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.
- Published by David Knox
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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:Â 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.
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- Tagged with Inside Idol, MasterChef Australia, My Kitchen Rules, The Apprentice
66 Responses
@ chris – i agree didn’t notice jonathon do anything that would make anyone dislike him. comes across as a decent guy to me and as you say took full responsibility for his teams failings. alvin on the other hand was nice to begin with but we now see his true colours and they aren’t pretty.
This show isn’t exactly ground-breaking tv. But I don’t agree that there is any change from last year to make it more Apprentice-like. They had several of this style of challenge last season.
If anything, this show is more like a vague copy of Top Chef.
The only thing that bothers me is the increased presence of the house. I’ve only watched the show about 3 or 4 times this year due to other televisual commitments at 7:30, so I wouldn’t have known anyway, but people are mentioning it so I figure it must be true. It makes the show too Big Brother-esque and drives the focus away from cooking.
Speaking of The Apprentice, is Nine making a second series?
David, i didn’t see anyone head off with their luggage.
The language hasn’t changed at all since last year. Masterchef, The Biggest loser and Big Brother have all featured the same language at 7:00 for years. It obviously doesn’t turn any viewers off.
Alvin made the right call, Jonathon is ok but doesn’t have the t.v. presence to go much further. All the tears are getting to me. Why can’t they just look at the lighter side of life instead of crying. It is after all a cooking show not. “This is your Life.”
I agree that it wasn’t too different to last year. However I have noticed that 3 people have already left this year, and we haven’t even had any eliminations yet. I’ve only watched one episode of Survivor but I think that whole immunity thing is similar to what they’ve got. I’m not complaining, that whole ‘fast track to the finals’ thing was pretty dumb.
And I’m obviously not paying close enough attention but Johnathon didn’t seem nasty to me at all! When Alvin said it, I was like “Huh?” And at the end of the challenge Johnathon defended Claire and he took responsibility for the loss, which I thought was pretty good of him.
Interesting to note TEN has just changed the Classification for tonight’s ep from G to PG and indicated next Wednesday as “PG. Some Coarse Language.”
For those who argue the show had the same qualities last year I don’t remember the format and tone skating so close to Apprentice, right down to heading off with their luggage, which was the point of the article. As I said in the final sentence, we’ll know later if these are early signs of a bigger shift in the show.
Agree with other commenters – this was the same as last year and the team ‘who can make the most money’ challenges were always an obvious lift from the Apprentice. In jacking up the show from the UK original the producers borrowed liberally from other reality formats.
So obvious when you spell it out, David. I still loved it. Was also surprised as Alvin’s cut-down of Johnathon.
Am hoping Devon stays coz he’s hot…time will tell if he’s a good chef coz his blunder last night was terrible.
I did not see any real difference to last years show, don’t think Sarah Wilson is necessary, didn’t have a problem with the swearing and don’t think Alvins comment was out of place – I am impressed that someone has the cahonies to actually be honest about something for once!
I also like the change in elimination as it means you can’t pick on the least popular or the biggest threat.
Nothing is different to season 1. They picked teams like last night, they had contestants that didnt want others in their team and we knew about it, They had the same sort of challanges, if i remember correctly last yr there were a few s**ts and asses thrown into the mix even by gary, we also saw alot of the house last yr so that is also nothing new, judging the contestants and asking the questions after a challange happened last yr. So overall the only difference i notice is the fact they get a pin if they beat the celebrity.
I found it to be the same as last year, only difference is that the contestents don’t vote someone out, which i think is good.
Alvins comment re Jonathan made me laugh so much, he was so blunt, but i think Jonathan is a tad full of himself and its nice to see him taken down a peg or two.
Who cares if it’s like The Apprentice!? MasterChef is a brilliant show, and if it has similarities to The Apprentice, well does it really matter!? Love the show.
Re Alvin’s comment – I was shocked, but only because he was honest. Last year they said exactly the same things about each other, but behind their backs i.e. in to-camera interviews later. So i don’t actually think there’s any difference there.
One difference may be that they asked the question, or that the answer was screened.
Sarah’s not the first mum to misjudge when she’s ready to be away from her baby – let’s not be too harsh.
i am loving masterchef this is the first year i have watched it from the start
if you collected all the tears that the contestants have shed so far then australia would be completely drought free but i do agree with others it is annoying
i like the house scenes probaly because i liked BB so much
Anyone seen a UK show called The Restaurant? Over a week 5 teams of two take a restaurant for a day & run it, one in kitchen and one out front, and the team that makes the most on their day wins the week. Of course it only shows on Fox so maybe Ten figured it was safe to poach the idea?
And yes, enough of the chats to camera and weepy shots, get on with it like the UK original does.
Another point-ad breaks do not necessarily create tension, Ten… They actually make me want to switch!
That girl leaving annoyed the absolute Crap out of me. You know as soon as you go to the audition that you will need to be away from your family for a long period of time. If you can’t handle it, leave it until you can. Taking that opportunity away from someone else is so incredibly selfish. Nothing annoys me more on these shows than the constant “Everybody has to feel sorry for me/my experience is so much harder than yours/everybody give me attention because I have children!!!” The girls from the pink team on Biggest Loser last year were always putting forward that argument.
Again – if you can’t be away from them, then Don’t Go!!
@ Andrew I don’t think the decision to place Devon in elimination round was a poor decision at all; yes Masterchef is a cooking show; but at the same time these are contestants that have said they all want to be in the food industry own their own cafe etc; what he did was something that wouldn’t be tolerated in a restaurant and if one day he is to become a restaurant owner he is going to need to know that. If Sarah hasn’t of left the top 24 she likely would’ve been in the elimination rather than him.
Speaking of Sarah’s whilst I thought Sarah Wilsons role last year was ho-hum with not much to do I do miss her presence on the show.
JB: Yeah i agree, if you have a 6mth old why go into a comp that will take you away from it for months (unless you want to get away).
It was the points of difference that made MasterChef special, and now it seems like the Biggest Loser with cooking instead of dieting. I hope they cut down on the “behind the scenes” aspect as I have little interest, and David I couldn’t agree more about Sarah Wilson being needed with a beefed up role, Gary and George work best in small doses.
I’m liking it sor far….hoeverw..why is it so “touchy-feely” ?
It’s like when anyone gets some screen time, they have to turn on the waterworks.
I can appreciate that food is important to them and it can stir up emotions, but does every answer to the questions “why do you want to win master chef” / “tell us about your dish” have to end up with tears? And as soon as one person tears up, it just cascades through the crowd / group?
I’m trying to not sound harsh, but the episodes seem a lot softer than last years.
Also, while i’m on it, whats with Matt prestons kitchen paper adverts? Cringe worthy or what????
I agree with several other comments. Last night’s ep. didn’t seem a whole lot different to the team challenges from season one.
The only significant difference I noted was that the losing team no longer gets to vote off their weakest link. That’s an improvement for sure. I reckon the only criteria for a contestant being eliminated should be based on cooking skill, not personality (as annoying as some of those contestants are).
As for the inclusion of scenes from the MC house, they became more frequent over the course of season one too – a little too big brother for my liking.
Does anyone know if the Apprentice is coming back on 9 this year? It really was a fantastic show!