Network 10 has denied paying celebrity chef and fascist meme aficionado Pete Evans $200,000 for his alleged involvement with reality TV show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, after reports that he stood to earn a truckload from his scuppered reality TV stint.
Entertainment reporter Peter Ford this afternoon tweeted that Evans will be “paid in full” for his rumoured involvement with the franchise, and would have “made even more” if he weren’t axed before filming began.
Yes paid in full. About $200,000. Had he done the show and got to the end he would have made even more.
— Peter Ford (@mrpford) November 16, 2020
In a separate tweet, Ford said that Network Ten, which airs I’m A Celebrity…, are on the hook for a “truckload of $” after choosing not to feature Evans.
But in a statement provided to PEDESTRIAN.TV, a Network 10 spokesperson said “Network 10 has made no such payments.”
Network 10 this morning confirmed that Evans will not appear on the show, following an enormous public backlash to his decision to share a meme featuring neo-Nazi iconography.
While Evans was not publicly confirmed to be a cast member on the show, he was heavily rumoured to make his return to mainstream television via the reality franchise.
In conversation with Nova’s Fitzy & Wippa this morning, TV Blackbox’s Rob McKnight claimed Evans was dumped from the program while in pre-production coronavirus quarantine.
Citing a source with apparent knowledge of the situation, McKnight alleged Evans is “now packing up his bags and returning to Byron Bay and he is apparently furious.”
Beyond the $200,000 payment, which Network 10 now says doesn’t exist, Evans has other financial realities to consider.
Since sharing the image and commenting on its significance to Nazi ideologies, publisher Pan Macmillan has announced an end to itsbusiness relationship with the conspiracy theorist and occasional cook.
A growing number of companies, including Woolworths, Dymocks, and homewares retailer HOUSE, have also moved to remove Evans’ branded products from sale.
Evans last public comment on the matter was a social media post last night, in which he apologised to anyone who “misinterpreted” the well-known symbol.
