Posts Tagged ‘ajay rochester’

The Biggest Loser Australia returns tomorrow night, 7.30pm. Presumably to try and dodge some of the mauling My Kitchen Rules has been inflicting on it in the ratings.

But off in America-land they’ve been dealing with something of a controversy arising from their most recent series finale. Winner Rachel Frederickson shed over 60 percent of her body weight to take both the title and the record for most weightloss by percentage in any season worldwide.

Naturally this has drawn a past contestant of our own out of the woodwork, along with perennial fingerpointer and former host Ajay Rochester.

First we have season 3 contestant Andrew ‘Cosi’ Costello, who spills the beans on the fake weigh in scales used for TV and that it’s not always exactly a week between weigh ins. Hardly surprising news to most folk, though the time between weigh ins is something one would hope they’ve worked on in recent seasons.

Ajay’s back too, with her claims of contestants drinking tea tree oil and dehydrating themselves to a dangerous extent. She’s offering online consultations to help people lose weight, which seems a little ridiculous given she can’t keep her own weight under control. It’s a tough struggle, no doubt, but if she doesn’t have the answers for herself why would people trust her advice? Bit odd.

Before I link to the story I feel it’s important to warn there’s a picture of Ajay in a bikini and a picture of Rachel Frederickson at the finale. Both may be disturbing to some viewers!

You can read the full story here on The Daily Mail website.

The biggest piece of Biggest Loser news from the last few months is that White Team trainer Tiffiny Hall will not be returning to the show next year. She’s leaving the door open for a return in the 2014 season but at this stage she’s taking time off to work on her writing and other projects. [Source]

Producers are saying they’ll stick to three trainers for the 2013 season with Tiff’s absence but you all know what The Biggest Loser is like. Don’t be surprised if there’s a super secret team. My fingers are crossed they don’t call Emazon back up, if so…

In other trainer news, Michelle Bridges has said on Twitter that her leg is back up to full strength after her very bad hamstring tear earlier in the year. So she’ll be in fine buttkicking form once taping of the show starts.

Lastly, in a blog post today former host Ajay Rochester has let rip on Season 1 winner Adro Sarnelli after he posted some apparently rather hurtful comments regarding the overweight and obese members of society, including a mention of “Ajay who?”. Ajay makes reference to the post and replies at length, including some quite scandalous behind the scenes details, though she has not reprinted the original comments that sparked the tirade. Adro deleted them some time after they were posted but they are doing the rounds of the former contestants and a copy was passed on to Ajay.

It’s somewhat of a long read but it’s fascinating and worth checking out. Read the blog post in full on Ajay’s site.

I feel a little queasy just at the thought of chugging tea tree oil, yet I can’t help wondering which former contestant is being referred to there…

If you’ve seen any other interesting Biggest Loser news, feel free to drop a link in the comments section below!

On Ajay’s blog – attached to her ChasingOprah site – she’s explained things from her side of the fence. Everything from her “stealing” from The Biggest Loser set to the reality behind her recent court case to the supreme douchebaggery of the paparazzi, all in her own words for the first time.

The court case you saw in January 09 was not all you have read about. What you didn’t read is that I was the one who had approached Centrelink over 4 years ago, before Biggest Loser ever aired on TV and told them that, as I had slowly pieced my life back together after the tragic suicide of my mother, I discovered the possibility that I might have received payments over what I was supposed to. It happens to a lot of people or so I have been told by others in similar situations to me.

It’s a long read, but worth the trouble if you want to hear Ajay’s side of things, without the filter the media forces on everything we usually read.

Read Ajay’s blog entry here.

You could also follow Ajay on Twitter.

It seems if you repeat a rumour often enough, it comes true? Or even a really dumb rumour can become true if some really dumb people are in charge?

Whatever the cause, reports are now coming in that next year Biggest Loser Australia will be getting a new host as Ajay Rochester has been dumped, apparently as a result of her recent legal woes and a desire by Channel 10 for the show to go “in a different direction”.

Why Ajay couldn’t’ve been retained for a “new direction” is not made clear in any of the stories I can find. Perhaps Channel 10 have bought into the whole “Ajay has the emotional range of a lump of wood” school of thought.

Of course the muckrakers have come out of the woodwork already. One news report claims:

Recently it was claimed Rochester “helped herself to waste materials” left over on the set of the ratings winner

“Waste materials”? Waste implies they were to be thrown out so who the hell cares if she helped herself? Unless the waste you’re talking about is poop, I can’t see why her claiming rubbish as her own ought to be an issue.

Another fun one is the claim that Ajay threw “a tantrum from hell“:

A BEAUTICIAN has revealed Ajay Rochester threw a “tantrum from hell” at her for supporting a petition calling for the Biggest Loser host to be replaced. …
Charmyne Palavi, who hit headlines last year for her kiss-and-tell relationships with a handful of NRL stars, was friends with Rochester until she joined an online forum trying to push former contestant Alison Braun to the helm of Channel 10’s reality weightloss show.

Hmmm, someone who claimed to be a friend was pushing for her to be sacked and replaced by somebody else? Why on Earth would Ajay be upset by that? Clearly she is just a diva!

Whether you think this is the right decision or not the fact remains we’ll be getting a new host next year. But who? Early speculation seems to favour previous contestant Alison Braun for the role, despite her lack of TV hosting experience. Ajay had not had a wealth of experience at the time she landed the gig either, but with Biggest Loser such a big part of Channel 10’s programming it’s hard to imagine them going with a rookie.

When the US version of the show went looking for a replacement for Caroline Rhea, they ended up going for an ex-soapie star who had battled her own weight issues in the past, Alison Sweeney.
Will the Australian version once more ape the US version of the show and get their own ex-soapie star who has battled with her own weight issue in the past, Kate Ritchie?

Or will they go with someone nobody expects?
Speculation, as always, in the comments section!

And best of luck in your future endeavours, Ajay. I for one will miss your ever tragic wardrobe. :-)

Though she was again not in court on Tuesday, Ajay has plead guilty to fraudulently claiming Centrelink’s Single Parent Payment from December 2001 to December 2005.

She’ll be sentenced on the 13th of January next year and faces possible jail time, which may rule her out as host of The Biggest Loser or may just mean a temporary replacement may have to take over during filming.

In my unexpert opinion I suspect she won’t actually go to jail over this, it will probably be a community service order plus having to repay the money and go on a good behaviour bond. But I could easily be wrong…

Stay tuned for the next 2 months to find out!

[Source: The Daily Telegraph]