What about AFL/NRL lead-ins on Seven/Nine?
To be fair, it still rated very well for Ch 10 on Sundays, a few even pulling 1m+.
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Oh great you can already tell its Masterchef seasonâŚ
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Todayâs MasterChef special was great viewing. Not only did it speak to famous faces like Julie Goodwin, Poh Ling Yeow, Hayden Quinn and Adam Liaw, but also lesser known former contestants like Neha Sen (season 5) whose Indian-inspired ice cream and chutney products are sold at more than 200 stores around Australia. It also showed clips of the first appearances of Pete and Manu (although it did not mention them by name) when they competed separately on celebrity chef challenge in the first season - and lost.
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Last week The Age Green Guide has a preview of the auditions, speaking to some of the hopefuls at the Melbourne Showgrounds. Note that they had to cook at the Cattle Pavilion and took their dishes on a tray to the Nicholas Pavilion for Jersey cattle next door to be tasted by the three judges.
This season looks AMAZING 
Canât wait to see MasterChef back in Sydney, also WA & Japan.
Donât know if this means anything, but at soon as it hit 7:30pm⌠MasterChefAU shot to #1 trend on twitter! Lots of random companies tweeting about it for the sake of it too.
Good lead-in interview with Gary, Matt & George on The Project.
PS⌠ITâS âGOLDEN BALLâ TIME 
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It was a great opening episode to season 9! Some of the dishes made by the top 50 hopefuls (including the âgolden ballâ) were astonishing! The contestants made their bars so high it would be hard to top them until later in the season.
A record 20 aprons were given on the first day of auditions, which means new Twitter accounts of 20 contestants debuted tonight. I think some of them may already have their own accounts but have to set up new ones to re-live their MasterChef journey with the rest of us.
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The food did look of a very high standard, I must admit.
Of all the dishes, the golden chocolate ball, which weâve seen delivered a million times before, was probably the least impressive.
Still wish theyâd replace the judges, but I fast forwarded most of their shenanigans anyway.
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Ten potentially couldâve posted a profit this year, had they not decorated their sets with massive stacks of fruit.
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Auditions have been very good, top notch 
Annaâs back with the heavily promoted âfirecrackerâ dessert! Tomorrow night.
Canât wait for the real action to begin, on Sunday.
(Yes I know thereâs also an elimination and MasterClass this Thursday).
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Urgh I canât stand her; her dishes are silly.
Great episode tonight with Maggie Beer as guest judge. Elizaâs profiterole ice cream sandwich was by far the dish of the day and deserved her spot inthe top 24. In total there were five standout dishes but only three people got the apron. The standards were so high that one mistake was enough to send a contestant home, such as Damienâs overcooked pork in his dish.
Did anyone notice there were no on-screen graphics (apart from watermarks) in last nightâs season opener and first half of tonightâs episode? Without graphics we donât know which contestant is who unless he or she makes own introduction.
@pelican the stacks of fruit were provided by Coles as part of sponsorship deal.
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I didnât at the time.
But now you mention it, of course, I was trying to remember their names.
Ye I figured. Itâs a nice set design but hopefully they donât waste it.
As far as I know, the stacked fruit and leftover fresh food was donated to SecondBite after each dayâs filming was completed. Also some ingredients might be used for recipe testing.
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I didnât know the judges are âeveryoneâ.
Anyway, I thought the show was about the cooking, and the food, no?
And I didnât mind them in the first few seasonsâŚhowever theyâve just become awful. Matt is consistently cheesy and has lost the veneer of a respected critic, George seems quite dim and thus always comes out with something stupid to say, and Gary is just arrogant (plus plays favourites). In summary, weâve seen too much of them and need a change.
They werenât the stars of the show in the first couple seasons, yet itâs become all about them now.
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An amazing dessert challenge from Anna Pollyviou from Shang-ri-la in Sydney.
âFirecrackerâ had mirrored 3 layers of yummy stuff with coolis in the middle, a sponge at the end and surrounded by peanut mouse. Covered in tempered chocolate and an animation transfer.
Sheâs always a winner with whatever she makes for the show and always one of the most popular eps (wouldnât be surprised to see her return in the final weeks?)
Article on tonightâs episode here:
That was a cracker of an episode (pun intended). Very close at the end with Arum getting the final apron ahead of Emily.
Tomorrow is a two-hour episode with a top 24 challenge in the first half (last yearâs winner Elena Duggan was guest judge - basically each winner held the title for six months or so with the grand final taped in late April / early May and the top 24 challenge of the new season filmed in November of the same year). A preview says one contestant dropped a completed dish on the floor with 30 seconds to go. Not sure if the four judges had tasted enough during the cooking to make a critique? If not, the unlucky contestant would go straight into the bottom 4 for the elimination challenge in the second half.
It looked fucking delicious.
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