Seven axes chef Pete Evans from $800,000 role on My Kitchen Rules
Amid rolling controversies involving the self-styled health guru, Seven has axed Pete Evans from his $800,000 role on MKR.
Celebrity chef Pete Evans has been axed from his $800,000 contract with Channel 7 to cooking show My Kitchen Rules following the show’s plunging ratings and rolling controversies involving the self-styled health expert.
Channel 7 insiders confirmed to The Daily Telegraph on Friday that the broadcaster has “amicably parted ways” with Mr Evans, who has appeared on all 11 seasons of the show since it premiered in 2010.
No official statement is expected to be made, nor has any announcement been made about Mr Evans fellow judges on the show, Colin Fassnidge or Manu Feildel.
The recent dive in the show’s ratings during the 2020 season is said to be one reason behind the decision, with the show drawing about half the expected eyeballs during its run, battling to get above 500,000 metro viewers.
Another reason is the recent controversy Evans has courted after being fined $25,000 by the Therapeutic Goods Administration for promoting a “light machine” he claimed could be used to treat COVID-19.
In a bizarre promotion during a Facebook livestream in April, Evans claimed a device called the BioCharger was “a pretty amazing tool” that has “a thousand different recipes and a couple on there for Wuhan coronavirus.”
The device — named the BioCharger NG — was being sold through Evans’s website for US$14,990 ($23,617), with a US$500 discount for his followers.
Billed as a “hybrid subtle energy revitalisation platform,” the Biocharger’s manufacturer Advance Biotechnologies says the device uses “four transmitted energies” to “stimulate and invigorate the entire body to optimise and improve potential health, wellness, and athletic performance”.
However, Biotechnologies does not claim their flagship product is a medical device that can cure coronavirus, instead stating it is “a subtle energy revitalisation platform that wirelessly projects pulsed electromagnetic energy through a predefined range of frequencies.”
The TGA hit Evans with a $25,200 fine on April 26, releasing the following statement:
“The TGA received a number of complaints about the promotion of a ‘BioCharger’ device that occurred during a Facebook live stream on 9 April 2020.
“Mr Evans allegedly live streamed on his Facebook page, which has more than 1.4 million followers, claims that the device could be used in relation to “Wuhan coronavirus” — a claim which has no apparent foundation, and which the TGA takes extremely seriously.”
Evans has a long history of making controversial pseudo scientific statements.
In addition to the fine, the TGA also issued two infringement notices to his company Peter Evans Chef Pty Ltd.
Mr Evans said he would be appealing against the TGA fine and the decision was now with his lawyers.
“The claims made by the TGA are totally unfounded and we will be strongly defending these claims,” Mr Evans said. “It is now in the hands of my lawyers.”
In 2015, Evans authored a paleo cookbook which featured a recipe for a breastmilk replacement for babies made out of chicken liver and bone broth. The Public Health Association of Australia said babies could potentially die from ingesting the nutritionally imbalanced mixture.
He has also attracted controversy by promoting the work of an American anti-vaccination activist Robert F Kennedy Jr.
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