This was published 1 year ago
‘Great gift’: Melissa Leong responds to being dumped from MasterChef
By Karl Quinn
Network 10’s highest-profile show, MasterChef Australia, will be without its highest-profile star when it returns next year, with Melissa Leong no longer part of the line-up.
News that the long-running cooking contest would move to a four-host line-up next year, with only Andy Allen returning, broke on Monday, on the eve of the network’s upfront presentation in Sydney on Tuesday morning.
Melissa Leong has been axed from MasterChef Australia.
But it was the news that Gold Logie nominee Leong would not be part of MasterChef Australia when it returns for its 16th season that grabbed most attention.
With Scottish chef Jock Zonfrillo having died in April just as the show – for which all filming had been completed – was about to go to air, that meant only one of the three hosts who starred on MasterChef this year would remain with it in 2024.
Andy Allen, winner of season four and a host since 2020 following the departure of original hosts Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan over a pay dispute in 2019, will remain with the show, as part of a four-person line-up.
The other hosts will be Poh Ling Yeow, runner-up of the show’s first season in 2010, Michelin-starred chef Jean-Christophe Novelli – who runs a string of restaurants in the UK, has run cooking masterclasses since 2005 and has been a regular on British TV screens for almost two decades – and high-profile local food writer Sofia Levin.
The new lineup for MasterChef Australia: Jean-Christophe Novelli, Andy Allen, Poh Ling Yeow and Sofia Levin.Credit: Network 10
“After an extremely difficult year in 2023, and upon reflection, the decision to return to the series is not one I took lightly,” said Allen in a statement issued via the network.
“But there is something special in the MasterChef Australia kitchen, and it feels right to come back to work with the amazing production team, and to play my role in seeing the contestants do as I have done.”
Other announcements in 10’s schedule include Robert Irwin stepping into the co-hosting role alongside Julia Morris on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here, as well as a show featuring the entire Irwin clan modelled on the late Steve Irwin’s Crocodile Hunter.
In fact, 10, which positions itself as the most youth-focused of the free-to-air networks, is putting great faith in some golden oldies to boost its fortunes next year.
Robert Irwin joins Julia Morris in the jungle for I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here.Credit: Network 10
The already-announced Gladiators is a revival of a show that first aired here in 1995. But network programming boss Daniel Monaghan is certain its time has come … again.
“It is ripe for recognition,” he said. “This is a show that’s targeted at a youth audience and there’s a whole younger generation that has not been exposed to it.”
The reimagined series was, he said, “shot like a Marvel Universe and that is what we’re capitalising on - the costumes, the grand nature of these gladiators, and will the underdogs be able to beat them?”
Other reboots include Deal or No Deal, to be hosted by Grant Denyer and to run in the 6pm slot as lead-in to The Project, Top Gear Australia (for the streaming platform Paramount+, with Survivor host Jonathan LaPaglia joining the line-up), and a short run of Wheel of Fortune, hosted by Graham Norton and shot in England with expat Australians in the studio audience and as contestants.
Leong, who was nominated for the Gold Logie in 2022, remains a major asset for Ten, and will stay with the network as co-host of spin-off series Dessert Masters, which debuts on November 12 and will return for a second season next year.
But while she has been popular with viewers, unconfirmed reports of tensions with crew on the long-running MasterChef have circulated for more than a year.
Production company Endemol Shine Australia makes both MasterChef and Dessert Masters.
A spokesperson for the network said the decision to shuffle the hosting line-up was due to filming schedules and publicity demands outside of filming.
“Melissa Leong remains a key member of the MasterChef Australia family,” the spokesperson said. “Melissa is set to return for a second season of Dessert Masters in 2024, alongside fellow judge and pastry prodigy Amaury Guichon.
“Next year, MasterChef Australia and Dessert Masters will air back to back. Therefore, each show needs its own distinct style and personality and its own unique hosting team.”
Paramount, the owner of Network Ten and streaming service Paramount Plus, is due to announce its full 2024 line-up on Tuesday morning.
Leong addressed the news on her social media channels late on Monday.
“My time as co-host and judge on @MasterChefAU has been a great gift,” she wrote. “To have been given the opportunity to learn and grow – and now to be given the vote of confidence to expand and evolve the MasterChef universe [with spin-off show Dessert Masters] is huge!
“It is with great warmth and enthusiasm that I wish this new lineup of judges and hosts all the best in making it theirs, and big love to @andyallencooks for leading the way.”
Leong said, “The changing of the guard is one I always planned to embrace, and I’m so glad to do that, on my terms, today”, adding that she would be “excited to share with you (soon), some other projects I’ve been working on behind the scenes”.
Contact the author at kquinn@theage.com.au, follow him on Facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on Twitter @karlkwin, and read more of his work here.
Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.