The former Channel 10 host has dropped a massive bombshell before entering the jungle for I’m A Celebrity…
TV Blackbox can confirm 100% Ajay Rochester is returning to Network 10 as a contestant in the new series of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. It’s a surprising move for the former host of The Biggest Loser who has openly criticised the network and show that made her a star.
Ajay’s foray into the jungle is bound to be controversial and entertaining, but will the network be happy having a celebrity on the payroll who is making explosive allegations about what happened behind the scenes on one of its biggest shows?
The Biggest Loser was a massive hit for the network with the first 4 seasons (hosted by Rochester) all averaging above the million mark. After her departure, the program saw a steady decline until it was eventually axed in 2017.
Channel 10, Shine (the production company) and Ajay did not part company on good terms. In fact Ajay has been very vocal about her displeasure many times, but these allegations are truly shocking to say the least.
During the making of The Biggest Loser, Ajay claims at least one contestant used cocaine to lose weight and producers did nothing to stop them.
According to Ajay, the contestant,
“would just stop eating and then dehydrate and arrive deathly ill, not able to stand up, shallow breathing, basically at near risk of death”.
Concerned, Ajay says she approached producers, saying;
“I don’t know whether we should have people who are into (cocaine) stepping on the stage”.
Their response was allegedly very blunt;
“We don’t want to know, we just want a good winner”.
The other contestants, frustrated, offered to submit to a drug test but Ajay says Producers dismissed the idea.
The allegations are part of an interview TV Blackbox has uncovered from 2014 when Ajay appeared on the I Love Green Guide Letters podcast with comedian Steele Saunders. The discussion is extremely raw and Ajay doesn’t hold back against producers and former contestants.
Talking about other tactics allegedly used to win the series, Ajay says another contestant was caught smuggling in tea tree oil. At the time Ajay didn’t understand why they would want so much of the product but a producer remarked;
“Oh yeah, people use that to throw up and clean their system out”.
Ajay has since learnt this method is incredibly dangerous as it’s a poison, but says as there was no rule against using tea tree oil producers let them continue. Ajay claims the contestant was,
“One of the most hated winners in the history of Biggest Loser”.
During the 4 seasons Ajay hosted The Biggest Loser it was a ratings winner for Network TEN, averaging over 1 million viewers per episode, but Ajay says she was miserable.
“There were rumours ‘oh she’s a diva’ and it wasn’t that I was a diva, it was just that I joined something that I believed was something very, very different and for altruistic reasons and then I found myself in Mein Kampf going ‘OH MY GOD”.
After Ajay’s departure the season average fell below the magic million mark for the first time ever.
“The only way to stay sane on that show was to go ‘this isn’t really a weight loss show, it’s like Gladiator with fat people’.”
Ajay has several issues with the production of the show, including some of the challenges contestants were put through;
“Here’s the irony of Biggest Loser; we’ve got all these people and we’re trying to tell them to change their lives and help them and lead them to lose all this weight. Then, we give an immunity challenge where they have 30 minutes to eat up to 150 liquor chocolates – the person who eats the most gets to stay”.
She believes producers crossed many lines during the production run;
“There’s nothing we didn’t do”
But it wasn’t just the challenges she took issue with, Ajay found herself at odds with producers over some of the lines they wanted her to say, citing one example when an Opera singer was eliminated;
“In my ear piece my producer’s going “Ajay, I want you to say; Well, it’s not over… will you give us a song’ and I’m standing there and I’m not saying anything at all, all the contestants are looking at me, all the cameramen are looking at me, she’s on the scales, she’s crying, she knows she’s going home and he’s going ‘Ajay, say it. Ajay, say it’ and I’m looking in the camera giving this ‘f**k you I’m not saying it’ and he goes ‘Ajay, it’s not over until you give us a song, will you sing for us’ and I must have stood there for like 10 minutes. He said ‘we’re not going anywhere until you say it’.”
She eventually relented and said it.
Now, as Ajay enters the jungle almost 10 years to the day after her break-up with network TEN, will she be a willing participant or will the so-called diva come out? One thing’s for sure, she will certainly liven up the camp!
To hear the Ajay in her own words subscribe to the TV Blackbox Podcast. We’ll be playing the audio from this rare interview when season 2 launches this week.
Co-Creator and Editor of the TV Blackbox website, Robert McKnight is highly regarded Australian Television Producer, he has worked at SEVEN, NINE and TEN, and is most well-known for creating and producing STUDIO 10. Currently Rob is the host and producer of the TV Blackbox, McKnight Tonight and Monsters Who Murder podcasts.
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