Masterchef Season 3
The story so far...
While Season 1 of MasterChef was a great success, somehow, Season 2 managed to surpass it in terms of ratings. Of course there was the inevitable criticism, such as a small whimper from three or four people that wanted Sarah Wilson back as host (the three judges became hosts as well). There was also a bit of an outcry when favourite to win, Marion, was eliminated because of an inferior satay sauce (it was deemed too thick).
However, the series only became grander in scale, more polished and managed to hold viewers attention for the entirety of the series.
What's different?
Matt Moran will join as a regular guest judge.
There will be a guest appearance by UK chef, Nigella Lawson, who was recently in Australia.
The first challenge will take place on Cockatoo Island.
What's the same?
The three judges are the same: Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan.
Trailer/Preview clips
Predicted Ratings
The first season premiered to 1,428,000 viewers.
The second season premiered to 1,695,000 viewers.
Ten will be hoping for a slight rise, yet viewing figures have been down across the board this year. Given the over-saturation of My Kitchen Rules, there will still be a slight cooking hangover. There will also be competition with a little show called "The Logies" to factor in. I would expect something in the range of
1,400,000 - 1,500,000
Anything over that would be excellent for Ten.
The Buzz
Generally good, but very little as yet.
Good buzz
Nothing much in the Australian press as yet, but it doesn't hurt to have some glowing compliments paid to it in the UK press in recent times:
"It seems strange, really, that MasterChef Australia, from which the new UK show borrows heavily, can combine many of the same elements and come up trumps. But then it also does everything the British show does, just 50 times bigger. So the judges are more flamboyant, more ridiculous; the contestants live in a house together and vote each other off; they have cook-offs against real chefs; they cater amazing weddings on boats. Against that background, setting the whole thing in a vast, sunlit warehouse feels vaguely reasonable. On BBC1, it doesn't."
http://guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/apr/14/masterchef-bbc-gregg-wallace?cat=tv-and-radio&type=article
Opinion
Ten would be acutely aware of the fact that viewers have just been watching My Kitchen Rules on Seven. If they want to maintain their dominant position, they also have to make it sufficiently different from the previous two series. They could get away with serving up a fairly similar Season 2 to season 1, as viewers know what they will get. It was also a chance to capture the attention of those that hadn't seen the first series, with the same winning formula.
However, for Season 3, they will have to straddle the line between the familiar (so as to not to risk tampering with a winning formula) and the new (to keep viewers interested).
One would hope they have spent the break ironing out a few creases (or what I saw as creases);
The amount of bloody crying; I don't mind a bit of emotion being expressed through the tear glands, but when contestants cry over other contestants leaving, when contestants cry over one bad comment, etc., it just becomes a melodrama. And especially when the producers go to lengths to make contestants cry, such as the "cook something your dead grandmother used to cook so that you will be reminded of her and cry" episode.
But apart from that, Masterchef Season 3 should be another stellar season. And that's looking at it without the contestants; if there are some fiery/wacky/quirky personalities it will propel it into the stratosphere once again.
0 comments:
Post a Comment