One of Seven’s bold decisions announced at its 2022 Upfront by chief executive officer James Warburton was the return of My Kitchen Rules.
As a Seven homegrown format, and its most successful series ever, it’s no surprise they are giving MKR another shot.
At this stage Seven are revealing very little about the return. Possibly because the decision to go again was only recently made.
My Kitchen Rules 2022: When will it be on?
The new My Kitchen Rules won’t start the year for Seven like the series used to. No point in going head-to-head with Married at First Sight. While there has been no guidance as to exactly when it will screen, look out for it in the second half of 2022. Certainly after MasterChef Australia has finished screening on 10.
This is the brief explanation Seven offered about the return in its 2022 statement:
The most successful cooking show ever on Australian TV is set to return in 2022, with all new judges (to be announced soon), a new batch of eager contestants, and all the fun and food that made it a huge hit for so many years. Australia’s favourite food show will go back to the original recipe and back into the contestants’ kitchens, with state competing against state.
Who will replace My Kitchen Rules judges Manu Feildel and Pete Evans
New hosts and production partner
One of the biggest questions to be answered is who will the judges be. Gone are Manu Feildel and Pete Evans. Incoming will possibly include at least one international cooking star – someone of the calibre of Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Heston Blumenthal, Nigella Lawson or Marco Pierre White.
Could Seven lure Nigella Lawson away from MasterChef?
Seven’s other big challenge is secure the best production house to make the series. The series was previously produced in-house for Seven by Seven Productions, the business that is currently for sale.
Seven chief James Warburton has already told Mediaweek it won’t be Endemol Shine Australia because it makes MasterChef. One likely candidate would be Eureka which already has a relationship with Seven for its work on Farmer Wants a Wife. One of the Eureka co-founders is Paul Franklin who did great work on adapting the MasterChef Australia format when it launched on 10. Also at Eureka is one of the key architects of the MKR format, Rikkie Proost.
Eureka co-founders Chris Culvenor and Paul Franklin
Expect less drama and more focus on the food when MKR returns. Also expect more to be made of the state versus state competition, something that Seven alluded to in its statement above.
One added benefit for Seven if they get the format back on track are the international versions of the series that flourished in a number of markets.
MKR: The golden years
The format launched in 2010 and the final season 11 went to air in February 2020. It hasn’t really been away for long.
The first season had just 15 episodes, but the format soon blew out with seven of those years delivering close to 50 episodes.
How big was it – HUGE. In four of the seasons the overnight metro audience was the Grand Final was over 2m. Last year that number had dwindled to 550,000.