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Seven wins Mel B case

Seven has won the case to prevent Melanie Brown from joining Australia's Got Talent.

2013-04-18_0946Seven has won the case to prevent Melanie Brown from joining Australia’s Got Talent on Nine this year.

The Sydney Supreme Court handed down its decision this morning.

Justice David Hammerschlag gave both parties thirty minutes to look over the judgement to see if they have any objections to publication of his findings.

He also found that Seven’s Brad Lyons was a plausible witness.

A hearing for costs will take place later.

Neither Melanie Brown nor husband and manager, Stephen Belafonte, attended the court this morning.

In a statement Seven said, “Seven Network welcomes the decision of the court upholding its contract with Mel B and preventing her working for a competitor in breach of contract in 2013.”

There is speculation Nine will announce Geri Halliwell as a likely replacement for the show, due to air later this year.

49 Responses

  1. How many contracts does Kyle Sandilands breach yet he’s still keeps his job! I’m sure one of the contract clauses for AGT was “don’t reveal to public before the announcement” yet he told all his radio listening audience the morning before the ads aired.

  2. why are Australian talent shows getting judges from oversea’s?? it is Australia’s got talent yet the only Australian judge isn’t even talented… (kyle sandi pants)

  3. I feel for Mel B.. obviously she won’t be appearing on anything out here this year as Seven don’t have anything for her. This was Seven trying to stop Nine from gaining one of ‘their’ more popular personalities. Clearly Sandilands wasn’t on a similar contract with Seven or Seven just didn’t care to see him go.

  4. Seven did release Mel B from her contract for
    The X Factor, as she asked, if she agreed not to work for another Australian network till 2014.

    Most of the case hinged on whether or not those terms, which her agent agreed to, were emailed properly.

    Seven didn’t want to build up her profile up and then have her use it to compete against them. Mel B is free to work anywhere else but for a rival Australian TV network till 2014.

  5. Channel 9 have to be blamed for this, surely Mel B has a copy of the contract with 7 so why didn’t channel 9 check the contents before they signed her, typical of 9 to jump in feet first just to say they have pinched something or someone from another channel but they don’t do their homework, don’t have time anymore for 9 and there pathetic pettiness anymore, in my opinion they are like little children in their ways, gone are the days when it was a channel to look up to.

  6. I was looking forward to the Dawn French/ Mel B angle. Given that French’s comedy partner Jen Saunders wrote the Viva musical I’m sure Dawn and mel have had whispers and maybe that’s been an in-industry thing? Now that she’s out, I bet 9 are hoping to recruit someone as sure fire as Scary Spice as I’m sure Dawn was looking forward to having an ex pat pal on the panel. 9 will have to do their hard yards to meet with a similar panelist to make Dawny feel at home. I’m not saying Dawn French can’t hold her own, but thousands of miles from home and sat on a panel I’m sure a bit of homegrown talent (UK) would have sweetened the deal for her. I’d hate to see her say alongside Sandilands and just other B grade Australian talent – past singing talent show contestants.

  7. Archer – AGT requires a much smaller commitment than X-Factor. As David has pointed out before, she could fly to Australia each week for the live shows if she wanted to, which is something that she can’t do as a mentor on X-factor. From memory, Kyle Sandilands flew back and forth almost weekly between LA and Sydney for AGT in one of the seasons.

  8. Mel can’t do X Factor – two of her kids’ fathers won’t sign their Visa application forms, so unless she’s happy to leave the kids behind for 3-4 months while she works in Australia, she’s unavailable. If Seven has her on a retainer, then she’ll be paid the retainer fee until January. She’ll have to find some other source of income in the meantime, since Seven have nothing else for her. Seven could have released Mel from her contract (given the circumstances), but clearly, they’ve chosen not to and will now be expecting Mel to cover their court costs. Nine might now decide to pursue a case against Mel for breach of contract. The decent thing for Seven to do now would be to come to some sort of financial settlement with Mel so that she’s free to work elsewhere.

  9. im very interested in ch9’s response. they have made some statements over the last few weeks that should leave them very red faced now. Their original defence could have been that Mel misrepresented herself (which would be bull, the shows are made by the same company, i find it difficult to believe that there was no way to check if she was still signed to another network) but even after the case had been heard in court and all the cards were on the table they still thought she could win – as seen in the release announcing julia as host.
    to quote judge judy: ‘You’re either playing dumb, or it’s not an act.’

  10. I’m confused. So why did Nine bother to get her, when auditions have already begun across the nation? Or are these “auditions” not the ones shown on TV? I’m confused. Some clarification will be greatly appreciated. =)

    1. It isn’t clear what Brown’s party told Nine in their dealings, let’s wait for the publication of the judgement. Auditions so far are only with producers as preliminary. The show has not filmed any with judges yet.

  11. I agree with the consensus that Mel’s actions have made her appear transparent. If Seven keep her on air, I can’t imagine it to be on The X Factor: Australia.

    This is certainly the first time in my life where I can actually declare that the justice system got it right.

  12. Shocker! What does this mean now? Mel B not appearing on anything at all now – if so not sure if that’s the right outcome. Or is she’s going back to X factor and Ronan is now the only male, and then Aus got talent has to change all their promos and say sorry for telling people the wrong thing, and now get somebody to replace her?

  13. So glad Seven won. They kicked started her languishing career and she did that to them. She is damaged goods in Australia and Nine should not even look at her for next year. Yes, this is harsh but I was her biggest fan and feel let down.

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