Seven cooking up a My Kitchen Rules comeback

One of Channel Seven’s most iconic television franchises could make a comeback as early as next year as the broadcaster looks to boost network ratings and attract lucrative advertising dollars.

Industry sources familiar with Seven West Media’s plans, who spoke anonymously because they are not authorised to speak on the programming strategy, said the network is talking to production companies about producing My Kitchen Rules from next year. The show was previously produced by Seven Studios.

My Kitchen Rules was once one of the most popular shows on television.

The talks are in the early stages, the sources said, and there is no guarantee they will result in MKR’s return to television. Seven did not respond in time for deadline.

Once considered Australia’s most popular cooking show, MKR at its peak reached millions of viewers with each episode. It was axed last year by chief executive James Warburton who said it was “stale” and needed a pause. The show had been running since 2010 with hosts Manu Fieldel and Pete Evans.

“It wasn’t that we didn’t invest in [MKR and House Rules],” Mr Warburton said. “We tried really hard. But viewers are looking for something fresh and different. So we’ve rested them. We’ll bring them back at the right time when we’ve got the right momentum and they can be freshened up.”

Seven also fired longstanding host Evans from MKR early last year, as the show’s ratings started to decline and the company looked at ways to cut costs. Evans is known for his unscientific health advice and misinformation about cures for coronavirus.

When MKR launched in early 2020, it had just 498,000 capital city viewers. At its peak, the show premiered with 1.78 million capital city viewers. While Seven no longer believes the overnight ratings should be tracked, the network will be looking for shows that attract large amounts of money from advertisers. MKR is widely considered one of the hit programs that resulted in Seven surpassing Nine in the ratings to become the most watched television station in the country.

Seven holds the trademark licence for the MKR brand, but it will need to secure a contract with a production house because the producers of the show are no longer employed by the company. The sources said that one of the people pitched the idea was one of the Fennessy brothers, who used to run Endemol, and Eureka Productions, which boasts Seven’s former head of reality Rikkie Proost as part of its leadership team.

While the ratings for MKR were not as strong in their final year, the production costs for the program are much cheaper than other shows such as Holey Moley, The Voice and Big Brother. When Seven ran its own production studios each episode costs between $200,000 to $400,000. Outsourcing the program, however, could cost up to $800,000 an episode depending on how long the season runs.

Seven started outsourcing most of its production early last year in an effort to cut costs. MKR was originally created by Seven’s in-house production arm, Seven Studios, but most of that division no longer exists.

Kerry Stokes-controlled Seven West, which owns the Seven Network and West Australian Newspapers, has spent the last year cutting costs and overhauling its business strategy. The company slashed staff salaries and a large amount of roles last year as the coronavirus pandemic caused significant advertising downturn. Seven has since renegotiated its debt with bankers and reduced headcount to the company’s lowest levels since 2003. Mr Warburton said last week Seven debt would fall to between $270 million and $280 million by the end of the financial year.

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