Cult-trio George Calombaris, Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan shocked Australia last night when they announced they would not be returning as judges on Channel Ten cooking show MasterChef, due to a pay dispute.
WATCH: Judges George Calombaris, Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan are leaving MasterChef
According to The Daily Telegraph, Matt, George and Gary attempted to negotiate a 40 per cent pay increase and a small portion of international profits, which Channel Ten presumably denied.
Now, the publication has stated that Australias most famous faces in food are headed towards a lucrative multi-million dollar deal with streaming giant Netflix or Amazon Prime.
George, Gary and Matt recently formed their own production company GGM Pty Ltd, which they used to try and sell themselves as a package deal to Ten. According to the network’s chief executive Paul Anderson, the ‘package deal’ approach made contract negotiations “difficult”.
Mr Anderson also denied that network Ten were planning on axing George Calombaris following the wage scandal after the Greek chef was fined for underpaying his staff almost $8 million.
The three judges have insisted the contract dispute was “never about the money” and more about garnering more time off their shoot schedule, with chef Gary Mehigan stating on Tuesday night: “Was never about the money and never will be about the money.
“But [sic] more free time to explore our own creativity”.
“The opportunity to work with Matt and George has been a blessing and something I cherish,” Gary continued.
“Working together will continue to be the most important thing for us … the three musketeers.”
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
