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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.

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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

  1. Magda as host of TBL. Sounds like a great idea.

    Rebel, as much as I love her, I think she still needs room to grow as a personality and develop another series – this would distract her from her comedy.

    Magda would be a perfect role model, funny, everyone knows her and loves her. If Ten got her it would be a real coup.

    The only thing would be – would her work on Kath & Kim conflict with her being a host? I guess she could work around it?

  4. I hope they get Allison – the show should not be about the host and she seems genuine. Hopefully they will get rid of the horrible “time to cut the fat” type lines. I think 10 did a great job with the host of masterchef – she just moves things along beautifully.

  5. Alison deserves to be host of the show, shes perfect for it! Shes been through it all and understands it all – Maybe she could be a mentor as well as a host. And the money will do her a world of good!

  6. I really liked Ajay. She understood how hard this caper is and you often see her weight yo yo throughout the show. I think 10 may have had enough of the incidents of late with Ajay. Anyway it didn’t hurt the ratings so there may be things happening behind the scenes we are not aware of

    I think Magda would be a great idea but Alison, not sure how she would go………….

  11. She is just really a fame seeking opportunist. It’s written all over her past, her books, her weightloss documentary on SBS and her lying about how much weight she has lost.

    TBL should gain from having a genuine, natural and considerate host.

  12. I just hope this doesn’t have fatal consequences like big brother I would like to see Alison as the new host please god don’t let Jackie O anywhere near TBL

  13. looks like allison will get a shot hopefully. she’s the most popular finalist that i’ve ever seen and when she was back in that episode, she seemed to genuinely care about the other contestants… only one way to find out…

  15. TEN advised “We have decided not to renew Ajay’s contract in order to head in a different direction for 2010.”

    Yeah – the direction where the host is not the story but rather the show and the contestants

  16. I’ve never been a fan of her work on the show. She sounds like a robot sometimes when she delivers her lines. I think they can find someone better.

  18. Ajay was safe and not really offensive. I don’t really understand why they would create the possibility of an annoying new host turning viewers off.

  19. I know they’re the trainers, but I reckon Shannon and Michelle do a really good job. Any chance they could host and we could get Bob and Gillian back to train? 🙂

  20. ohh bad decision, having ajay as host has not damaged the show at all! if anything it has improved it. lets just hope they dont do a big brother and give us a s**t house host and then the ratings will drop off and it will be axed!!

  23. Oh no! Who will they get to do a terrible job of reading an autocue with unnatural pauses and half-arsed attempts at dramatic inflection now?!?!?!?!

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