MasterChef Australia

MasterChef has been nominated in the non-scripted entertainment category of the 46th International Emmy Awards, to be presented in New York on November 19 this year. Not sure if it is season 9 or 10 which gets the nomination.

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Former contestants Poh Ling Yeow (season 1 runner up), Billie McKay (season 7 winner) and Matt Sinclair (season 8 runner up) are joining the show as mentors, replacing Shannon Bennett.

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A friend of mine works with her in Adelaide for her business. She says she is a great mentor just a real messy cook.

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They should’ve got rid of George and replaced him with Poh :ok_hand:t3:

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I would probably go back to watching it if they did that.

Same, 110%.

Can’t stand him to be honest and the show needs a bit more of a refresh for its 11th season, adding a strong female co-host with ties to the show and adding some diversity would be awesome.

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Anna Gare and Sarah Wilson PTSD intensifies

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Yeah, interesting how it’s probably the only show to have 3 male critics/judges. Do female tastebuds not count?

Leave George alone. :smile: Who’s gonna shake the room if he’s not there!

The show definitely lacks a much needed female presence on the judging panel. I too would love to see a successful former contestant up there like Poh.

Matt on ABC breakfast…he and the boys are just back from a pre Masterchef trip to Mexico…wonder if the contestants will go there next year?

I actually really like all 3 judges and it would be a shame to see any of them leave in my opinion.
Diversity would be nice I don’t disagree but I don’t want to see the core judges be moved on just for the sake of diversity. Nothing wrong with just adding a 4th permanent judge in my opinion, the judges could then help lead and mentor teams in challenges with 2 judges per team when split in 2 and when split in 4 they all each get a judge to work with them.

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I would actually like them to have 4 judges and cycle them a bit. E.g. Most eps have 33 of the 4 judges… I t would give a bit more variety.

Matt Preston told the Herald Sun yesterday that the cast (i.e. the top 24 contestants) had been picked for the 11th season after the top 50 auditions, and filming would start soon. Matt said:

We’ve found natural home cooks, no overstyled or over-rehearsed people…We know that if the contestants are good, you’ll watch; if they’re not, you won’t.

It will be interesting to see if the three new mentors (Poh, Billie and Matt) will take turns to appear alongside the judges, or appear together.

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I assume the three will just cycle different Immunity challenges rather than appear together. However as mentors I actually would like to see them involved in more things like team challenges. I think it would be good for them to be more present particularly in the first few weeks.

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Just found out Matt Preston has two Twitter accounts: @mattscravat and @Cravatalious.

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In a fascinating series on reality TV in Australia including current and past, The New Daily named MasterChef as the show with the most integrity (though there wasn’t much competition!).

Despite music, tension and drama and fast action countdowns, Ten’s MasterChef comes out as the show with the most integrity. Its producers “all the way from the top down” are genuine and act with professionalism, insiders say.

The biggest loser? Seven’s for-now defunct The X Factor. Bradshaw bags the show outright, saying music is a by-product at best and drama is the goal.

Billie became a fan fave in 2015, she started off coasting along and then boom! She also successfully completed Heston’s insane finale challenge which including blowing up (like a balloon not an explosion) a patisserie. Her winner announcement had over 2.1m metro ratings, first of that number since 2012. Great to have Poh and Matt too.

I am sad to see Shannon go, he was such a natural, but a good stint and does have other family dynamics in his life to get through.

Shannon’s recent separation from Playing for Keeps’ Madeleine West and the family’s relocation to Byron Bay played a major part in Shannon leaving MasterChef.

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