It hasn’t been announced yet but I think it would be safe to say that it will be later than that. I would say that they will most likely wait so it does not clash with the end of My Kitchen Rules. They did that last year and it paid off well. The previous year when they clashed, Masterchef suffered.
Would not be at all surprised if Ten timed it so Masterchef started the day after MKR finished.
When did MKR and Masterchef ever clash? I can’t remember the shows ever going head to head.
In 2013.
Oh yes forgot about that… that was Masterchef: The Professionals though and at a time Masterchefs ratings were in decline. None of the spin off seasons ever did as well as the original (apart from maybe the first few episodes of Masterchef Kids) either so we’ve never had a normal MC season go head with MKR to see what happens especially today when it’s on the rise again.
But that would have been enough warning for them not to put these two similar shows head to head again. They have even been very careful to avoid clashing with other big reality shows like House Rules and The Voice since then, which I think is wise. There are plenty of weeks in a ratings year to avoid clashes and damaging the launch of your show.
Last year Masterchef launched on the same day as House Rules and Reno Rumbles.
A bit different when they all start on the same day. Also, those two similar shows split the audience and gave Masterchef a big advantage. That’s another lesson for not putting Masterchef against MKR.
People can argue over the merits of Masterchef over MKR but it has been proven that there are fans of both shows out there. Pitting them against each other would be detrimental to both.
To me, starting Masterchef on the same day as House Rules is the exact opposite of “avoiding a clash” - it’s going going head to head. It was clearly Ten’s plan last year that no matter what else was scheduled, Masterchef was starting the day after MKR finished.
But they were avoiding a clash with the similar MKR and particularly the finale which is always huge.
I’m guessing they saw the new season of House Rules as less of a clash than a finale or a similar show. The previous year they avoided a clash with the finale of House Rules and The Voice.
I was responding to your post that said “They have even been very careful to avoid clashing with other big reality shows like House Rules”
That was in reference to the House Rules finale, the previous year. Ideally they should be running Masterchef against House Rules and The Voice. Three different genres would even out the ratings.
I think Ten will still wait to launch Masterchef after MKR finishes this year.
I have a feeling that Nine are going to launch Reno Rumble straight after Easter. This might result in Seven needing to delay the launch of House Rules, otherwise there would be two similar shows clashing again.
Would Seven then extend the run of MKR by limiting episodes screened per week? That might then force Ten to delay the launch of Masterchef to avoid a clash.
14 weeks is long enough - last year there was a one week break plus three weeks with just 3 episodes not counting final week when there were 2.
MasterChef will no doubt launch on Tuesday, straight after the MKR grand final.
Worked very well last year for MasterChef’s season seven launch.
Presuming MKR’s will be on the Monday again?
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LOL… at JBar’s MKR crusade above 
Correcting the misinformation spread by infidel fanbois. 
I only watch Masterchef as my preferred cooking show,refuse to watch MKR
They never seemed to release anything on the facebook page regarding the CNY challenge. Unless they do a call out for people to go down later today.
Actually I just walked past and the challenge looks like its set up. Two stalls for Red and Gold teams. Its in a pretty open public area so I will check again after work if anything is happening.
Edit: I asked someone at the site who confirmed that the teams would arrive later this afternoon to cook and start serving to the public at 7pm. Dishes will cost around $5 (although knowing Masterchef the teams will probably set their own prices) and proceeds donated to charity.
So last night I participated in the team challenge. It was great fun!
This is more a review and won’t spoil much, but if you don’t want to know anything about next season then don’t read.
I got back there at about 5pm as the teams were cooking, and waited around until service at 7pm. Kylie Kwong was a guest judge and Gary came and spoke to the crowd at times throughout the cook, very friendly. He soon disappeared and George arrived and took over, then closer to service time Matt arrived as well. The crowd had built quite a bit by this stage. There was no clear line of where the food would be served, so they did a countdown and dropped the barriers and everyone pretty much ran in. It was a little bit chaotic but they got the food out pretty quickly so not a long wait. I first lined up for the 'Yellow team" who had Pork belly with plum sauce and a noodle salad as their dishes. One was priced $5 and one $7. The pork belly was delicious but I didn’t enjoy the noodle salad, the dressing was disgusting (but I am a fussy eater). Then I went over to the red team who had fried wontons, beef noodles and a coconut pudding desert. I tried just the desert from them and it was amazing… it had many different elements on it and makes me think there is another really strong desert cook like Reynold next season to think up something like that.
By the time I had eaten the crowd had built a bit as there was a dragon going up the china town street and went past drawing a larger crowd as well. The judges bolted out to try and film some scenes of them with the crowds and the dragons. The atmosphere was amazing! We then all formed a circle around the judges as they tasted the dishes. I was standing dead centre at the front directly behind the judges with cameras facing on me, so I know that I will 100% be on TV for that bit 
Overall heaps fun. I counted there were at least 7 or 8 on one team and I couldn’t tell on the other so still a pretty early stage in the comp. The cast seems very young this season although there were a couple of older guys, and like last season it looked like there were more females than males.
Found two photos of the judges tasting food:
Are you in either photo Chris?
I assume there were many people filming the challenge with their smartphones? Some of them would have posted images during the night, others will wait until the episode goes to air (I think it will be in June).
Yes that’s me in the second picture dead centre in the dark blue shirt with backpack and looking down at my phone. That photo would have been just before they started filming the tasting (hence why Gary is looking at his phone, plus I managed to get to the very front of the crowd a couple mins later when they filmed)
I have a lot of photos and video on my phone, if it’s easy to upload I will share on here later.