Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan switch to Seven
Former Masterchef judges Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan will star in a new TV show on a new network. So where does that leave their old mate George Calombaris?
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Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan are cooking up a new television show with Seven in 2020.
George Calombaris won’t be mentioned, but expect to hear Seven’s newly appointed honcho James Warburton serving up the old favourites at Channel 7’s upfronts next Wednesday night.
Warburton, the former chief executive at Network Ten, is understood to have been keen to snap up Preston and Mehigan to reinvigorate the Seven network.
Preston, Mehigan and Calombaris were shown the door by Channel 10 in July after contract negotiations stalled.
Conjecture was that the failed talks came down to more money, but for once it wasn’t all about dollar bills. The tipping point was about having freedom to do other work outside of filming and production on the reality cooking show with Ten.
A shiny new cooking format with Seven — post next year’s Tokyo Olympics — was just too tempting. The network is also understood to be willing to add a little sugar to the contracts.
Seven regards itself as the “roast chicken” network and wants to pull the family back to the small screen.
Warburton “is bringing back the roast chicken menu,” says a Seven insider, “but adding a little zing”.
TOO MANY COOKS FOR THE KITCHEN?
My Kitchen Rules’ Pete Evans, Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge are great mates with the former MasterChef boys and catch up with them when they can.
Preston said this week that he could confirm he was “talking to other networks and producers about new projects for 2020 and beyond”.
Taking over MKR as host and judge was not on the menu, Preston said. “I have too much love for Manu, Colin and Pete to do that.”
Preston and Mehigan’s appetite has been whetted by the form of the new Channel 7 offering.
ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL?
Dubbed the three musketeers, the three former MasterChef judges were all for one and one for all when their contracts came up for renewal after 11 years on Network Ten’s reality cooking series.
All three are contracted to the network until the end of the year, but each has a different “hold back” agreement, which determines how long they have to wait before signing with other commercial networks in Australia. Calombaris reportedly has a longer holdback clause than Mehigan and Preston, which would have held back a new show on another network.
However, several Seven insiders say Calombaris was off the list after being fined $200,000 for underpaying staff, despite self-reporting the underpayments.
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BARTHOLOMEW’S TWEET ROW STILL UP IN AIR
Calombaris isn’t sweating, well no more than usual, over a hot stove, launching his cookbook, Just George, at Brighton’s Hellenic Republic this week, saying he is ready to keep cooking up a storm.
Loyal guests were in tears over their loukoumades as Calombaris vowed he was back doing what he loved — and back in the kitchen where it all started. Opa!