Sources say contract was terminated because he wouldn't honor it in full

Mar 14, 2012 08:04 GMT  ·  By

It's the end of an era in television: Discovery Network has just announced it's terminated the contract with British television personality Bear Grylls, he of the “Man vs. Wild” fame. Money seems to have been an issue.

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Discovery says that Grylls' contract was terminated over financial disagreements, while sources claim that he was supposed to do another 2 unnamed projects for the network – and never did.

According to industry sources, Grylls had signed with Discovery for these 2 projects but never got to see them completed, with the network constantly trying to get him to do his job.

Eventually, it came to letting him go, thus ending a very long and very lucrative (for both parties involved) collaboration.

“Due to a continuing contractual dispute with Bear Grylls, Discovery has terminated all current productions with him,” Discovery says.

In a separate statement, Grylls' publicist hints that the problem might not have been with the famous and oftentimes controversial television personality, but with the network itself.

As THR notes, this isn't the first time that Discovery has very public spats with its talent, spats that lead to the termination of contracts.

“Bear's goal has always been to make life-empowering shows for his many fans around the globe, and he has taken great risks to bring Discovery such award-winning programming over seven seasons,” Gryll's rep says in a statement to the same media outlet.

“Unfortunately, Bear and Discovery have not been able to come to mutual agreement on new programming, and he disagrees with Discovery's decision to terminate current productions. Bear has loved the Man vs. Wild journey and looks forward to producing further cutting-edge content again soon for his loyal audience,” the publicist adds.

Grylls had been with Discovery since 2006, when “Man vs. Wild” debuted. He'd also done several other projects for the same network, one more daring than the other, increasing his fan base considerably throughout the years.

The sixth season of “Man vs. Wild” wrapped in August and will air its last episode in November 2012.