★★★★★ 0/5

When did MasterChef become The Apprentice?

"I don't want him in my team," said one MasterChef contestant last night, as the show helped itself to a dangerous serving of Mark Burnett reality.

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Interesting shifts in MasterChef Australia last night…

The episode was so close to the format for The Apprentice that I sure hope Mark Burnett wasn’t watching.

Both MasterChef and The Apprentice Australia are produced by FremantleMedia Australia, and it showed. It also took the tone of the show to a new place.

CONTESTANT RESIDENCE: The episode opened with contestants awakening to a new day and filled with anticipation for what lay ahead. The increasing inclusion of the house is straight out of the Apprentice and Inside Idol before it. As it seeks to tell us more about the group dynamic of this year’s contestants, it also risks shifting the show to a pseudo-Big Brother. How long before we are watching them fight over the bathroom? Like The Apprentice they all packed their luggage and were whisked off to their daily destination.

CHALLENGE: The contestants were divided into two teams beginning with Alvin as one team captain, having won the previous cooking challenge. Given the task of choosing his opponent captain he selected Jonathan. When asked why, he said, “I don’t want him in my team.” What? Am I watching MasterChef? Is this the same show that supported its contestants, cheered for everyone and united us over our love for food? It was a surprising inclusion to the narrative. While I remember the competitiveness of Chris and the determination of Poh, I don’t know that it was ever as mean-spirited. Team-selection continued like a schoolyard pick-off until one poor contestant was the last chef standing, and none too happy. Maybe she was wishing she had sent off an application to My Kitchen Rules after all.

The challenge saw teams each run two Italian restaurants with varying degrees of success. The location shoots are a great change of scenery from the MasterChef kitchen. But even though these kinds of challenges were included in 2009, you could have been mistaken for thinking you were watching The Apprentice. There was even an aerial shot of the city similar to the one FremantleMedia used in the latter.

FACING THE JUDGES:  This was straight out of the Donald Trump / Mark Bouris boardroom. Two teams faced the judges, who commented on their strengths and weaknesses before asking those in the losing team to comment on the performances of their teammates. Sound familiar? A lot of pressure lay on the team captain. Despite not being “fired,” two will face an elimination cook-off tonight. A third contestant also opted to drop out of the show (apologies to the others from the Top 50 who missed out!) and exited in an Apprentice-like car departure. Hopefully she returns to collect her luggage which she didn’t take with her.

Was it entertaining television? Absolutely. Was it derivative television? Absolutely. But is it also indicative of a shift in tone for 2010?

In its new 7:30 timeslot it even included the words “sh*t” and “pi**ed off” -likely to be a surprise to many of the young families that have grown to love the show. Check those classifications, mum.

MasterChef has asked us to adjust to other subtle format changes, including the excision of host Sarah Wilson. I’m already feeling too much of  Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris this year -Wilson’s role should have been beefed up, not cut. Thankfully, Matt Preston remains dazzling stuff, because his role is used more sparingly.

Certainly the ratings have been outstanding for TEN. But ultimately time will tell if there are too many ingredients being thrown into the wok and not enough heart left on the plate.

66 Responses

  1. Last nights was great, but i’ve noticed that too that they always start the episode at the house. Who cares, just cook. I don’t want to know who’s rooming with who. And i cannot believe she quits after its just bloody started. Did she just all of a sudden realise she had a baby?? Don’t audition, if you’re not gonna stick it out.

    Got no problems with what Alvin said. Not a fan of Jonathan at all. Hope he goes.

  2. Jonathon reminds me of that guy from the Apprentice Aust from last year, the smarmy guy, what was his name again? Lynden or something, in fact I was convinced at one point it was him…. tonight’s ep looks great.

  4. Agree with some of your points David. The house was used very sparingly last year, and it is now featuring nearly every episode. The “feel” of this series is a little more ‘bitchy’, but still is great to watch.

    I wouldn’t mind at all if they returned to more focus on food and dreams, than the relationships of the contestants.

  5. If they do this all the time, I will be annoyed. But if it’s a one-off for this one particular challenge, I don’t think it’s too bad. Though I do think they’re being thrown into the deep end too early, and the expectations of beginners are too high.

    I’m sure it will settle back into the routine we are familiar with, especially after we get to know the contestants a bit better. Some of them have barely had their interviews edited into the final cuts yet.

  6. I wanted the blue team to lose as soon as Johnathan mentioned not picking his friend because he wanted to win, and that he woudl have to explain it to her, but she would understand. What a jackass, i was hoping he would do well being a fellow IT guy, but now i hope he goes.

    I dont blame Alvin for not wanting him on his team.

  7. I didn’t think there was much different last night to last years challenges and Q&A after. I do miss Sarah (the host) to bring things together so that there wasn’t such a focus on the judges. As for Alvin’s comment – i think there was some editing there – he made it but then there was not a lot of elaboration i didn’t think. Being so early in the show – they should have brought someone in in place of Sarah.

  8. When Alvin made his comment I too was surprised. He qualified his decision by saying that he had noticed that Jonathan had a tendency to rub people the wrong way and didn’t want that kind of tension on his team. Fair enough. Oddly enough I too last night found myself thinking that it would have been nice to have Sarah on the show. I think there does need to be a separation of food experts and tv host. I love that the contestants do not vote each other out. It was the one thing that really irked me last year. Does anyone else think that the contestants appear to be much more needy and whiney this year?

  10. All of that is the same as last year except Alvin’s remark ,it was mean spirited and that sort of nastiness shouldn’t have a place in MC. Before that Alvin was my favorite to win now I’m hoping to see him get eliminated.

  13. i thought it was pretty poor to have Devon bumped into an elimination round based on one decision made early in the evening that had nothing to do with cooking. Masterchef is meant to be a cooking competition afterall. If it was My Restaurant Rules then perhaps you’d judge on those actions but not Masterchef. I thought it was pretty average for a show that is usually a lot better than that.

  15. David, While I thought these were all interesting points, I think many of the elements you talk about were in MCheflast year? The use of the house, the off-site challenges pitting teams against each other, the school-yard pick-off, the Royal Easter Show challenge from last year also could be considered a little bitchy, the team member who opted out of the Top 24 last year (Nick), the contestants all sat down in two groups and were grilled last year by the judges (it was just Sarah leading the qu’s), the exit in the black style car….
    If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you had forgotten that MChef Australia aired before Apprentice Australia last year? Maybe the similarities should have been picked up last year?

  16. Yeah, I get what you’re saying, David, but they did do this last year as well. The only difference is (in the first month) they got the contestants to vote out someone out of their team who they thought did not perform properly (aka they did not like) and then slammed their name down on a spike in front of them. That was so much more confrontational than the cookoff that we’ll see tonight. What I like is the range of tasks across the week to test all of the cooks. The ‘Apprentice-style’ challenge, which I loved, is just another way to test them. Although I do admit when Alvin said what he said my jaw did drop a little because he has been quite sweet and clean so far in the show. At the end of the day just think of it as a bit of chilli added to the soup for a little bite. It’s not Hell’s Kitchen yet…. 🙂

  18. i agree that seeing too much of gary and matt is becoming a pain in the neck. and also all their yelling and being pumped and hand into palm is over the top now. i think the host should have stayed too and had more of a role and it should be a lady since the judges are all men. but i do love the show and last night was a great viewing overall.

  20. I don’t think the episode last night was anything new for Masterchef. I remember a lot of nasty comments last year…especially when the contestants had to vote one of their own team off the show. At least this year we are spared seeing that, and now get to watch them face-off in an elimination challenge instead. Talking to the 2 teams after their big challenge and going through the positives and negatives with the judges was also a regular part of the show each week last year…tears and all. Same with seeing them all interacting at the house and getting ready (or be woken up) for challenges.

  21. Agree with your comments David although I do remember the team picking from last season, what I had entirely forgotten was last years host, Sarah Wilson, I thought at the time, she was she was little more than background, I guess that is how much I’ve missed her. On with the cooking please….. oh and can someone run down to the chemist and get Adele some sedatives

  22. They always do this, they always try to make these “reality TV’ shows a big bitch fest, you get tired of watching them… MC had a winning formula last year, which shouldnt have been changed so early

  23. Bit of a harsh review of the episode.

    Don’t know if you watched much of last year but the challenge was in very similar vein to every Wednesday Night group challenge last year.

    The swearing; its a PG show in a PG timeslot; it was last year as well.

    The Masterchef house was shown last year.

    The contestants this year to seem a little more bitchy so I will give you that; and I didn’t like Alvin’s comment about Jonathan either.

    I like that eliminations have changed this year; the judges questioning individual contestants was needed in order to make a fair judgement about who faced elimination; unlike last year this seems much fairer rather than the contestants choosing who eliminated who in an alliance type of elimination (least popular goes home rather than worst cook or team player)

    Plus when did it become a new thing for reality shows to borrow ideas and concepts from other reality shows.

  24. I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw this. But ultimately, I think that the changes are for the better. Notice that the contestants aren’t voting each other off. I think that this is a smart move. And let’s face it – what reality tv show doesn’t have similar shows. And its not like all off-site challenges will be like this. Unless the next challenge is to design a new campaign for Coles and then pitch it to a board of directors….lol.

  25. We commented on the amount of “inappropriate” words for a family-friendly timeslot had been let go last night, even with the warnings before the show.

    The simple fact though is that Alvin was spot on – Jonathan comes across as a creep who doesn’t bond with other contestants and in this case I think Alvin, as evidenced by the win, made the right call.

    Sarah, on the other hand, is a disgrace. Another imbecile taking up someone’s place in the Top 50 who could have made more of it.

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