Karic: 'No Nerves, I'm Ready' as He Enters Elita 10

Stefan Karic posted a message from a plane around 7 p.m., two hours before Elita 10 began, that sounded like he was pulling out, then still turned up at the estate in Simanovci. His entry had already been treated as certain, since his contract for the anniversary season was signed before any of this happened, but the post briefly convinced part of the public that he had changed his mind.

It started with a short message Karic left on social media, reportedly after finding out who else was entering the White House this season.

“When I saw and heard who’s all coming in, later,” Stefan Karic wrote in a post on social media, from the plane.

The line read more like a goodbye than an announcement of arrival, and that was enough to set off speculation. His father, Osman Karic, poured more fuel on it by sharing his son’s clip along with lyrics from Ana Nikolic’s song “Hvala, dovidjenja” (“Thanks, goodbye”). In his own recognizable style, Osman wished his son a safe trip to America and told him to say hello to Dalila Dragojevic, who has been living in New York for a while. The combination of the son’s message and the father’s post looked like confirmation that Karic would not be setting foot on the estate that night.

Before any of this, Karic had been spotted at a restaurant near the Pink TV building, with Matija Matijevic.

Mondo reported the plane message as a withdrawal and published a story about it at 7:24 p.m., before it was even known whether Karic would show up in Simanovci at all. That story has stood unchanged since, and it does not mention his later arrival, which is not the same as Mondo continuing to claim he had pulled out after the opposite became known. Kurir reported at 8:37 p.m. that Karic had shown up after all, and live coverage of arrivals had already logged his entrance at 8:32 p.m.

Karic did not say much to reporters at the estate. Asked how he felt about entering the White House, he kept it brief.

“I’m not nervous, I’m ready,” Stefan Karic told reporters before entering the estate in Simanovci.

He would not reveal any plans for the new season or what viewers should expect from him, staying exactly as tight-lipped as his plane message had been confusing.

Karic had previously said he had no intention of returning to the show at all, but ended up accepting the production’s invitation. His contract for the tenth season was signed long before the plane message appeared on his profile, which on its own shows that the paperwork on his entry was settled before anyone suspected he might back out. For viewers who follow Elita season after season, this is not the first time a cast member has left an ambiguous message right before entering, just enough to stir up noise online in the minutes before the broadcast starts.

By evening the situation was cleared up: Karic really did enter, and the only trace of the withdrawal story is in the articles published before he landed. He spent the last year away from reality TV and has said the break did him good, so viewers will now find out what he’s like this time around.