Isolation winning MasterChef ingredient

Home isolation may prove the yeast in MasterChef’s ratings when the reality cooking show relaunches on Ten on Monday night.

MasterChef’s new judging panel of Jock Zonfrillo, Melissa Leong and Andy Allen will have a captive audience of home-isolators when it launches on Monday night.

Reality television in Australia during the COVID-19 crisis has become its own survivor series.

From Housewives of Melbourne to Big Brother, reality television, the lifeblood of networks, myriad programs have had filming suspended or abandoned in the past two months.

Despite the disruption, Network 10’s MasterChef is returning to screens on Monday in the hope of completing its 12th season with a whole new judging line-up.

The return of MasterChef: Back to Win comes at a tough time for Ten, which, like other media companies, is struggling with the collapsing advertising market as a result of COVID-19 and last month announced the departure of CEO Paul Anderson.

Despite some success with the latest Survivor series, it is also lacking a cut-through ratings winner this year. Still, if there was ever a time for a reality TV show about cooking to relaunch, now would be the time with the boom in home cooking forced upon us by self-isolation.

MasterChef: Back to Win brings back some of the show’s top talent who have gone on to successful cooking and media careers, but who nonetheless failed at the first hurdle with the likes of Poh Ling Yeow, Ben Milbourne and Sarah Clare going at it again.

As well as the new judging line-up it will also have big-name cele­brity judges such as Gordon Ramsay and pop star Katy Perry. Executive producer Rick Maier said the situation of launching in tough times was not without parallel, as MasterChef in Australia debuted amid the economic turmoil of the global financial crisis.

“Luckily for us we have had a precedent for this. MasterChef Australia launched while we were all trying to deal with the GFC. Whether that was good luck or good management, MasterChef Australia proved to be the perfect escape hatch for many of us. There’s not much doubt we all need the escapism now too,” Maier told The Australian.

MasterChef this year will also compete with Seven’s new Plate of Origin featuring two of MasterChef’s long-running judges in Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston, but Maier is confident its new trio can hold their own against Seven, which has come off a poor ratings season for MKR. More of a worry for MasterChef will be going head to head with Nine’s Lego Masters when it launches next Sunday.