The ratings for the MasterChef finale are in and over at Channel 10’s headquarters the champagne corks will be popping faster than new judges Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo have had time to ask for a pay rise.
More than 1.5 million Australians in the five major cities tuned in last night to see Emilia Jackson’s three course menu of scallops, deep fried ribs and pistachio Financier edge out Laura Sharrad’s offerings based around native ingredients.
In contrast, Sunday’s final of Channel 9’s The Voice, which saw Guy Sebastian’s brother controversially claim the crown, was watched by 911,000 people.
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CHANGING PRESENTERS A HUGE RISK
All things considered, MasterChef really shouldn’t have been that successful. A reality TV series in its 12th season - called Back To Win - with a new presenting team and a pandemic curtailing its on location filming could be forgiven for losing the interest of viewers.
Back to Win’s ratings are still below series two when a mind boggling four million tuned in for the final.
But those early seasons aside, 2020 will likely be the most watched MasterChef for at least five years and has seen off not just The Voice but also Channel 7’s Big Brother reboot.
Ignore all the “redemption cooks” in the kitchen, this year was a redemption ratings win after the show slumped to its lowest ever audience numbers for last year’s finale.
The network somehow managed to perform the televisual equivalent of alchemy: changing a long established show’s entire presenting team while simultaneously increasing viewers.
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TVland is littered with shows that stumbled when new presenters landed.
Viewers of America’s Next Top Model weren’t pleased when Tyra Banks was replaced by Rita Ora. The replacement of the seminal Jeremy Clarkson-led Top Gear team by Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc’s was a failure. Closer to home, the Today show has shown the perils of putting a brand new line-up behind the desk. There were predictions MasterChef could go the same way after the departure of George Calombaris, Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan.
To be fair, established presenting teams are often replaced precisely because ratings are failings rather than being the cause of the viewer drop off.
But whatever the reason, it’s a nervous time for networks which assume some viewers will peel away once their favourites leave.
CHANNEL 10’S WEEK ONE MASTERCHEF PLAN
You have to rewind to MasterChef’s: Back to Win’s first episode to see the clever sleight of hand Channel 10 pulled.
It’s been on so long, it may feel like the current season began sometime in early 1982, but it was a mere three and half months ago when we were introduced on air to Andy, Melissa and Jock.
Relatively unknown outside of culinary circles, the shadow of George, Matt and Gary loomed large.
But Channel 10 didn’t less us dwell on that. Because in episode one we were all too busy going “look its Poh; it’s Emilia, there’s Haydn; hey Reece, just a second who’s that guy?”
And if that wasn’t enough, they casually threw Gordon Ramsey on the set for an entire week.
It was all such a blur that by the time Ramsey waltzed back to Britain, when border closures were just some fanciful plot device from a dystopian sci-fi novel, we’d just about got over the novelty of the new presenters.
Chucking in scores of well-known contestants and a world renowned judge provided the show with an air of familiarity even though the judges, arguably the most important role in the show, were all unfamiliar.
It worked an absolute treat. By week two, George’s use of gargantuan tweezers to divide up food; Matt’s colourful cravats and Gary’s words of wisdom seemed throwbacks to another era.
The easy route would have been for the producers to plump for famous faces. Perhaps Maggie Beer, Julie Goodwin from season one, the chap with the ponytail who has bounced around the immunity challenges for the last few years. Instead they went for a trio with talent, chemistry and camaraderie.
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Happy puppy Andy may have been ribbed for his love of the word “cracking” but his enthusiasm was infectious.
Jock was the wise uncle of the kitchen, so much so guest judge Katy Perry actually called him “Daddy”. It was what we were all thinking.
And then there’s Melissa: instant Australian national treasure. Her connection with the contestants was palpable; her description of their dishes was a joy to hear and her emotion each week as one of them left was hard to watch.
All three seemed genuine and real. Even Melissa’s previous knocking of the show did no harm; some dredged up tweets were no match for her bulldozer strength warmth and food knowledge.
The show was a celebration of a modern Australia, where dishes that could have been whipped up on a barbecue on a Queensland beach went up against the full throttled flavours of a Malaysian hawker market.
Even the pandemic helped. It mucked up the location shoots but it gifted a captive audience, willing to drink in a TV show that felt comforting and safe when the world outside was rapidly turning into the exact opposite.
Last night, Channel 10 posted an Instagram post with the three judges thanking the viewers.
“Thank you so much of giving Jock, Andy and myself the chance to be a part of your lives and opening your homes to us,” said Melissa.
The replies to the post were universally positive.
“There couldn’t be any better replacement. All three of you brought your own personality to the show which made it even more special and even more enjoyable,” said one.
Another fan simply said, “you nailed it guys”.
It may have been Perry who told Reece that he was “the tits” but for Channel 10 that particular phrase could be applied to the new judges.
This year’s MasterChef may become a global case study in how you change a presenting team and actually improve the ratings in the process.
That really is reality TV witchcraft.
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2020-07-21 06:33:57Z
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