The Voice Australia: Boy George took pay cut before being dropped from coaching panel

Boy George has opened up about his axing from The Voice and has revealed he even took a pay cut to appear on the show this year.

Boy George has opened up about his axing from The Voice Australia and has revealed he even took a pay cut to appear on the show this year.

The British star was set to appear on the show again in 2021 — but that all changed when it was announced in August that Channel 7 had secured the rights to the show.

“Truth is, I kindly took a pay cut from @TheVoiceAU because of the corona,” Boy George tweeted this morning. “I am also decent, and they agreed to have me next season. If I had known they would swap networks I still would have taken a financial hit because I’m decent and I never burn bridges!”

The Voice coaching line-up is set for a shake-up.

RELATED: Backlash after Chris Sebastian wins The Voice 2020

The Voice is set for a shake-up on Seven with the network’s Director of Programming, Angus Ross, saying in August: “Our plans to supercharge the format are well underway”.

The new format will feature a new coaching line-up with TV Blackbox reporting Aussie singers Tones and I and Ricki-Lee Coulter will both join the show.

It appears unlikely Boy George and Kelly Rowland, who today announced she is pregnant, will return to the program.

Guy Sebastian and Delta Goodrem have so far refused to comment about whether they’ll be involved.

Channel 7 is looking to slash the production costs to $20 million which is half of what Channel 9 is rumoured to have spent on the show.

At least $10 million of Seven’s budget will go towards securing a megastar coach, with the network reportedly chasing Mariah Carey.

There’s a chance Seven could announce the identity of at least some of the coaches at its 2021 Upfront event which is scheduled to take place on October 21.

So far the only thing that’s confirmed about The Voice 2021 is that Sonia Kruger will host the program.

Tones and I is rumoured to be joining The Voice.

Ricki Lee Coulter for The Voice? Picture: Jonathan Ng

BOY GEORGE’S OTHER COMMENTS

This isn’t the first time Boy George has tweeted about his alleged dumping from The Voice for 2021.

In early September, the singer reacted to an article in the Daily Mail with the headline “Seven dumps international Voice coaches in favour of local singers”.

He tweeted: “I’ve never been ‘dumped’ by a network. My nipples are hard!”

The star offered up more oh-so-Boy-George pearlers in follow-up tweets, telling one follower that Seven “can’t afford me darling”. Advised to “hang in there” by one fan, he quipped: “Yeah I’m down to my last jar of metaphorical caviar. Can I move into your spare bedroom?”

Boy George also tweeted about an article suggesting Channel 7 was chasing Mariah Carey to appear on the show next year. He simply wrote: “She ain’t doing it!”

Boy George on The Voice.

And when another article suggested that Channel 7, which is hoping to cut down on production costs, had approached Lorde to appear on the show, Boy George tweeted: “If the The Voice AU are suggesting that Lorde is cheaper than me then today is a great day! Lol!”