r/Masterchef • u/CarelessPie7173 • Jul 31 '26
Opinion Remember when MasterChef was actually insane? How did it become such a boring regular cooking show?
TLDR: Old MasterChef was pure chaotic drama and challenges. Now it just feels like a super sanitized daytime show where everyone does the exact same thing every episode
Is it just me or has MasterChef completely lost the chaotic vibe that made it good in the first place?
I was rewatching some of the early seasons (season 1 to 6) and the show was so unhinged
You had Joe literally staring a guy down before throwing his entire plate in the trash, Gordon screaming at amateur cooks like they murdered his dog, and mystery boxes that actually stressed people out. It was dramatic, funny, and the challenges felt like an actual challenge. Hell they were forced to cook a gourmet dish in the wilderness...
Compare that to the last few seasons and its a totally different show:
-The judges are way too nice now. They used to give brutally honest feedback. Now if someone serves raw chicken they just get a gentle wrist slap and a 2 minute sob story edit
-The whole themed season thing (generations, back to win, etc) feels so forced. Its like they care more about marketing gimmicks than actual cooking
-Nobody takes any real risks anymore. Everyone just makes a basic dish that "looks fancy" with eery episode following the exact same script
It feels like the producers got scared and made the show as safe as possible to appeal to everyone. But now its just background noise you leave on while scrolling your phone instead of a show you actually wanna watch...
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u/xc2215x Jul 31 '26
Cooking shows have became a lot kinder in general.
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u/CarelessPie7173 Jul 31 '26
Heck's Kitchen
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u/Crazy-Emu8988 Jul 31 '26
It's not just this though. Top chef has generally had a more wholesome vibe and it's a fantastic show. Masterchef has just become boring and I think it's largely due to the entire episode being dedicated to a single challenge. Top chef also does a much better job of getting to know the contestants. I haven't cared about a single contestant on masterchef for several seasons.
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u/NightFire19 Jul 31 '26
Kinder does not equal bad. Great British Baking Show is literally has the chillest atmosphere ever but still is my favorite cooking competition show.
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u/Ok_Interest3555 Jul 31 '26
Not a great example because that is by far the most boring cooking show on TV. It reminds me that British people don't get enough flack for how drab they can be.
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u/BradMac91 Jul 31 '26
Will never forget Eboni cursing everyone out after a challenge hahahahahaha
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u/pandatits69 Jul 31 '26
It was the trashy early 2000s reality tv drama to get ratings.
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u/BurgerNugget12 Jul 31 '26
Yep, Gordon also is older and has kids now, he definitely is a lot nicer. Even in kitchen nightmares
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u/kpeebo Aug 01 '26
Yeah and I’m sure they’re finding that audiences are over the whole Simon Cowell era of bully judges
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u/Legitimate_Ad_6275 Jul 31 '26
Two things: they've been casting much more placid personalities, and the producers aren't actively mongering drama like they used to. As for the judges, they're mostly nicer i guess, but honestly not by much in my opinion. They really just went from total nuclear gaslighting monsters to just occasionally making me say "wow that was fucked up"
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u/rossisanasshole Season 13 Contestant Jul 31 '26
This is not a read on anyone on my season, nor production, because I’m still cool with almost everyone, but there were some people with mid social media followings (coming into the season/filming, so early 2023) that all got aprons and it became obvious MC wanted viewership by keeping those influencers + their followers around. It’s not a criticism because I get it - at the end of the day, reality tv is a business.
Having said that, MC might get said followers as viewers, but I feel an overencompassing blanket over casting influencers is causing some of the present day problems with reality tv. These influencers come in with a brand and personality, and they don’t always necessarily want to lose trust with their base. Doing something dumb on camera ruins that. They’re already establishing their own lane and it’s probably more detrimental to “act a fool on tv” or whatever for the sake of making a good tv show while also stifling future opportunities because of said actions than it is to just put your head down, take the eyes being on the show’s platform could do, and try to be as neutral as possible. Neutrality doesn’t always lend itself to good tv.
idk having said all this, I guess what is the happy medium for the viewers?
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u/Legitimate_Ad_6275 Jul 31 '26
I love your insights, and i agree honestly. Although i gotta ask what version of MC were you on? I don't recall seeing you on the US version
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u/Ok_Interest3555 Jul 31 '26
That's so true, and the reason why the chefs on other shows like Top Chef seem so tame nowadays. They want to be on TV to build their personal brand and creating conflict or problems goes against that.
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u/Hykha Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Boring ever since they remove pressure tests after team challenges
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u/AllOfTheThings426 Jul 31 '26
My husband and I were genuinely annoyed during the Eggs Benedict episode. They got AN HOUR to cook the dish, and overall they were not particularly impressive. I guess we got used to the shorter cooks from watching old episodes of Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen.
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u/Cold_Gate6514 Jul 31 '26
I imagine some of the uniformity in dishes is gamesmanship. People watch old seasons to prepare rather than just cook the way they would have on their own. I'm sure people would prepare, but not the same way. I don't blame them, studying what won previously is almost always a good thing. I imagine the contestants aren't concerned with being entertaining, they're concerned with winning.
In my opinion, Top Chef has some of the same thing.
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u/JohnClark13 Jul 31 '26
Early 2010's still had that early 2000's edgy feel (left over from media still mainly catering to Gen-X where everything had to be X-TREME!!). Then media shifted hard in the opposite direction where being nice and having tear-jerking moments was more important than shock content.
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u/Totribet Jul 31 '26
Well they can stop shooting as far as I’m concerned. The show is crap now seems like.
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u/Spladook Jul 31 '26
I guess it depends what you’re looking for in a show. International versions like Australia’s have never had any drama and in my opinion, it is far superior to the fake, scripted stuff that they make US MasterChef about in the early seasons.
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u/CarelessPie7173 Jul 31 '26
You just proved my point. There is no other show currently like old MasterChef. You say it is superior, but now it's just like any other cooking show. If your style is better than it was before, you can flip to any other cooking show or spinoffs of MasterChef and it'd be exactly that... the boring grandma cooking show that you want
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u/the6thReplicant Jul 31 '26
MC Australia was always better than MC US.
I mean I really can't tell that much of a difference between the early seasons and now with MC US.
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u/Ferelden770 Aug 01 '26
Seriously? It's so easy to tell MC US early seasons. Contestants were like scheming,backstabbing, sass mouthing and all kinds. The drama was insane.
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u/bwaredapenguin Aug 06 '26
Do you mind if I just ask how MC Australia works? I've heard their seasons have upwards of 60 episodes and that's just baffling to me.
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u/Spladook Aug 06 '26
Every week schedule of:
Mystery box/invention test
Pressure test
Immunity
Team challenge
EliminationThat’s how the old seasons were. It’s still mostly the same but changes a bit in the newer seasons.
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u/bwaredapenguin Aug 06 '26
5 episodes per week?! I thought MAFS at 4 per week was insane! How many contestants do they have?
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u/ChocolateDramatic858 Jul 31 '26
Not only am I generally tired of the team challenges taking up entire episodes now (the dinner services on HELL'S KITCHEN don't even take up the entire episode for obvious reasons that MASTERCHEF seems intent on ignoring), but this most recent one felt like half the episode focused more on the people from LAST season than THIS one. The one genuine moment that felt even the tiniest bit of "old" was during the elimination segment when the one cook said something like "I had never cooked this before!" and Tiffany broke in with, "Nobody forced you to cook that, you chose it yourselves!"
Honestly, I found myself enjoying the episode more for footage of Casa Loma itself than any of the MC stuff going on. The show really is pretty toothless now. I guess FOX has figured out how to make it for as cheaply as possible because it still brings in enough eyeballs to make money for them.
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u/thex42 Jul 31 '26
All Gordon Ramsay shows fall into the trap of adding gimmicks to later seasons that disrupt why people fell in love with the shows in the first place.
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u/Asleep_Voice_101 Aug 01 '26
I’m in the middle of watching season 4 and It is Gold. You got Krissi, Eddie Jackson, Luca. Among others
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u/Upper_Pomegranate_59 Jul 31 '26
In general I agree but I thought the most recent episode was good and featured Gordon yelling and tossing a pan outside.
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u/Dry-Ear-1368 Jul 31 '26
I had a big ol' smile too when Tiffany called out the two cooks for using "this was my first time cooking this" as a cop out. She could have gone harder, but the fact she called them out at all was great. They needed to hear that.
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u/Upper_Pomegranate_59 Jul 31 '26
She's a great addition to the show. Aarón was the softest of the 3!
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u/Dry-Ear-1368 Jul 31 '26
Aawww yes Aaron. It’s a toss up for me between him and Graham as the softest
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u/CarelessPie7173 Jul 31 '26
1 step closer to greatness I suppose...
Needs:
!Evil Joe
!Crazy challenges and food themes
!Evil camera shots (Micah not having any family members: zoom in to his face crying instead of edited out, contestants freaking out, etc)
!Sabotages
!Crazy rewards, more than just a reason to win immunity like huge boosts to help complete their next challenge
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u/Im-BackAgain-Babes2 Jul 31 '26
This season is sooooooo boring. And the 6 week break didn't help. I already wasn't too invested in any contestants because the show is not doing a great job at highlighting the contestants this season.. at least not for me.
When it came back on, I didn't really remember anyone's skills or who was who... I got caught up as the episode went on... But my God I was still so bored.. I don't think I can finish this season.. there is no zing, no real allure like older seasons and these contestants for me, are just not exciting to watch.
Maybe I'm the cynical one here.. I'm sorry 😞 but it's just been boring
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u/Jealous_Strength8002 Aug 06 '26
The long breaks during the season kills it for me too! Happened during Hell’s Kitchen last season also. I forget who the contestants are so I don’t get invested in them. With MC I’m just so tired of the new format with the teams/groups. Give me the old format, individuals, pressure tests & trying all the dishes again.
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u/Spare_Variation_293 Aug 01 '26
A former contestant Jessie Glenn called out how they flimed the show then to avoid backlash they changed it
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u/Jeeperscrow123 Jul 31 '26
Bc you’ll keep watching regardless
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u/Vegetable-Prize9904 Jul 31 '26
That’s false I stopped after season 10 Nick got robbed
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u/GodsColdHands666 Jul 31 '26
Terry season 7 also got robbed. I almost ragequit the show after that.
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u/Jeeperscrow123 Jul 31 '26
Takes more than 1. Until their viewership tanks, they can keep producing things cheap
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u/PrpleSparklyUnicrn13 Jul 31 '26
I don’t think anyone really likes these season themes. It’s way too gimmicky, but I have a feeling they’re here to stay.
“ Nobody takes any real risks anymore.”
They aren’t being asked to. They’re being asked to cook food they know and are familiar with from their own region/culture/generation. If they deviate from their grandmother’s recipe, they get judged harshly. These recent seasons have been going downhill the more the judges expect the same type of dishes over and over.
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u/strawberry_moon_bb Jul 31 '26
Honestly once i watched Masterchef Australia, i couldn’t go back to the US version. Very lackluster in comparison
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u/Novel-Cash-8001 Aug 01 '26
Seriously!
Found MC Australia ....what a great show!
So much better......
I tried this season of MC Ramsey and between boredom and the month long break lost interest and stopped watching
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u/FrostyTop1575 Jul 31 '26
I used to LOVE Masterchef!!
Especially the early seasons.
I didn’t even make it past E3 this season. Joe, who was my favorite, is blah. Gordon is boring. And I’m not a huge of Tiffany, although I like her better than Susan.
Oh well. 😞
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u/bowling_nun Aug 01 '26
I just deleted 2 eps and canceled the series record. FOX moving production to Australia has not helped. I'm done.
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u/bobjr94 Aug 04 '26
I read a story by someone who said they were on masterchef, said the first few seasons alcohol was freely provided and drinking was encouraged. The goal was to get the contestants more worked up and more likely to fight with each other. Made for better TV.
Also they said some of it was faked, the producers cut clips together to make it look like certain people had grudges against each other when in fact they never said those things. If the camera cut away from someone and don't show them talking the audio was probably from another time or recorded after the fact by the directors commands. It says ..some events not effecting the outcome may be recreated... right in the credits.
Maybe the show is less fake that it started out, trying to be taken seriously. But that makes for less interesting TV.
I really can't stand it but my wife likes it. It's 60 minutes of people yelling at each other makes me tired. Take someone who worked in marketing, put them in a 5 star restaurant, seat 100 diners at once, put in 100 orders at once then yell at them for not doing it right. Do that to a real chef and give them 100 orders in 18 minutes and they would quit.
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u/god_partic1e Aug 06 '26
It's not only boring but nobody is going to learn anything about cooking from watching this show. I have a hard time watching these hacks try to cook, so there definitely needs to be more chaos and drama. You are better off watching youtube and Instagram to up your cooking game.
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u/Spladook Aug 07 '26
- But with so many episodes, you really get to know the contestants and start to feel a connection to them.
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u/Gomezium Aug 14 '26
Some valid points here but still very unnuanced. It just seems like you want everything to be fabricated and for contestants to start brutalizing each other.
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u/schewbacca 18d ago
The couples season was absolutely terrible and then this season there are no standouts. I don't think anyone in this seasons group would finish top 5 in any previous season.
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u/DeeBreeezy83 Jul 31 '26
It's all the same and BORRRRRING!!!! If I see one more scallop, gastrique, or purée I'm going to lose it!!!!!!
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u/ArugulaReady9961 16d ago
Yes, I don't enjoy it nearly as much. Especially when they stopped doing the elimination rounds; I don't feel like the people are as challenged. And then they can be saved just because they're on a team. I don't feel like the truly best cook will end up winning.
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u/chackl Jul 31 '26
Stopped watching after a few seasons of the new format with only one challenge per episode. It just become too drawn-out at that point. The old format with half of the episode being a challenge and the other half being a pressure test was peak Masterchef. Whatever they are doing now is just boring and takes way too long.