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2010 30 Aug

Welcome Masterchef As Another Great Cooking Show

no comment Posted by music

With the crazy success of Masterchef in Australia, it is time to move the series over the America. You see, Masterchef in Australia was a huge phenomenon. In recent times it was on top of the world: Masterchef was the most watched non-sporting event in Australian tv history, with the finale reaching a peak of over four million viewers. The average audience was 3.962 million who watched Adam Liaw, a 31-year-old media lawyer, win this year’s series of Masterchef after beating engineering student Callum Hann, 20, in the final challenge. The peak audience rose to more than 5.7 million when regional viewers were factored in. To put that into context, the population of Australia is 22 million so over 18% of the population was watching the finale. If we were to translate that into the US, over 54 million people would be watching this show! That is unprecedented ratings that the US has not seen for some time, if ever.

It has been estimated that the show in Australia is worth a mammoth $100 million based on advertising slots, magazine and merchandise sales. Again to translate that to US statistics, based on population, would mean the Masterchef show or franchise is worth over $1 billion.

It is no wonder that FOX is placing quite a lot of faith in this show format and have hired notorious celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay to head up this show in America. Ramsay will also co-produce this competitive cooking game show. He will be accompanied by 2 other judges, wine maker Joe Bastianich, and four star chef Graham Elliot Bowles.


The thing is, who wouldn’t like this show? It’s about something that is common to all humans…..eating. Race, creed, socio-economic background does not come into play with this show. Everyone is on an even playing field. It’s fantastic, positive and drama filled television at its best.

Auditions were held some time ago. Of all chefs who auditioned nationwide, one hundred were chosen to cook their signature dish for the three judges. Each judge takes a taste of the dish and gives his opinion before voting a “yes” or a “no”. At least two “yeses” are required for advancement, as well as the right to wear the MasterChef apron. Thirty chefs were chosen.

The series’ premiere episode was the highest-rated debut for Summer 2010, with an impressive 5.75 million and the highest shares in that time-slot. The series will initially be seen Tuesday nights at 9PM ET/PT, then move to Wednesday nights at 8PM ET/PT on August 18.
Let’s hope American’s take to this show like the Australian version of the show and see a mega hit on their hands. Take a punt and watch Masterchef. You won’t regret it.

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2010 29 Aug

MasterChef Takes Global Stage

no comment Posted by music

The success of MasterChef Australia is seeing television networks from five countries signing on for Aussie version of the show, originally a UK format.

Shine International have struck deals with television networks in India, Israel, Belgium, Ukraine and the Netherlands to make their own local versions of the culinary show. A production company in Iceland is also considering the show, while in India, Star TV has already signed a Bollywood star Akshay Kumar to host its version.

“The outstanding showing of MasterChef in the US and Australia, and new sales of the format in one of the most populous countries in the world, demonstrates that there is no bigger food show on the planet,” said Chris Grant, the president of Shine International.


The US has already begun broadcasting their local version with FOX as the producer. Taking a slight risk, celebrity foul-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay is co-producing the show as well as starring as one of the 3 judges who will eliminate the amateur home cooks from the top 50 down to the winner. Gordon has promised to tone down his expletives for the amateur cooks as they are just learning and not professionals like in his Hell’s Kitchen series.

There is a lot at stake for the contestants or cheftestants. $250K prize money plus a book publishing deal. Not bad for a couple of months work, if you win. However in the Aussie version, contestants had to commit to 9 months on the show with no pay, only an allowance, sign confidentiality agreements and only have 1 phone call to family per week. So there is a lot on the line and it will only pay off for 1 person.

The appeciation of food appears to be universal and may provide boom ratings long desired for the associated television networks. Whilst the concept has been around for a while, the UK version experienced an resurrection in popularity when Fremantle Media purchased the rights for the Australian adaptation. Aside from the cooking, a little drama was added to reach audience emotion. The background stories of the contestants were shown, tears flowing and people coming back from elimination all added spice to a very well worn elimination formula. And it worked. After 2 seasons, estimates have placed a value of $100 million on the program through advertising, magazine and merchandise contracts.

In Australia, the finale of MasterChef for 2010 was the most watched non-sports show since 2001, with 2009’s finale right behind it. Only two sports events top the Masterchef finale, which was watched by about 1 in 4 people in Australia. If we do the conversion to the US, that would mean approximately 75 million people would be watching which is an incredible number. No wonder that FOX is banking on this Summer show to claw back ratings.

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