TEN mulls changes to MasterChef
TEN is reviewing the timeslot and the number episodes per week for MasterChef 2014.
- Published by David Knox
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Ahead of MasterChef‘s final next Sunday night, TEN is mulling ways to revamp the show for 2014.
TEN programming chief Beverley McGarvey says the timeslot and the number episodes per week are under consideration.
”We would, of course, prefer the numbers to be higher,” she told Fairfax. ”But for a show that’s in its 10th cycle – including spinoffs such as Junior MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals – we are pleased that so many people still embrace the show.
”We certainly think … there is plenty of life left in it. We are looking forward to a new, fresh version in 2014 that will appeal to the loyal MasterChef fans as well as new viewers.”
Meanwhile exev producer Margie Bashfield says judges Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris are intrinsic to the show.
“There are things we want to expand on and take into the next series, but you know it’s all about connecting with the audience – and we’ll do everything to make those things connect.”
But she concedes the Boys vs Girls launch got the show off to the wrong start with viewers.
”It just shows again how the people own the show, and we have to be respectful of what they want.”
27 Responses
The Project is doing better from 7 to 7:30pm than in the first half hour. Peaking at close to 1m some nights according to the Australian. So the lead-in is not too bad.
The News is doing well. The Simpsons is the problem but its there because Ten don’t have anything better.
syoung, I agree. The UK show is much, much better and they don’t shove sentimentality down our throats. I hope 10 has a long look at the Judges. I couldn’t watch this series because their egos are so overcooked it’s excruciating. The producers have lost sight of why it was successful in the first place.
Tens programming is a lot if their problem. Ten news followed by the Simpsons, then the project? What’s wrong with this picture? It’s disjointed for sure. The Project is just not delivering an audience lead in and Masterchef has to compete with programs that have started 30 mins prior that get a great lead in. Ten really needs to find a show that can compete with nines and sevens news hour. Maybe this is the time slot for the likes of Masterchef and the biggest losers?? I for one am getting sick of news type programs and then endless encores all TV stations play.
Stop showing Masterchef Australia!!
Start showing Masterchef UK – that’s a real cooking show.
Finally, the network has awoken from its slumber re the formerly great Masterchef. I’ve hated the theme week format and the calibre of contestants has been very lacking this year, as far as cooking skill goes. We are now in the Top 5 and I don’t feel the slightest bit inspired by any of them. Unlike other seasons, I couldn’t give a toss who wins this year. This season has been an absolute dud bar the appearance of Heston Blumenthal. The show is really getting stale. They are going to have to go right back to the drawing board for 2014. Lightning rarely strikes twice, but the high water mark for this show was the awesome Season Two. If they could duplicate that season again, from calibre of contestants to format, I’ll be a happy camper!
no on likes my idea of having the 3 judges become mentors for a group of contestants.
i said that garry could mentor one group like 18-24 boys, george could mentor 18-24 girls and matt could mentor older contestants.
then each week they have their challenge and the judge can mentor their group into making a good dish and help them with problems.
then the other two judges plus a guest judge can decide whether their dish was good or not.
love it! great way to revamp 2014 series
I think it would be great if every week didn’t have a theme. It gets tired and especially when the themes are silly like “dreams” this past week. Perhaps they should make themed cuisine weeks? Like Italian, etc? That was the only week I thoroughly enjoyed this season.
I also agree that the judges are the strongest part of the show.
Ten has just spent nearly a year getting The Project back to rating nearly 1m against BB at 7pm (viewers 25-54 are avoiding BB and watching it). They won’t be in any hurry to mess with that.
7pm sun-thur it should be next yr. They need to also bring back impossible challenges like the ones we saw in season 1 and 2. Have a dedicated off site challenge night whether it’s a service challenge or a challenge with the community involved. Judges must stay unless they wish to leave as they have now become the face of masterchef just like Gretel Killeen was for big brother, kill off the face and you kill the show.
If looking for a new timeslot, maybe start The Project at 6:00pm and start Masterchef at 7:00pm (and same with The Biggest Loser), but I don’t have a problem with the format or how many days a week it’s on. I love Masterchef.
I think the current format of 5 shows a week (challenges on Sunday-Wednesday, MasterClass on Thursday) is fine, but I don’t mind if it is reduced to 4 shows a week (Sunday-Tuesday and MasterClass). Also not every week needs to have a theme.
The bootcamp in week 2 of this season is valuable and should be used in the top 50 week of the next season. Immunity pin should not be up for grabs until after the top 10 has been decided.
I agree that auditions should return and there should be more mystery box challenges.
Thank you MC for this season showing all the contestants dishes this season. What used to rile me was when we would only see a few off the dishes.
I havent minded this season and the mystery box has been on sunday nights. I have enjoyed Matt doing cooking in the masterclass. I have actually used some of his recipes.
What wasn’t clear with the launch was that this season would run on themed weeks which I think has worked very very well. It was ill-received that there was a battle of the sexes running the competition. I’ve very much enjoyed this season, despite the fact that the contestant capabilities have been noticeably lower than previous seasons.
They should bring back the Mystery Box. And do what MKR do and introduce the contestants in promos.
Don’t rely on gimmicks like Boys v Girls, although the themes like Heaven and Hell and Global Food Week were good.
It should run Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, with the Masterclass on Friday.
Ten have relied heavily on Masterchef for the last few years. It is still rating OK when there isn’t competition on the other channels, and the final will probably do OK.
But Ten are really struggling on the important Sunday and Monday nights, so a rethink is in order.
Go back to how it was in the beginning and get some contestants who are likaeable and know how to cook. Don’t change judges and stop playing favourites !
Cut out the tears; cut out the constant cutting to head shots of the contestants telling us they know what they have to do to finish on time etc etc (We also know, so boring); keep the series shorter; tighten up generally and maybe they’ll finish the show on time each night.
And how about another bout of Junior Masterchef? The kids in this were truly amazing (the most overused word in the world these days, but appropriate here). I know it’s a lot harder to film, but keeping the episodes down should mitigate this.
i think the 3 judges should get a group of cooks each. for example george could mentor the cooks 18-24 year old boys, matt could mentor the cooks 18-24 year old girls and gary could mentor the older cooks.
then each week they cook a dish and the other two judges plus a guest judge judge what they’ve done.
with a mentor they can get great cooking tips and help them out.
would be more like the x factor format but it would change it up and give the judges a more mentor role as they knowledge in cooking is being wasted on the masterclasses no one is watching.
i think it would really revamp the 2014 series.
Ten have only themselves to blame for oversaturating the brand in such a short space of time. Ten also faces much more reality competition from Seven and Nine than they did back when the series began. They need to consider alternatives to reality in the early evening.
They should give it a rest, I don’t watch it bu,t it seems like every time I turn on a 10 channel there it is being repeated yet again!
It feels like its bordering on flogging a dead horse. The horse is about to die from flogging, rather than already dead.
It’s only been two months but it feels far longer. I had all but forgotten that the series started as boys vs girls, a concept that was quickly dropped. They could have easily continued with other gimmicks like young vs old, state vs state, etc.
How to fix it? That’s tough, it’s going very stale. Obviously, five episodes a week doesn’t help. Perhaps take inspiration from The Biggest Loser. They’ve done different formats- singles, parents with their kids, whole families. Why not try something different to spice it up. I think watching parents cook with their kids could be fun, watching them against their kids? Even better!
Finally, I say this every year but ditch the arrogance of cooking, stop trying to make chefs into rock stars and make it about the fun of…
Boys v Girls was one of the “themed weeks” and it ran for 2. Because it was the first amongst several it attracted a lot of comment, much of which I found a bit hot.
Good to finally see the network realise this.
I’d suggest they:
Let it breathe and don’t air it each night. I don’t think anyone needs that much cooking.
Find cooks we can connect with. The Auditions shows should be brought back.
Bring in a new, preferably strong female, judge.
Cut the ‘MasterClass’ episode or air snippets of it during another one of the weekly shows.
Revamp/twist the whole formula: We are clearly bored of knowing what is going to generally occur in each episode of every day of the week. I’d like to see for example each judge get a category of chefs, and have their own teams. Now, how then would they deal with the dynamic of voting off one of their own?
Not sure about them all but I like that you have thought outside the square.
Good that they realise it. I stopped watching because the contestants they choose didn’t connect. They were mostly loud and annoying and I had little interest in setting them cook.
Don’t think it was the time slot or nights it showed, it was the contestants weren’t as good cooks as in previous seasons. And the judges were a lot ruder this time and not consistent. One person does something and gets away with it, when someone else does it they get reprimanded.
Maybe 6pm for 30mins each night as a news alternative and a decent bridge between the 5pm news and the project? It’s just going to get no traction at 7.30 anymore, it’s a tired format.