★★★★★ 0/5

MasterChef-interruptus angers viewers

The interrupted finale for MasterChef will also leave a sour taste in viewers' mouths as viewers talk of switching off The Renovators in protest.

55
Leave a comment

TEN’s split-programming of the MasterChef finale, with The Renovators sandwiched in between, angered many viewers last night.

TEN screened The Renovators at 7:30pm after the first two challenges of the MasterChef cook-off. Viewers were forced to return at 8:30pm for the third challenge and final scores.

The winner wasn’t announced until around 9:45pm AEST -too late for many kids who are fans of the show.

Last night both TV Tonight readers and Twitter accounts were directing their fury at TEN, with many indicating they would refuse to watch The Renovators in protest. It may well go down as one of the clumsiest Programming moves of the year.

The bizarre plot, designed to capitalise on TEN’s finale audience, follows previous criticism that TEN has programmed the new series too soon, expecting viewers to sit through too much reality content.

The Shine Australia series has cost millions but TEN might have endeared more viewers to the show with a more considered programming plan.

The interrupted finale for MasterChef will also leave a sour taste in viewers’ mouths on the back of a season that has already attracted considerable criticism. It was the last in a string of disappointments for viewers.

Last night both “Channel 10” and “Channel Ten” were trending on Twitter, but it wasn’t over who was the best cook:

ElizabHk:
Many friends cranky with Ch10’s decision to split #Masterchef finale with #TheRenovators.

nicchristensen:
We are now getting angry calls on Radio 2GB about the Channel 10 #Masterchef programming decision – people are angry

AZ_HiFi:
mass exodus from tv when The Block started on Ch10. #masterchef #michaelFTW

artsjourno:
Don’t get caught by the pathetic Network Ten #masterchef ploy to make you watch The Renovators. Grand Designs on ABC 1 now.

realityraver:
This break in Masterchef transmission is treating the fans with contempt. #masterchef

stephenmead:
Great story on 60 minutes #masterchef well not masterchef – am watching anything but CH10 until 8:30

CraigCarlyon:
I am glad ch10 split #masterchef I have discovered so many interesting shows on other channels

luisaliving:
Dear Channel Ten, thanks for time to cook and eat dinner in between #masterchef finale sessions.

PipRMB:
Well we’ve switched off the telly between #masterchef finales and having a family chat. Now we’ve got something to thank Channel Ten for!

MichaelByrnes:
This #masterchef finale is so long you could fly to the Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, have a meal and return before it’s over.

robynming:
Channel Ten, do we really need a flashback? I remember what happened an hour ago… #MasterChef

55 Responses

  1. memo to programmers: we are not morons. we own a remote control for Every tv in the house…all it takes is 1 push of a button and your so called ‘strategy’ is gone…suck it up now…you know you have to.

  3. Well said Tassie.

    Change the flipping channel you bunch of whiners. No one is ‘forcing’ you to watch anything, they are hoping some people may hang around but no one has a gun to your head or anything!

  4. @Jordan: it was the Woman’s Day interview with Kate that was heavily advertised on Nine last night. I saw the article in the supermarket this morning, it did not mention she was the winner, but she did say she wanted to operate a Bed and Breakfast in Orange and return to her anonymous life.

  5. What, so it’s a crime to use strong lead ins and lead outs to try to get extra viewers for a show still finding its feet? That’s just whinging over nothing.

    Next people will be whinging about ads being shown in the middle of programmes.

  7. PS I was more annoyed that they insulted my intelligence in thinking I would watch the Renovator’s just because I wanted to watch Master chef, I, like may viewers are smart enough to use the remote to switch off when nothing I want to watch is on.

  8. For me it wasn’t a big deal because I could watch the Block and then tune in for the final round to see who won. But I just found it quite funny because it was so obvious they put the renovators inbetween to try and get ratings. Obviously it failed, if you like MC but hate The renovators your not going to sit through an hour of it waiting for MC to come on. People are smart enough to go off and do what they want for that hour and not sit by stupidly watching Channel 10 waiting. On a side note, all of you saying the did it to The Biggest Loser, it was a different scenario, they played the final daily episode when the went home, then played MC. They didn’t split the actual finale up, they were two different shows. It has been done like that for many of the seasons, I doubt it was because of Master Chef because masterchef had the same time slot when the biggest loser was on as it did when it was finished.

  9. I didn’t really mind – I hate when you have to sit there for 2.5 hours waiting, waiting, waiting – get the heck on with it!!

    And if you really weren’t that interested you could come in at 8.30 and just watch the finale – trust me you would not have missed much.

  10. @Hugh: He apparently tweeted last week that he was absent from taping the final MasterClass due to illness.

    The 7.30-8.30 gap was unusual (though not unique, The Biggest Loser did it when it split its finale to accommodate MC!) but I just switched over to The Simpsons (so Ten still got my eyeballs but not on their premium product 🙂 ) and then got some other stuff done around the house before coming back to Ten at 8.30. Perhaps they should have just had MC from 6.30 to 8.30ish then Renovators from 8.30, but – really – it’s not something I am too distressed about either way it’s just a TV show.

  11. I love Masterchef, but this year I slowly started to lose interest. As much discussed here and elsewhere the favourtism of contestants etc was putting me off. Having the finale interrupted annoyed me so much that I didn’t bother watching the whole show and just found out the result before it aired in Perth.

    I don’t mind The Renovators, but I would of preferred to watch it after or before Masterchef.

  13. We didn’t even start watching till just after renovators finished, pity we missed the first 2 challenges, but
    a) the break in the middle was an issue
    b) the finale as a whole goes on too long, if they cut out the recaps they could shorten it a lot (but then they get less ads in).

  14. The Renovaters is a great show. Pity so many missed it. Why do people have to complain. It was only an hour long. It wasn’t like the finale was split over a week or you had to wait until next year to find out what happens. Ten split MC in order to expose the Renovators to a wider audience. It was a great idea and if you were running a business, you would want your products to get as much exposure as possible and that is what happened here. 1.2 million is a good figure, not great as it should have been but still.

    We cannot forget that Masterchef was in the middle of The Biggest Loser finale in 2009 which is what happened this year with the Renovators and look what happened there. Masterchef was written off from the start and even saw ratings dip across the week with under 1 million for Thursday’s eliminations until the show picked up over time. The Renovators should do just that and improve. A lot of good shows suffer because people wont give them a chance and maybe that is why Nine and Ten have struggled. Winners and Losers interupted Rafters and its a winner not a loser and even AGT pushed W&L back which was annoying.

  15. I was personally unaffected by this by using the wonderful IQ and it’s timeshifting. Started watching The Block at 6:30, then at 8 I started watching recorded MC, fast forwarding the ads, the first ep ended, quickly loaded up the second ep and continued watching until I eventually caught up with the live broadcast (which meant I had to sit through ads grrrrr!) I agree with the others that there was too much recapping. There was I think 5-10 minutes at the start of the episode which was obviously aimed at people who have never watched MC this year. I really hope that Shine fixes the show next year or I will stop watching. Was nowhere near as engaging this year.

  16. I think it was a good idea; but not to get people to watch Renovators. Like the majority, I switched off to do other things, cleaned the kitchen, caught some of the stuff on Eleven. 🙂 Very bad idea to get viewers in, I would think by now after all the Masterchef controversy this season that 10 would figure out their mistakes. But no, finale gave them yet another chance to p*ss everyone off.

  17. Hugh, the last masterclass probably was recorded around the time Hayden’s elimination was aired. He did more press that week than any other eliminated contestant has done, that’s the most likely reason for him not being there for the masterclass.

  18. Can’t see the fuss, I switched over to Fox Sports to watch the best footy show on TV After The Bounce,which runs 7.30pm to 8.30 pm then switched back, thanks C10 saved me from two things, watching the horrendous Renovators and could watch AFB live instead of recording it and watching it later, by the way glad Kate won, but mmmmmmmm….. a bit suss

  19. I kinda liked it, if only because it meant I could watch Grand Designs. I gave up on Masterchef towards the end of the carrot snowman and just looked up the winner on here. Too stretched out, and cause I didnt *really* like either I didnt feel any guilt for looking it up.

  20. Channel TEN did the same thing for Masterchef when it first aired…they sandwiched it in between The Biggest Loser finale – everyone seems to have forgotten that…

  23. My TiVo is set to record MasterChef and The Renovators. So what happened was that it recorded the first hour of MasterChef, then recorded The Renovators and somehow missed a big chunk of the start of the last hour of MasterChef. Argh! So I had to go online to the Channel 10 website to try and watch it online there and by doing so found out that Kate had won. Double argh!

  24. If Ten had to give the impression that it was intentionally interrupting MasterChef to show The Renovators, already it implies that the show is not good enough to gain a viewerbase through amiable means.

Leave a Reply