How to turn around My Kitchen Rules as it falls to worst ratings in its history

CHANNEL 7’s cooking juggernaut My Kitchen Rules has come off the boil, slumping to its worst ratings in the show’s seven year history.

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CHANNEL 7’s cooking juggernaut My Kitchen Rules has been served its worst ratings in the history of the series, raising alarm the once-dominant reality series has come off the boil.

MKR averaged 1.016 million viewers across the five capital cities on Wednesday night, good enough to be the number one show for the night, but way off the 1.3 million to 1.4 million viewers watching this time last year.

Its greatest threat has come from Channel 9’s revamped dating series, Married At First Sight, which has taken the wind out of MKR’s sails and beaten the food competition three nights in a row this week — ending its seven-year reign at the top.

My Kitchen Rules has been beaten three nights in a row by Married at First Sight.

The ratings low last night would have be an added worry for Seven, given MAFS wasn’t screening.

The crash comes as MKR moves from its instant restaurant rounds to the less-engaged MasterChef-style group challenges.

The latest phase of the competition, which will play out across most of March, traditionally rate less than the instant restaurant rounds.

Last night’s episode centred on a beach barbecue challenge, which sent Amy and Tyson Murr and Damo and Caz Aherne into a sudden death cook-off on Sunday.

Experts wonder whether it is time for Seven to give My Kitchen Rules the sort of shake-up Nine gave The Block two years ago.

Bec and George Douros, Matt Di Costa and Kim Owen and Dee and Darren Jolly were in the early elimination rounds of The Block Triple Threat. Picture: Channel 9

After disappointing ratings for The Block: Triple Threat, Nine stripped the renovation show’s format back to basics.

The following year’s The Block: Blocktagon had no eliminations, fewer episodes, run times shortened to 60 from 90 minutes and Thursday night episodes dropped.

When it first aired in 2010, created to take on Ten’s ratings monster, MasterChef, the debut season of MKR ran for just 15 episodes.

Last year’s seventh season ballooned to a mind-numbing 48 episodes, testing the loyalty of any audience.

Over the years, producers have used tactics including a third round of instant restaurants, a fourth “redemption round” of instant restaurants, and a Top 5 ultimate instant restaurant round to force the series to play out over three months.

This year saw the introduction of sudden death cook-offs between the two bottom scoring teams in each group.

The overall standard of cooking has also dropped noticeably across the years, as producers cast for personality not necessarily kitchen skills.

Bek and Ash had a record low score in My Kitchen Rules’ history. Picture: Jody D’Arcy

While this year’s series has seen record highs from Tim Atwill and Kyle McLean, as well as Amy and Tyson, they have been offset by a record low from Bek Outred and Ash Brannan and a swag of below-average dishes.

My recipe to get MKR sizzling again.

1. PICK TEAMS WHO CAN COOK: seems pretty basic, doesn’t it? But too many of this year’s teams lack any sort of cooking talent. When judges are consistently giving scores of 1s and 2s for dishes, something is horribly wrong.

2. NO SECOND CHANCES: cut out the sudden death elimination cook-off episodes between the two worst teams. No-one needs to see crap on a plate twice.

3. DROP GROUP 3: A third group of contestants was added in 2015 to pad out the show’s length. Time to give it the chop.

4. BIN THE SIMPLE DISHES: no-one should be allowed to plate up steak and three veg or fish and salad in what purports to be a cooking competition.

5. BENCH THE VILLAINS: MKR has always been a pantomime but this year’s series has jumped the shark with dubious “baddies” such as Tyson “Angry Angry Man” Murr and Josh “The Seafood King” Meeuwissen.

6. HAVE A BETTER ETHNIC MIX: MKR has always been very white compared to MasterChef Australia. This year’s show has featured far too many Anglos with no food knowledge. One contestant revealed it was only the second time she had eaten prawns. Come on!

7. BE HONEST: MKR’s dirty little secret is how many teams fail because they aren’t cooking in their own kitchen. Be honest with the audience, let’s know the truth.

CAN MKR BE SAVED OR ITS DECLINE TERMINAL? HAVE YOUR SAY BELOW