New Delhi: For many food enthusiasts who spent a good portion of the last 11 years waiting for, and then ardently watching, the latest season of MasterChef Australia, today marks the end of an era.
In an announcement made by Network Ten Tuesday, the much-loved and celebrated judging trio, Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris, have been dropped from the popular cooking competition.
The news hit the headlines the day when the 11th season’s finale is set to go on air. Fans have to now reconcile with the fact that the episode will be Preston, Mehigan and Calombaris’ last appearance on the show.
The news also conspicuously follows the revelation that Calombaris’ MAdE Establishment — an umbrella of restaurants in Australia — underpaid over 500 current and former employees by a staggering $7.8 million in wages between 2011 and 2017.
However, in an official statement, Network Ten CEO Paul Anderson explained the decision as arising from the networks’ inability to “reach commercial agreement that was satisfactory to Matt, Gary and George”.
Preston, Mehigan and Calombaris issued statements on their respective social media platforms Tuesday. While Mehigan and Preston said they “could not” and “were unable” to agree with Network Ten on all conditions for the 2020 contract, Calombaris stated their “dates didn’t align”.
“To explain,” Mehigan also 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”.
The money factor
According to a report by The Sydney Morning Herald, however, money does appear to have something to do with it.
“The trio — each on salaries in excess of $1 million — walked after (Network) 10 refused to up their pay by more than 40 per cent,” the report said.
MasterChef Australia was wildly successful, both domestically in the host nation as well as abroad — including in India.
In 2018, Network Ten and Multi-Channel Network (MCN) secured a record number of partners for the tenth season, which included “returning principal partner Coles and partners Harvey Norman, Cadbury, Holden, Cobram Estate, Diageo, a2 Milk, Jacob’s Creek and Bulla,” Ad News reported.
Nearly 1.74 million Australians have watched that year’s finale, making it the number one in its time-slot for a wide-ranging demographic of viewers between 25-54 years of age.
On Facebook in 2016, MasterChef Australia was enjoying an average total weekly reach of 6.23 million people, up by 86 per cent from the previous year.
“It wouldn’t be a good look for George to be insisting on more money at this point,” a network insider told The Sunday Morning Herald, also predicting that the wage scandal would restrict his ability to negotiate a pay raise.
The wage scandal
A four-year-long investigation last week found that Calombaris’ empire failed to pay its employees overtime, additional hourly rates for casual workers, superannuation and other allowances worth $7.8 million.
Calombaris’ conglomerate had to pay a ‘contrition payment’ (fine) of a mere $200,000 to Fair Work Ombudsman, but the penalty came with calls by various workers’ unions and his former employees to be “taken off MasterChef”.
Fair Work Ombudsman is an Australian government agency that gives information and advice about workplace rights.
National secretary of United Voice trade union in Australia Jo-anne Schofield told The Guardian, “For the seriousness of this crime, a $200,000 fine is not sufficient.”
“If someone deliberately took $1,000 out of someone else’s bank account, there would be a high likelihood of a criminal conviction for theft. But when you’re a multi-millionaire restaurateur/celebrity chef you can take $7.83m in wages from your workers and get away with a ‘contrition payment’,” she said.
“And you get to keep your TV show, your huge profile and mansion and keep raking in cash off the back of hardworking chefs, waitstaff and bartenders,” she added.
While approximately 160 people were back-paid a total of $2.6 million by Calombaris’ empire, the damage to his reputation was done: Over 25,000 people signed a petition demanding he be fired from MasterChef Australia.
That was not all. Tourism WA, which hired Calombaris to feature in television advertisements and online content, cancelled his contract, and a magazine ,which had put him on its cover shortly after the scandal broke out, was criticised on social media.
While many fans simply lamented the loss of the three familiar faces from their favourite cooking show, other viewers were more sceptical of the reasons behind the decision.
Pity to see Gary and Matt go, shame George 'Wage theft' Calombaris had to take them down with him #MasterChefAU #MasterTheft
— Alikari (@ElwattoAus) July 23, 2019
https://twitter.com/_ant_one_/status/1153550825202937858
Also read: How black ops training led this Indian-origin homecook to Masterchef Australia triumph