Masterchef or Masterconspiracy?
Disclaimer: I know Mat Byer via twitter and the Melbourne food blogging network, however I haven’t spoken to him about the incident nor the contents of this post. These are my thoughts alone and definitely not his, nor any other contestant current or prior.
So, according to the Herald Sun they’ve expelled Mat from Masterchef after he was found to have a smart phone, contrary to the rules. And they’ve had to “bring back” an already eliminated contestant to fill out the numbers.
Really?
Ok – so kick Mat off if you need to, but do they need to bring back an already eliminated contestent? They have had an elimination challenge that ended with no one being eliminated before, they could have a challenge just to stretch the contestants skills (aka UK Masterchef) – they didn’t *need* to being back anyone.
But it seems that they want to.
Any bets that it will be Jay?
And if it is – that would be a great conundrum as Jay appears to has accessed Facebook (which may also be in breach of the rules) prior to their airing the show where he was eliminated.
On 3rd June this conversation appeared between what appears to be Jay’s facebook profile and a friend of mine. Jay was eliminated on the show that aired on 6th June.
And on the 6th of June, this appeared on what appears to be Hayden’s facbook page (it has been deleted subsequently):-
So what’s the real story? Any other mad theories out there? Is Hayden out of the competition?
UPDATE:
Reality Ravings has posted about the incident here.
And The Age has followed up on the original article here.
ABC has written about the Herald Sun story here.
From Series 2, I remember that part of the reason for not having contact with ‘the outside world’ was so the contestants couldn’t find out how they were perceived by television audiences, and presumably, tweak that perception.
Comment from: lassescookTV
I must be a hardcore conspiracy theorist as I think this is Channel 10’s way to drumming up more publicity. They may have found Mat with the phone, in which they could easily have just released an official press release to say why he has been kicked off the show. Instead we get dribs and drabs of the so-called story and here we all are talking about it. And why do they need to bring back a contestant after saying no contestant would be brought back this season? They must have waited to gauge public opinion about contestants before deciding who to bring back.
That’s my conspiracy theory of the conspiracy theory. 🙂
Comment from: Thanh
I actually bumped into Matt Monday last week in Dicks Smiths in Prahran. He didn’t let much out but it appeared he was very much in the competition andI thought it seemed he’d done the NY thing. Anyway, he wasn’t able to talk about the show and was saying how full on it was in the house for all those months without a phone. We even talked about Chris Badenoch and his alleged use of an iPhone without Matt flinching.
The question is though – if he has been kicked out who leaked the story to the Herald Sun? News Ltd has close affiliations with Matt Preston writing for its mags and papers and because it publishes Masterchef Magazine.
I wonder if Matt Por somebody else leaked it? If so it’s really not fair because I guess under the contractual terms for contestants Matt is unable to defend himself.
Comment from: Ed
Jay was working at Ms G’s when rest were in NYC (I think) from Dan Hong’s tweets.
What a waste of 7 months – certainly no fun with those conditions.
Comment from: Thermomixer
Hi Amy, as Essjay said, I’m of the understanding that contestants are allowed to go public only after they are eliminated in the aired episodes. Tom has been on Twitter promoting his business since he was eliminated, but Jay’s tweet went out before the ep aired (sure, he’d have been on the outside for a while by then, but I think they are on a short leash as to public comment).
I’d rather not see Jay back. I’d rather seem them all go and we will never talk of this disappointing season again!
The whole idea of them being cut off with limited access to friends and family is a huge failing of the show, in my opinion. For a start, it limits contenders to those who have the means/will to go through an unaired Big Brother in addition to a circus-style cooking show.
Comment from: Injera
[…] here is an interesting blog post on the issue from Melbourne Food Blogger Essjay Eats she reckons Jay will be brought back in. […]
Pingback from: Mat Beyer Kicked Off Masterchef – But What Happened? | reality ravings
Hi Amy, as they aren’t allowed to be “public” about things until after the shows they are in have aired – and I think for this season it was “radio silence” until the end of the actual season.
Comment from: essjayeats
“On 3rd June this conversation appeared between Jay and a friend of mine. Jay was eliminated on the show that aired on 6th June.”
How is that dodgy? If the episode we saw him eliminated was 6th June then in real time he would have been out of the comp 4-6 weeks before that.
Comment from: Amy
Hi Karen, the Herald Sun story is very careful not to say that he was accused of doing anything with the phone, only that he *could*.
Comment from: essjayeats
It seems very strange. Is he actually accused of having done anything with the phone? I have often noticed that he is not shown much in the footage, not even showing his finished dishes to the judges, when he obviously still passed the test. Have they downplayed his presence in the show because they knew? Who knows, interesting. I wonder how long he has to stay quiet for?
Comment from: Brewers_Wife