There’s good news for those of you who wish to remain forever trapped inside the MasterChef kitchen: It would appear that Channel Ten has called an audible and will extend the current Back to Win season out by several weeks.
In last night’s episode, host and judge Jock Zonfrillo revealed that, with 8 contestants remaining in the series, the show will do away with certain challenges and instead focus on a weekly schedule involving Mystery Box, Immunity, and Elimination challenges.
By extension, that means that, from this week on, MasterChef will be rolling back its weekly output from five episodes back to three. Instead of the usual Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Sunday schedule, TV guide listing show it will now only air on Monday/Tuesday/Sunday.
That means the Team Challenge has been ditched for the remainder of the season – with only 8 chefs remaining, that should be for obvious reasons – and the Tuesday night elimination challenge is also gone.
Which leaves the weekly episode schedule now looking more like:
- Monday: Mystery Box
- Tuesday: Immunity Challenge
- Sunday: Elimination
By extension, that schedule means that only one chef will be eliminated per week. And with 8 remaining in the competition, that means that the series could very well be extended out for a good number of weeks yet; possibly as many as 5 – 6 weeks.
Working on that schedule, a Final Two would be determined following an elimination on Sunday, July 19th, paving the way for a two-night finale that would potentially conclude on Tuesday, July 21st.
That would give the series a total of 62 episodes all up. That number is well below the pack leader of MasterChef seasons in terms of episodes aired; that title belongs solely to Season 3, which clocked in a truly monstrous 86 episodes during its gargantuan season. However with a season timeframe of April 13 – July 21, it would make Back to Win the MasterChef season with the longest duration, and the first MasterChef season to take 100 days to fully air. Season 3 is also the current holder of that particular title, airing across a hefty 99 days between May 1st and August 7th, 2011. Last year’s 11th season, which ran across 61 episodes, took just 86 days to air in full.
It’s worth noting that a move like this isn’t unexpected; extending TV seasons in Australia is common practice, particularly when networks have other tentpole programming scheduled to premiere later in a calendar year. In this instance, Ten bosses would almost certainly be keen for there to be no gap in between MasterChef ending and Bachelor in Paradise hitting screens.
It’s also worth noting that the runaway success of Back to Win, which has seen viewers flock back to the revitalised franchise, would make extending the season out a rather easy decision for network officials.
Still, it’s a marathon season for MasterChef this year, and by the looks of things there’s still a fair way to go.
PEDESTRIAN.TV has reached out to Channel Ten for comment.
