Overshadowed by controversy, Masterchef grand final drops 24% from last year

Shortly after it was announced all three of its long-time hosts would be dropped amid pay disputes and controversy over George Calombaris’ wages scandal, Masterchef aired its grand final winner announcement on Ten to 992,000 metro viewers.

This was a 24% drop on last year’s winner announcement, which had 1.309m. The episode itself was also down, drawing 831,000 metro viewers compared to 1.126m last year.

Ten had announced just hours before the final aired that it would be Calombaris, Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan’s final year as judges with the program, which they’ve been with for its entire 11 season run. The reason cited was a pay dispute, with rumours circling the trio were asking for an upwards of 40% increase on their current fee. This was backed up by Instagram posts run across all three judges’ profiles, which said they felt they’d needed to walk away after the negotiations broke down.

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