working on Triple M’s Brisbane breakfast show in 2016 – being suddenly pulled from the air last Wednesday.
According to the Daily Mail, Mooney’s $2 million contract is set to be terminated “imminently” ahead of its original 2022 expiry date.
Moonman in the Morning has been plagued with controversy since first going to air in 2019, including Mooney’s online tiff with Instagram influencers like Ruby Matthews, who he described as being “low-hanging fruit” who “prostitute themselves online for free products”.
Further controversy erupted on an episode of Today Extra in June, when Mooney told hosts David Campbell and Belinda Russell that he refused to get vaccinated because he “didn’t want to die”.
Mooney was also fined $1000 in June for flouting lockdown rules and travelling to Byron Bay, where he did not isolate for 14 days. He later apologised for the incident.
Moonman in the Morning peaked in 2019 – after taking over the previous The Grill Team show – with a 6.9 per cent market share.
However, the show was never able to contend with its predecessor as well as rival programs like The Kyle and Jackie O Show which collected a 10.7 per cent share in the latest ratings.
Eva and Page are yet to comment on their former co-host’s sudden departure.
SCA have thanked Mooney in a statement for his contribution to the Triple M Network over the previous five years.
