With a MasterChef contestant recently booted from the show for allegedly cheating with a hidden smartphone, we round up other reality TV shockers and scandals...

1 - In the latest scandal to rock MasterChef to its self-saucing core, contestant Mat Beyer, 24, was caught with a net-enabled smartphone, potentially giving him access to recipes. Producers were forced to recall a previously eliminated contestant




2 - Another reality TV contestant to get a basting was 2006 Big Brother contestant Camilla Severi, who was “turkey slapped” (one male housemate held her down while the other whacked her in the face with his wang). As the two perpetrators were booted from the show, even PM John Howard weighed in, saying, “Here’s a great opportunity for Channel Ten to do a bit of self-regulation and get this stupid program off the air”


3 - The US predictably ups the ante to murder and dismemberment: Ryan Alexander Jenkins was scheduled to appear as an eligible bachelor on the 2009 show Megan Wants a Millionaire, when his wife Jasmine Fiore was found dead in a suitcase. Identifying the body took a while because her teeth had been removed and fingers cut off, but coroners eventually used a serial number on a breast implant to identify the body. Jenkins became a suspect, and the network decided to cancel the show. He was later found dead in an apparent suicide.


4 - Another contestant who didn’t make it to ratings season was Najai Turpin, 23, a contestant in US boxing reality TV show The Contender. Najai took his life while sitting in a car with his girlfriend and two-year-old daughter. A custody dispute, as well as suffering from low self-esteem and depression after being booted from the show, is believed to have played a role in his 2005 death


5 - Aussie Matt Newton was set to host the 2010 series of The X Factor until his then-partner Rachael Taylor accused him of attacking her in an Italian hotel foyer and took out an AVO. Not surprisingly, Channel 7 found a replacement within days.