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MAFS' Dom and Ella's $250k deal comes to surprising end
The Married At First Sight stars have made a huge change.
MAFS stars Domenica Calarco and Ella Ding looked set to be the show's biggest stars after signing an unprecedented $250,000 deal to host their podcast Sit With Us last year.
When the pair first announced their podcast after their season aired, they found themselves in a bidding war with all major podcast networks, including Apple and Spotify, before deciding on Acast.
Yahoo Lifestyle understands the deal required Dom and Ella to produce one episode weekly and hit certain download listener targets to earn the staggering amount and ensure Acast saw a return on their investment – but in recent weeks, the pair quietly parted ways with the production network and their contract wasn't renewed.
Acast has swiftly removed all references to Sit With Us from their website as well, with the girls' former page now saying "404 Not Found".
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Dom and Ella have since signed a collaboration deal with Southern Cross Austereo's Lstnr network and independent network DM Podcasts.
"A podcast changing network isn't that surprising, but to walk away from a company that previously put up a quarter of a million for a debut suggests that kind of money wasn't on the table for them to renew," an insider said. "Sit With Us is successful and consistent, but overall it didn't perform as well as Acast initially hoped when compared to the likes of Life Uncut and It's A Lot."
A second source adds that all podcast networks are now being more "skeptical and realistic" when offering deals to this year's MAFS contestants, including Ollie Skelton, who recently signed with Acast with his Tosser podcast, and Evelyn Ellis, who has signed with Lister to look after her Bad Grades podcast.
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