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Alternate endings filmed for My Kitchen Rules

In the "other" version of MKR that never went to air Nic and Rocco 'won' the show. Like "Who Shot JR?" sometimes TV goes to great lengths for the story.

In one version Leigh and Jennifer won My Kitchen Rules.

But in another unaired sequence, filmed during production, Nic & Rocco ‘won’ the Seven Reality contest.

Like “Who Shot JR?” in Dallas, Seven cleverly filmed alternate endings for the hit show in order to keep the winner under wraps.

None of the four finalists knew who had won the show until they watched it on air on Tuesday night.

In the unaired version, the same dishes cooked by Nic and Rocco received higher scores than in the edition that ultimately went to air.

A Seven spokesperson told TV Tonight, “Until the final moments of the grand final edition of MKR only a handful  of  people knew the actual, final result.

“It was important to let the magic of television and storytelling carry the day. Two endings were recorded in order to preserve the actual result, which is not unusual in the business of television production.”

Seven insists there was only one correct ending, which aired on Tuesday night.

The finale was filmed in December, which surely would have been a long time for the participants to observe Confidentiality clauses. In the previous two seasons, Seven didn’t go the extra mile to film two sequences, nor was the outcome leaked.

Other Reality shows such as Celebrity Apprentice Australia have filmed alternate endings. Last year there were sequences filmed with both Julia Morris and Jason Coleman as ‘winners’ -the Morris version went to air.

In the first season of MasterChef Australia both Julie Goodwin and Poh Ling Yeow famously gave “winner” and “loser” quotes to media ahead of the finale airing, resulting in one newspaper accidentally publishing Poh as winner.

Since then TEN has filmed the cooking ahead of time, due to the production machinations involved, but brought finalists back to the kitchen for the judging just hours before it airs, and kept all parties on site until the episode has aired.

The Block and Australia’s Got Talent also film winner announcements within 24 hours of their airing. Australia’s Next Top Model infamously aired a Live result with disastrous results in 2010.

It’s never easy juggling production deadlines and winner announcements, especially when your riding on a hit show.

But Reality isn’t always about reality. Just as the kitchens aren’t necessarily their own in MKR (there are minimum space requirements needed for crews), editors and producers in the genre carefully manipulate the storytelling of their shows.

Savvy audiences, invested in profile programmes, are becoming more and more analytical of storytelling, from “plating up” scandals to questioning how Leigh and Jennifer scored perfect 10s when they didn’t complete chocolate tempering (it was an extra, not on their menu).

Judge Pete Evans said on Facebook, “I am sorry you only get to see maybe 10% of what we actually say about each dish as it arrives, otherwise the show would have aired for 5 hours or more last night. Once again thanks for watching!!!”

14 Responses

  1. They do the same thing with Apprentice UK. I used to wonder why the reaction of the winner was so underwhelming, then when I found out it was an “act” it all made sense. Luckily they screen a panel style show called “You’re Fired” straight after, so you get to see an interview with the winner with their real thoughts on winning.

  2. What crap! If you want to keep the secret, do it live! This just makes it all seem fake, and up til the final night they could have picked either team as the winner. Why not just film each judge holding up each number 7 to 10, then get the producers to decide which scores each judge should give as they edit?

  3. My enjoyment of the finale has been really marred by this revelation. I thought the girls’ response was somewhat stilted and odd and now I know why – they had to act it out. Whilst this may be common practice on reality shows, I give it a massive boo and hiss and I hope against hope that they don’t do it this way next season. What they should do is have the cook-off filmed earlier on the day it is to be shown, which I think is what MasterChef do. Too bad if the grand final is several months after the preliminary episodes have filmed, that gives the two teams plenty of time to practice and perfect their skills, which is not a bad thing.

  4. I am reminded of The Simpsons episode where Burns’ wants his bear Bobo back. When Burns’ finally gets his bear from Maggie, Homer suggested something like, “I’m confused is this a sad or happy ending”. Marge says “It’s an ending, that’s enough”! This was a sad ending, but it’s not enough.

    From a chef and pastry chef, the boys had shown skills. Their dessert was like a work of art and as Karen put it “Playful”. The use of “pop rocks” and “macarons” , had “Wow factor” The girls was very simple & “safe”. Caramel is done to death because all you need do is mix sugar & water and cook until it’s toffee like in colour. They also bothered with “Tempered chocolate”. That’s a skill that takes practice. As for the savoury, they where all good looking.

    I watched it again and found the boys result showed a win and ending there. The girls showed a reaction to a alternate ending. Maybe it’s “there’s tears there’s a win”

  5. So they had to act both delighted then slightly disappointed. I feel cheated. I watched the thing every night it was on and did not even get a sincere reaction at the end. Instead of filming the two endings maybe they could have used the Survivor system of putting the scores in a sealed box and having a live finale announcing the winner.

  6. This makes no sense. How could they score higher in the unaired version??

    While I loved both teams, I did feel the boys were ripped off as not a single negative was said about their 5 dishes (apart from plating of one of them) and I was quite shocked to see them get some 8’s.

    Not taking away anything from the girls, but the comments that were aired for Nic & Rocco were far better and as such, deserved the win.

  7. “questioning how Leigh and Jennifer scored perfect 10s when they didn’t complete chocolate tempering (it was an extra, not on their menu).”
    That’s right, not on their menu, and thought by judges to be better without it anyway, conspiracy theorists and boys-fans. The six judges decided. Leave it at that for God’s sake. Move on.
    Many would have been rooting for the boys, but not necessarily because of their cooking skills.

  8. Well, as I have said on many occasions, this is not reality, it is just a long drawn out game show, albeit more entertaining. It just shows how these programmes are edited and manipulated to draw viewers in and it works. It just doesn’t seem natural and makes me question how real is anything we watch on FTA tv………still good article, that deserves a much wider readership

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