How Manu Feildel plans to save My Kitchen Rules

MKR continues to be crushed in the ratings by rivals Married At First Sight and Survivor as industry rumours circulate over the future of the show. But Manu Feildel has plans which could change everything.

• Sonia Kruger gearing up for AGT panel disagreements
• ‘I’ll be life and soul of Mardi Gras if I stay awake!’

Manu Feildel has indicated taking a hiatus might be the solution to saving reality show My Kitchen Rules.

Currently being smashed in the ratings by rivals Married At First Sight and Survivor, industry murmurs have suggested this season could be the last for My Kitchen Rules.

“We have got Big Brother coming back, and how long was it rested for?” Feildel questioned. “Four years or whatever and it is coming back, good. Maybe a rest.”

Manu Feildel in a bath of L’Or Espresso capsules. Picture: Justin Lloyd

My Kitchen Rules is now in its 11th season with producers criticised for changing the format this year with Feildel and Colin Fassnidge leading two different groups. Feildel is mentoring returning contestants while Fassnidge is helping new faces.

“I don’t think we have done anything wrong with the season,” Feildel said. “There is a lot for everyone to watch, some people whinge about too much craziness, some people whinge that there’s not enough cooking. It is a show that needs all of the above, you need a bit of food and you need a bit of craziness. It has always been like this.”

My Kitchen Rules judges Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge.

He continued: “It has been 11 years, it has been a good run, we can’t whinge about that. Like anything, people get bored. We tried to reinvent the wheel with a new format. I believe the new format is the best format we’ve ever had but people are watching another show, so be it.”

While Feildel is hopeful MKR will continue, he is busy elsewhere at Channel 7 as he returns as a judge on Australia’s Got Talent and will join fellow chefs Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan on new show Plate of Origin.

Feildel spoke to Confidential as he has teamed up with L’Or Espresso to create a series or recipes aimed at bringing couples together in the month of March, a time the coffee company claims research shows couples are most likely to break up.

Sitting in a bath of 8000 espresso capsules, Feildel said: “I don’t drink like Aussies do all day long but I will have a double shot every morning when I wake up and a double shot before I leave home and I am done for the day. I love coffee of course.”

Manu Feildel mentors the house of 'faves' in the new season of My Kitchen Rules. Teams, from left, Dan and Steph, Jake and Elle, Roula and Rachael, Sophie and Romel and Jac and Shaz. Supplied by Channel 7.