Network Ten’s highest-profile show, MasterChef Australia, will be without its highest-profile star when it returns next year – Melissa Leong is no longer part of the line-up.
With Scottish chef Jock Zonfrillo having died in April just as the show, for which filming had already been completed, was about to go to air, that means only one of the three hosts who starred on MasterChef this year will remain with it in 2024.
Melissa Leong has been axed from MasterChef Australia.
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.
“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.”
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 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 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 has addressed the news on her social media channels.
“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”.
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2023-10-23 07:26:52Z
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