Reality TV producer defends paying Shane Warne $1million to appear on I’m a Celebrity

Shane Warne is rumoured to have earned a whopping $1 million for appearing on the second season of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! back in 2016.

And now, the show’s executive producer Alex Mavroidakis has defended his decision to pay the cricketer the eye-watering amount.

During an interview with former Big Brother winner Benjamin Norris on the TV Reload podcast, he said: ‘Shane Warne wasn’t a waste of money because series one was on the cusp.’

‘It just about did enough for people to be talking about it, it needed a prestige name for series two to drag people back in to the format,’ Alex said.

‘We put Warnie in on episode two, we teased him through the launch and put him in episode two. I think it launched at 1.1 million and episode two did 890 or 900,000. Then you are off and running, there is your million dollars, he just paid for himself.’

Shane starred in season two of the reality show alongside former AFL star Brendan Fevola, DJ Havana Brown, singer Anthony Callea and comedian Akmal Saleh.

It’s rumoured the cricket star earned $1million on top of special treatment such as being allowed to smoke cigarettes.

Meanwhile, the seventh season of I’m a Celebrity premiered on Sunday and stars include Jack Vidgen, Grant Denyer and Abbie Chatfield entered the jungle.

The stars were required to jump 14,000 feet out of a helicopter into a lake.

On Monday night, Robert ‘Dipper’ DiPierdomenico became the latest star to join the cast roughing it on the show.

The former AFL great, 62, entered the camp in a wild west-themed challenge.

His arrival proved to be no easy feat for retired AFL player Travis Varcoe and The Block’s Jess Eva who had to rescue the former Hawthorn player who was tied to a trolley.

Travis and Jess then had to chase a naughty cowboy inside an old Western saloon who had the keys to free Dipper.