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BBCJust under two million people tuned into the first episode of MasterChef’s new series, a fall compared with last year, after a rocky period for the show in which both of its presenters were sacked.
About 2.7 million viewers watched last year’s launch show. However, the figures are hard to compare, due to a number of factors, including the episodes going out at different times of the year.
Gregg Wallace and John Torode were both sacked last month after a report into conduct on the cooking show upheld allegations against them.
The BBC decided to still show this year’s amateur series – filmed before they were sacked – saying it was “the right thing to do” for the chefs who took part.
But it faced a backlash from some women who came forward, as well as from the broadcast union Bectu who said showing the episodes could be “triggering” for people who had had complaints upheld.
The first three episodes were released on iPlayer on Wednesday morning, with the series opener broadcast on BBC One at 20:00 BST.
According to overnight figures, last night’s launch had 1.96m viewers, compared with last year’s launch show which had 2.73m viewers.
The decline should be seen against a backdrop in which terrestrial TV viewing figures are falling year on year.
Last year’s first episode went out earlier in the evening, and on a bank holiday. It also went out in April, whereas this year’s went out in August – a month which tends to have fewer viewers.
On the day MasterChef launched in 2024, the highest rated programme was the regional news with 3.7 million viewers.
Last night’s highest rated programme was BBC One’s regional news bulletin, with three million people tuning in, meaning its figures have fallen roughly the same amount as MasterChef’s.
‘They have edited out the jokes’
Ahead of the new series airing, there had been speculation that the new episodes might be re-edited to reduce the presence of Wallace and Torode.
Both presenters appear from the outset and throughout the episodes, but there appear to be fewer jokes than usual and less chat between them and the chefs.
The Daily Star’s front page highlights criticism of the new series, saying heavy editing after the presenters were sacked for misconduct has left the show awkward and a “shambles”.
In a review, The Telegraph’s critic Ed Cumming wrote: “To show how seriously the BBC takes the allegations against the presenters, they have edited out their jokes.” The resulting series “lacks pizzazz”, he said.
The Standard’s Vicky Jessop wrote: “No jokes here – the production team presumably being terrified that anything either of them says would be taken the wrong way.”
The first episode “left a slightly sour taste in the mouth”, she added – a sentiment echoed by the Independent’s Nick Hilton, who wrote that the series is “tinged with a strange, bitter aftertaste”.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said as a viewer, she “certainly won’t be watching it”, but that it wasn’t her place to tell broadcasters what they could or couldn’t show.
Meanwhile, former Celebrity MasterChef contestant Kirsty Wark – who first came forward to BBC News with claims against Wallace – suggested the BBC could have refilmed the series without the two co-hosts.
The BBC previously said it had not been “an easy decision” to run the series, adding that there was “widespread support” among the chefs for it going ahead.
Upheld complaints
The controversy over MasterChef started last year, when BBC News first revealed claims of misconduct against Wallace.
In July, a report by the show’s production company Banijay revealed that 83 complaints had been made against Wallace with more than 40 upheld, including one of unwelcome physical contact and another three of being in a state of undress.
He has insisted he was cleared of “the most serious and sensational allegations”.
In a recent interview with The Sun, he said he was “so sorry” to anyone he hurt, but insisted that he was “not a groper, a sex pest or a flasher”.
The upheld complaint against Torode related to a severely offensive racist term allegedly used on the set of MasterChef in 2018.
The presenter said he had “no recollection” of it and that any racist language is “wholly unacceptable”.
Wallace will be replaced by Irish chef Anna Haugh in the final episodes of the new series, because the allegations against him first emerged during filming in November.
