Online threats against MKR contestants
A contestant on My Kitchen Rules now regrets participating in the show, following online hatred and an indirect threat.
- Published by David Knox
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A contestant on Seven’s My Kitchen Rules now regrets participating in the show, following online hatred and an indirect threat.
Tasmanian contestant Melanie Maddock says her husband James received a phone call from a viewer.
“He got a call on his mobile a couple of days ago from a horrible man, who told us sarcastically to ‘keep up the good work’. This upset James greatly and has surprised and scared us that people have gone to the trouble of finding our phone number.”
It follows online hatred after the couple’s appearance in the Seven cooking series.
“I’ve had death threats on Facebook and things have become quite serious,” she said.
“The person who made the indirect threat was trying to find out how he could get our home address so he could send a threat in the mail.”
The experience has soured their participation, despite contestants from last year’s series vowing they would do it all over again.
“Yes (I have regrets about doing the series) as I did this to make my kids proud. I feel like they have been let down,” she says.
Online abuse is not uncommon for Reality TV contestants, particularly for shows that encourage viewers to champion some contestants over others.
Last year MasterChef‘s Joanne Zalm was also the target of violent threats.
A Seven spokesperson said the threats had been taken seriously and that the network had approached Facebook to have them removed.
Source: Sunday Telegraph
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24 Responses
I want to know please????
If lee and kane can cook anything “but” asian style food???
Why on earth don’t the judges put them all to a real test and have them complete the same dish and then lets see how they go with aussie cooking. It’s not hard when you keep doing the smae thing over and over again!!!
How sad can people get that they let a tv show affect their lives to the point where they will go out of their way to find out peoples personal details – Seriously get a life you watch too much tv.
I love the show. Manu & Pete are two wonderful judges and very sincere. Before we criticise anyone, always put yourself in their shoes and think would you have done any better than them. It’s nerve racking and I am sure they are all wonderful cooks, but sometimes when you try too hard and want to impress the crowd it can be a disaster. Continue the show and I look forward for more episodes. Hundred times better than Masterchef.
Just as the negative bloggers are entitled to their opinion, I must point out that Melanie and James are entitled to their own opinion too. We all have different tastes in people and food and what a boring world if we all nodded our heads in agreeance with everyone else.
I admire a person who can express what they believe in.
Shame on those people who resorted to sarcasm and threats towards complete strangers. You are bullies and need to take a good look at yourselves.
He who has no sins shall cast the first stone. Think about it, figure it out, and do something about it.
Great show and great entertainment, makes me smile and inspires me to do better than meat and veg.
I think that people have to realise that the people in these “reality shows” have to play a role. We all know that yet people still get upset when someone says something. As for people sending threats to the contestants i hope they get caught.
Reality wouldn’t be reality unless they had a villan and a hero in the plot. But really, I think more effort needs to be made to control what is posted on those blogs. There is no need for that sort of nastiness.
@Ben, 1.5M people would disagree with you about MKR being one of the worst shows on TV. It is not even in the ballpark of being one of the worst – it is slickly produced, well edited and entertaining. The judges are paid to pontificate and pass judgement, be it good or bad – they are meant to come across seriously as they are not hired to be stand-up comedians.
My kitchen rules is one of the worst shows on televison.
After watching the pontificating of the Judges when Stephania and Daniella presented their dishes last week i vowed never to watch the show again.
We have way too much cooking on our tvs. Crime, cooking and crappy american programs seem all that australia is interested in watching and also contests lets not forget those god awful contests.
Bring back some decent australian content Drama for instance. Australia lost their way in the 90’s and we have never really gotten back to making any good drama series
@Allie, Yes I feel exactly the same as you regarding Ms Maddock. Had a chuckle to myself at whipping up chorizo and buffalo mozzarella stuffed mushrooms after work…..Nice !!
Looking forward to the New teams this week :-))
Dare I say I like MKR better than Mastechef because it doesn’t take several months to air.
@Ruth. Totally agree with you, she is truly an insufferable know-all and many of her comments have been just plain stupid, particularly her ridiculous remark about the stuffed mushrooms being a typical meal you whip up at home, nothing special. Yeah, I often have a hankering to just casually whip up chorizo and buffalo mozzarella stuffed mushrooms just for the hell of it. Honestly, what an idiot. I was also aghast (but not overly surprised) at the overbearing way she ordered her husband around – and he just meekly did as he was told. Henpecked much?
I could understand this if the threats were made against the copiers, I mean creators of MKR
Sorry, but I am unable to feel sorry for Ms Maddock.
She is cringe worthy with her bossy, cocky know all attitude and her husband just does as he is told by her.
I guess the Network is loving it all…..
Unfortuately I sat cringing as I listened to all the whinging from my fellow tasmanians is this the best we have to represent our state. Lost me, I get controversial tele but that is just painful.
What do these attention seekers expect? You put yourself out there for the whole of Australia to see in a show that screams ‘look at me’, of course you’re going to get some negative feedback and taunts. Welcome to the real world where not everyone loves you.
I don’t condone threats, but it is a fact of life when you go on a reality show. Though I would hardly call ‘‘keep up the good work’ a threat. Honestly, they should grow a thicker skin and stop milking this for the free publicity and personal exposure.
I didnt like Melanies comments at all. Times they were not called for and she has said some stupid things.
But to take the time to find there phone number and call and make threats is way over the top. She hasnt killed anyone or really harmed nayone. Its just a cooking show. The other contestants wont really care what she says about them. Thye know what shes like.
Its just taken things a bit far with death threats.
it is a shame that some people cant tell the difference between TV and real life when you sign up to be on TV you would expect some cricsism but you should niot have to put up with threats
I dont see how “Keep up the good work’ is a threat or taken harshly.
Mel, that may have been your one and only fan you pi**ed off there!!
Sorry, I have very little sympathy for either her or her husband. Once you agree to take part in a reality series, you have to accept that the general public is going to become familiar with you and take an interest in you. Sorry, you’ve just got to take the lumps that go with your 15 minutes of fame. I think Ms Maddock is quite awful. Her comments are needlessly nasty and she is a fool if she though she could get away with making comments like that without riling viewers. Of course, she is casting agent gold, reality series producers love highly controversial contestants like this. The SA couple were their equivalent last season, but not even they were as outright offensive and negative as Ms Maddock is. As for her husband, he is a boring cipher, I pay barely any attention to him as he is so forgettable.
Seriously, who is so enraged by a cooking show that they make threats against somebody?
Why is it that some people seem unable to differentiate between reality and “reality TV”? It’s okay to hate a contestant on a TV show as long as that hatred doesn’t spill over into real life.
I’d like to imagine that these are the sort of people who try to track down somebody like Ben Linus from Lost. “He was just so horrible! I had to find him in the real world and tell him what I thought! It turns out he was fictional and the man I yelled at was an actor but I think I made my point!”
Will they get rid of mkr
Seriously some people (the ones making the threats) need to get a life!
Criticism is okay, but threats are stupid & unwarranted as these shows go through heavy post-production & editing anyway for dramatic effect. Some people think they know how everyone else should behave, they think they are upstanding citizens when they need to take a good look at themselves & their behaviour.
there are some weirdos in the world. it’s only a tv show for crying out loud
Sad when the public can’t seperate their lives from a TV show !