Hamish Blake admits Lego Masters copied a ‘MasterChef trick’

Fans at least had to give Lego Masters host Hamish Blake points for honesty during a very familiar-looking segment last night.

Fans tuning into Monday night’s episode of Lego Masters might have momentarily thought they were watching that ‘other’ Australian reality TV hit with ‘Master’ in the title.

And Lego Masters’ always-cheeky host Hamish Blake couldn’t resist pointing out the similarity between the rival shows, eventually conceding that Nine’s smash hit had swiped a “MasterChef trick” from Ten’s cooking show wholesale.

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Towards the end of last night’s Lego Masters episode, with elimination looming, two teams went head-to-head in a quick battle to build the most realistic Lego model.

As the teams raced to meet their deadline, Hamish and the rest of the contestants looked down on them from a specially constructed platform a few metres away. The set-up will be familiar to anyone who’s watched MasterChef before:

Does this set up look familiar?

“Under the rules of reality television, during a head-to-head build, anyone who’s safe must be elevated off the floor,” Blake announced. “No-one knows why that’s the rule, but it certainly adds a lot of pressure!”

As the build continued, Blake cheekily called out the elephant in the room: “What, it’s like MasterChef?” he whispered to the contestants. “No it’s not! No it’s not!”

In a to-camera interview, Blake continued the bit: “Making them go head-to-head, with everyone watching? That’s not a ‘MasterChef trick’, that’s just a TV thing …”

“What’s that? Did MasterChef invent it?”

Then Blake pretended to speak to an off-camera producer:

“What’s that? Did MasterChef invent it, did they? Did you work on MasterChef? Did you really? Five seasons? Which ones? Oh, Poh!”

“Yep, it’s a MasterChef trick.”

Fans appreciated Blake’s honesty:

Now they can plate up their creations #LegoMastersAU#MasterChefAU

— Rosalind Lloyd (@roslloyd32) May 4, 2020

The #MasterChefAU friendly shade was pure gold though #LEGOMastersAU

— Liz (@ultratitas_3jsb) May 4, 2020

For it to be a real #MasterchefAU rippoff the other builders need to be constantly shouting useless things like "build faster" and "keep going" #LEGOMastersAU

— Retattle the Retittle of her Rebuttal (@lil_nazza) May 4, 2020

Okay I'm here for that friendly #MasterChefAU shade on #LEGOMastersAU tonight.

— Brian MacNamara (@BMac_TLDR) May 4, 2020

#LEGOMastersAU Hamish little comment about masterchef pic.twitter.com/nrC6v7sFDg

— 𝚂𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚢 (@ShadowsEclipsed) May 4, 2020

Both Lego Masters and MasterChef are blitzing the ratings this season, the two shows pulling in more than a million viewers per episode. Dare we suggest a crossover season? Lego MasterChefs. Nine, Ten: make it happen.