JUDGES PRICED OUT OF 10’S KITCHEN
THE Golden Goose has been cooked, with MasterChef’s original judges Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and beleaguered chef, George Calombaris negotiating themselves out of a job on Ten.
Six months after starting negotiations for a new deal in which they reportedly demanded a 40 per cent pay increase and a slice of the international profits of the show, the trio are now believed to be eyeing a multi-million-dollar deal with Netflix or Amazon Prime to get them back on the box.
Forming their own production company, GGM Pty Ltd and selling themselves to Ten as a package deal made talks “difficult”, Ten’s chief executive Paul Anderson told News Corp Australia – denying the network had sought to dump Calombaris after his wage theft shame.
Preston, Mehigan and especially Calombaris stayed off the radar and did not return calls when the news broke, but are understood to have wanted more time off to pursue other projects, while almost doubling their TV earnings, estimated currently at around $400,000 to $600,000 per judge each season.
Mr Anderson said the network was committed to “another 10 years of MasterChef, so we needed to look at this with a long-term outlook. We can’t be taking a one-year view on shows like this and paying over the odds”.
While thanking the judges for their work on the series, he said their departure was seen “as a real opportunity” to “refresh”.
This year’s ratings on the Logie-winning reality series “have been down after a really good year last year,” Mr Anderson said.