★★★★★ 0/5

Biggest Loser loses Ajay Rochester

UPDATED: It's official. Ajay Rochester will not be returning to The Biggest Loser, after TEN decides not to renew her contract.

44
Leave a comment

ajr23It’s official.

Ajay Rochester will no longer be fronting The Biggest Loser for Network TEN.

TEN indicates she will pursue new interests.

The announcement from TEN confirms ongoing speculation about her continuation on the show following media stories following her welfare fraud case and last week the separation with management Mark Morrissey.

Rochester, who avoided conviction and received a 12-month good behaviour bond, has hosted the show for TEN since its Australian debut in 2006.

TEN’s chief programming officer, David Mott, said: “Ajay has been a valued member of The Biggest Loser family and we wish her well.

“This year’s new ‘couples’ format was a big winner. It delivered more layered and inspirational stories and added drama for our viewers.

“We‘re looking forward to inviting a new host to join Shannon and Michelle in The Biggest Loser team and pushing the envelope even further with our 2010 series.”

In announcing the news today, TEN conveniently neglects to clarify whether Rochester quit the series, was not renewed by the network or reached a mutual position.

Significantly, there is no statement from Rochester in the official press release.

Other media stories on Rochester recently speculated she was not invited to the Logie Awards by the network, and there were rumours of on-set ‘freebie gifts’ being reported. Despite some tarnishing of her brand this year, the show  still pulled a whopping 2.09m for its finale and peaked at 2.33m viewers -which would look nice on any resume.

TEN says an announcement of a new host and the hunt for new contestants will unfold in the coming months
as production resumes.

2008 runner up Alison Braun has been widely tipped to take her place.

UPDATED: Following this report TEN advised “We have decided not to renew Ajay’s contract in order to head in a different direction for 2010.”

44 Responses

  3. Not surprised by this. Didn’t like her much after her fraud thing. TBL will be different without Ajay. Hope they’ll be able to find a better host.

  4. Best TV news I have heard all year.

    AJ is getting so up herself these days – her blog post spells out exactly how self obsessed she is. Maybe if she hadn’t been so useless and taken whole days to film 10 minute sequences (as has been reported elsewhere) maybe she could have spent more time on other ‘important’ things!

    PS – you couldn’t say ‘it’s time to cut the fat’ properly anyway!!

  6. Ajay told today’s Herald Sun that she made her intention “to leave very clear early on”. She said she would fly to the US in June 11 and had “no intention” of coming back. She had also sent her latest book about autism and pitched a couple of TV shows to the US.

  8. David i have something for you. its ajays reply after all this has happened, i got it of her site, and here it is:)
    Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!
    Today is a great day! Wooooooohhhhhoooooooo!!!!! Freeeee at last! Now to focus on the important life changing issues at hand. I will never ever have to say ‘it’s time to cut the fat;’ again! omg!!!!!! Joy of joys. Now to focus on autism awareness, helping our kids, getting people healthy and changing the world.
    It’s a good day and I look forward to people geting to know the real me……………..I am so excited.
    Watch out world…here I come….

    1. Thanks Ryan….let’s not get too carried away with Twitter comments, although it is making many of us re-think the way we report info. The thing is it can’t be so quickly verified (although I see that didn’t stop some media outlets running the same info). If I had published some info on one Twitter site last week then I would have been running a story on “Idol Sacks Dicko’ but it turned out to be a prank. Instead I checked a source which denied it and moved on. Twitter could allow many celebs a platform to speak their mind, and directly to their audience, if it ultimately proves reliable in the long term.

  12. thats sad. Ajay was doing a great job and should have stayed. big shame. I would not like to see allison hosting next year, maybe someone that hasnt had a past weight loss battle. Sarah Wilson is fantastic for masterchef, they should find someone like her.

  15. So if this year’s series win an award (e.g. most popular reality series) at the 2010 TV Week Logie Awards, who is going to accept it?

  16. Bring back the american trainers – bob and jillian were better than the two others and I agree Magda would be a fun host – ajay rochestoer was like a robot – no emotion in her commentary and soooooo boring.

    I really would prefer if this show wasnt renewed – it is soooo not what we should be encouraging for people who want to lose weight – incentives like money and fame should not be incentives for people to lose weight – and how many of the contestants on this show have regained the weight once the show is over – I guarantee network ten doesnt give two hoots for these poor devils once the lights go out on the season finale – all their concerned about is who they will recruit for next year’s show – its quite shameful really

  17. If not Allison Braun then Meaghan or Tiffany from this year’s show would be great choices. Or Cosi – at least he knows how to be in front of a microphone.

Leave a Reply