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Kitchen copy spurs talk of legal action

Updated: Is TEN considering legal action over similarities between My Kitchen Rules and MasterChef? Not exactly...

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Network TEN is reportedly considering legal action over the similarities between MasterChef Australia and Seven’s My Kitchen Rules.

The Australian reports today that TEN execs are furious over ‘copycat’ elements of the new Seven show and their hit series produced by FremantleMedia Australia.

The latter part of the series featured large industrial style kitchen benches, contestant narration, the colour palette, the theme music, the way the two judges interact and comment on the preparation while the action takes place behind them and the race against the clock.

Both shows instructed contestants to “Step away from the benches.”

Even the moment of victory as glitter rained down on winners (as illustrated here yesterday) was a clone.

Many viewers noted the first portion of the series mirrored the home-cooking dinner parties of Come Dine with Me, with contestants scoring each others dishes.

TEN’s chief programmer, David Mott, recently told Mediaweek, “Normally Seven is a little bit more original than that. Success has many fathers and I think that Seven should thank us for the idea. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

But a spokesman for Seven told The Australian, “David Mott’s obsessed about Seven.

“He’d love nothing more than most of our programs and our ratings — and not his own network’s.”

Many readers on TV Tonight have commented on the similarites across the life of the series. The Australian even noted reader Lisa, who said, “Let’s take a little splash of the popular Come Dine With Me and a big fat chunk of the juggernaut MasterChef Australia, and what do you get? My Kitchen Rules.”

Seven originally pitched the series as being produced by the same makers as My Restaurant Rules, but almost nobody who worked on those two series were employed to work on MKR. At least Seven retained the inter-state battle as a loose link to its former series, and cleverly avoided states dropping out of the contest too early, which saw ratings drop last time.

The rule of thumb in copyright law is you can’t copyright an idea, only its execution. It would no doubt take an awful lot of lawyers to argue whether Seven’s execution ultimately differed enough from TEN’s in the eyes of a court of law.

UPDATED: A TEN spokesperson has today told TV Tonight: “We are neither infuriated nor seeking legal action …today’s piece is news to us. We would consider any kind of similarity to MasterChef cause to be flattered.”

Source: The Australian

14 Responses

  1. Hopefully this law suit Will force the both of them to spend so much money. That they have to axe both shows. These two shows make me cringe with embarrassment for my country.

  3. I don’t think channel 10 have a case. There were heaps of differences. Even gary said it wasn’ thte same. For starters the contestant were in pairs, secondly they cooked and went to each others homes, they got to create there own 3 course menu, they marked each dish out of 10 and so did the contestants to begin with.

    Last time i looked CH10 didn’t have a copyright on sayings. Step away from the benches. Last time I looked MKR contestants had to cook in a giant kitchen behind a bench. What else could have the judges said.

  4. If the ratings are lower for Masterchef this year, TEN will blame lack of viewer interest due to MKR being too similar, and people done with the format for this year.
    However the most likley reason will be the same as Biggest Loser. The new time slot is the reason why ratings have plummeted. The lead in of 7PM Project may or may not be the problem, its just that people preferred it at 7pm as per previous years.

    Personally, I think the ‘lead in’ show reason for failure is utter rubbish. I watch plenty of shows with terrible lead ins which I avoid. ie. I watched Ross Noble, but didnt watch the dreadful GNW beforehand.

  5. Seven might want to get FremantleMedia’s Paul Franklin as a “witness for the defence”:

    “It’s nice that MasterChef piqued interest in cooking and food- that’s the main thing. But it’s a very different show [to MKR]” -Paul Franklin. TV Week Mar 29.

    Same same but different?

  6. It was blatently obvious that the second part of the series was a rip off of masterchef, but seriously, who gives a rats? All the commercial TV stations just copy each other all the time anyway. Look at Today Tonight and ACA, they pretty much have the same stories as each other every night. And Sunrise and Today have the exact same format, gossip at 6.55, then politicians in on Friday mornings. Heck they even have ads at the same time which makes it frustrating trying to watch two shows at once with the remote in my hand.

  7. It is kind of similar but we can go on and on and compare Make Me a Supermodel to America’s/Australia’s Next Top Model.

    I don’t think there’s much room to be original in a “cooking” competition. Both need a bench, sink and someone to taste test the food,

  8. this is rediculous. they don’t have a case at all. it’s all just a shameless way make waves in the lead up to MC S2.

    i guess someone here has to bring up the spearman experiment. that was much more similar to 20to1 that MKR was to MC.

  9. This just sounds like a big, heaping plate full of “who the hell cares?”

    Considering that people who watched it thought it seemed like a clone of Come Dine With Me, and those that didn’t watch a second of it – me – thought it was Seven cashing in on Ten’s success with MasterChef, Seven should be grateful people actually watched it at all; and Ten should just take it as a form of flattery anyway because MasterChef will be back and rate pretty well for them.

    Heck, i’ll be watching it and it takes a lot for me to tune into something, anything, on FTA anymore.

  10. Seven is like a ‘Dummie’s Guide to television’…… taking other shows and making them so devoid of any sort of intellect…… and making them popular…….. cant deny they have a winning formula…….. but masterchef was a standout in television….. the perfect blend of great casting, great concept, and great design.

    I hope Masterchef is just as big this year, as I know the backlash has already begun

  12. Anything made by freemantle media looks and feels exactly like all there previous shows. Flashy graphics with moody music cuts to interview with contestant / housemate / whatever.

  14. And Ten will never take it to court. Not a chance.

    This is just the tired old size contest adding another network as a competitor. Note to Seven, Nine and Ten: you’re all unoriginal and totally devoid of original ideas. Get over it and just enjoy your afternoons poring over Excel spreadsheets chronicling how many viewers you’re losing each week whilst you behave like three bogans in a pub trying to establish who’s got the right to be the alpha male.

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