Rita Ora won’t be returning as a coach on The Voice Australia 2024, and there’s reportedly a very specific reason why.

Rita was a coach from 2021 until 2023 and a contestant from her team won two of the three seasons. However, earlier this year it was announced that she wouldn’t return for the 2024 season.

In January, The Daily Telegraph reported that Rita had a schedule conflict, and would be busy filming the American version of The Masked Singer at the same time The Voice Australia was set to film.

However, a production insider told Yahoo Lifestyle that the scheduling conflict wasn’t the only reason.

Why isn’t Rita Ora returning to The Voice Australia 2024?

According to Yahoo Lifestyle, the multiplatinum singer didn’t rejoin the popular singing show over pay disputes.

“The decision was made last year and the casting team were looking for quite some time,” the insider told the publication.

“When you have stars returning each year it becomes expensive. You really need to keep increasing their salary to keep them and eventually, they become too expensive.

“The company line was that Jessica [Mauboy], Rita and Jason [Derulo] were all too busy, but I don’t think anyone is too busy to pick up these sorts of pay cheques. It certainly did have a lot to do with keeping the costs down.”

Who are the coaches on the Voice 2024?

Guy Sebastian is the only coach who’ll be returning from the 2023 panel. The three new coaches are LeAnn Rimes, Kate Miller- Heidke and Adam Lambert.

Adam was a judge on the Australian version of The X-Factor in 2016 and has been a judge and mentor on American Idol.

The Voice Australia 2024 will air on Channel 7 and 7Plus.

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