Brutal twist in TV’s ultimate blindside: Leaked email reveals ‘cold, clinical’ sacking of Australian Survivor host Jonathan LaPaglia – and it’s so much worse than we thought
We doffed our hats to Australian Survivor host Jonathan LaPaglia on Monday when he frankly confirmed our exclusive story on his sacking by Channel Ten.
He didn’t make excuses. He didn’t say he was off to ‘spend more time with his family’. He didn’t pretend it was his own decision.
LaPaglia, who had been the face of the franchise since 2016, came out and stated the truth: he’d been fired. Or blindsided, to use the show’s alpha lingo.
Ten was ‘going in a different direction’ after ratings started to slip, he explained, and he had been told over the phone that his contract wasn’t being renewed.
But that wasn’t the whole story, according to our well-placed sources.
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Australian Survivor host Jonathan LaPaglia was blindsided when he was told last week that his contract wouldn’t be renewed
LaPaglia may have received a courtesy phone call before we broke the story, but we are advised production top brass actually told him he was out of a job… via email.
And it wasn’t a particularly kind one.
We can exclusively reveal the first LaPaglia heard of his sacking was in an email from producers at EndemolShine Australia, the company behind Survivor.
This was before anyone from Ten had the chance to pick up the phone.
The message pinged in the 55-year-old’s inbox after he had wrapped filming on his last season of Survivor, Australia v The World, which is slated to air later this year.
‘He got an email first. That was the initial comms from EndemolShine,’ a source says.
‘Then a call came from Ten, but by then it was already done. It’s really not how you treat someone who’s been part of the show for almost a decade.’
The decision to break the news via email, described by insiders as ‘clinical’ and ‘cold’, has shocked those involved with the show.
The first LaPaglia heard of his sacking was an email from producers at EndemolShine Australia, the company behind Survivor. He wouldn’t receive a courtesy phone call from Ten until later on
‘It wasn’t just a job to him,’ a source tells us.
‘Jonathan took this seriously – gym, set, repeat. If you’ve ever watched the man storm tribal council in head-to-toe linen, you know he gave it everything.
‘He was passionate, outspoken and protective over the format – especially when production barged in with changes.
‘I cannot stress this enough: JLP didn’t just show up to read lines. He lived it.’
According to multiple insiders, the decision to replace LaPaglia was made well before Australia v The World began filming in September last year, but was kept tightly under wraps to avoid overshadowing the season.
‘It was locked in for months,’ one spy says.
‘They wanted to avoid a backlash during filming and post-production – but now the torches have been lit, and not just in Samoa.’
Soon after we broke the story, LaPaglia issued a statement confirming he had been dropped – describing his exit as the one blindside he didn’t see coming.
LaPaglia, 55, first joined the franchise in 2016 and is said to be well-liked by the cast and crew
In what some insiders are calling a risky move, LaPaglia is expected to be replaced by Survivor: All Stars winner and former model David Genat (pictured)
‘Australian Survivor has seen some of the most epic blindsides over the last 10 years, but this one might just be the craziest of them all… because it happened to me,’ he wrote on Instagram.
‘I received a call from the network thanking me for all my hard work and dedication to the show but for next season they are “going in a different direction”. Ratings had dipped a bit recently and they wanted to do something drastic to shake things up.
‘So for the first time ever this is not a tribe swap, but a host swap. Yes, you read that right.’
The former ER star didn’t hold back with his signature dry humour.
‘I wish I could say, “Before we go to vote, tonight is a little different… no one’s going home.” But I can’t. None of that non-elim bulls**t tonight! Someone IS going home. And with no idol in my back pocket, that someone is me.
‘It has been one of the greatest adventures of my career to helm Australian Survivor, so it is without a doubt the hardest challenge of all to snuff my own torch but here goes: “JLP… the tribe has spoken”.’
While no replacement has been officially announced, our sources say Survivor: All Stars winner David Genat will step into the role from 2026.
Sources close to production say that LaPaglia was ‘devastated’ after learning Genat was in talks with both the network and production to replace him.
