As you may have heard, Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris, the panel of judges who’ve been with Channel 10’s cooking juggernaut ‘MasterChef‘ since its inception ten years ago, all quit today.
The walkout comes after Calombaris has been rightly shredded in the press for underpaying his staff to the tune of nearly $8 million dollars, although it appears the reason for the three judges quitting is because of a contractual negotiations breakdown – i.e., a pay dispute. How… funny.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that the trio walked after the network refused to up their already $1 million-plus salaries by more than 40 per cent, which seems a little tiny bit rich – especially considering Calombaris copped the comparatively minuscule fine of $200,000 for his abhorrent wage theft.
But in response to the announcement, all three original judges have issued statements on social media waving away allegations that the split from the show was over money.
Matt Preston wrote:
We were really keen to continue but we were unable to agree to all terms for the new contract.
Calombaris said:
We were close to signing a new contract for season 12 however the dates just didn’t align.
And most tellingly, Gary Mehigan wrote:
It was time to move on, have more free time to explore our own creativity. It was never about the money and never will be about the money. We couldn’t agree on the term of the new contract for 2020 and season 12.
It was never about the money, eh? Please excuse me while I give my longest “Sure, Jan” ever.
