Pete Evans leaves Seven after My Kitchen Rules plummet

Controversial celebrity chef Pete Evans is leaving Channel 7 after more than a decade hosting My Kitchen Rules Channel Seven has confirmed to Yahoo Lifestyle.

The chef and the network reached a mutual decision to end the relationship with Evans now to be focusing on his own endeavours.

Pete Evans and Manu Feildel on My Kitchen Rules
Pete Evans will be leaving My Kitchen Rules and Channel 7 according to new reports. Photo: Seven

The cooking show’s numbers were seriously flagging in recent years, and Pete Evans found himself at the centre of a firestorm after he spruiked a $15,000 lamp as a potential coronavirus treatment online.

The paleo diet advocate was slapped with a $25,200 fine from the Therapeutic Goods Administration over the claim.

The chef has also been outspoken online about pushes to make flu jabs mandatory for sports players in a bid to curtail coronavirus spread by avoiding at-risk immune systems, describing the decision as ‘anti-choice’.

Channel 7 did not comment on whether his most recent misstep had any bearing on the decision, saying the chef was interested in pursuing his own projects.

My Kitchen Rules meanwhile saw a serious slump in ratings.

At its strongest, the show hosted by Evans and celebrity chef Manu Feildel was pulling around 2 million viewers every night, but in 2020 peaked on its final episode at just half a million compared to Married at First Sight’s more than one million watchers.

Pete first joined the network in 2010 to head up the cooking show, and the decision to part ways is described as ‘amicable and mutual’, though it is not yet clear whether the TV show will continue without him.

The chef will appear in a few pre-taped Better Homes and Gardens episodes.

History of controversy

Pete Evans has come under fire for controversial commentary in the past. Photo: Seven
Pete Evans has come under fire for controversial commentary in the past. Photo: Seven

Pete Evans has attracted controversy in the past, though so far Channel 7 did not comment on his most recent missteps bearing on the decision.

Back in January, Evans posed with prominent anti-vaxxer campaigner Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and shared a link to the man’s organisation which in some areas promotes anti-vaccination.

At the time viewers called for the network to take action against the chef, with experts revealing the support of such ideas, even secondary, was doing ‘serious damage’.

The paleo chef also came under fire in the past for throwing his weight behind a controversial new study out of Canada that suggests drinking water with fluoride while pregnant could lead to a drop in your baby’s IQ.

Last year, his book Heal also raised eyebrows with recommendations to avoid sunscreen and eat a purely animal product diet to fix gut problems.

He has got a strong following with over 200k followers on Instagram and over one million of Facebook.

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