GET on board the bandwagon or get flattened by it appears to be the mantra for Channels Nine and Seven as both networks openly promote Ten's hit series MasterChef on news and current affairs shows in order to fatten up their ratings.
MasterChef has embedded itself into Australian culture so much that Nine and Seven have been forced to put aside traditional rivalries and treat it as news or risk losing out.
A report prepared by Media Monitors shows that Nine and Seven have notched up 86 mentions during series two of MasterChef (from April 21 to July 9). Their news and current affairs shows have been peppered with stories about who has been eliminated, the impact MasterChef is having on how we eat, the sales of ingredients featured on the show and how MasterChef is an advertising boon for Ten.
Nine mentioned MasterChef 70 times and Seven 16 times in the same period, Media Monitors says.
Neither network was keen to admit it, but both want to dine out on some of Ten's phenomenal ratings. MasterChef has an average audience of 1.84 million viewers (up 20.4 per cent on last year), and last year's finale attracted 3.73 million viewers to be Australia's most watched non-sporting event since OzTAM began reporting ratings in 2001.
A Seven spokesman, Simon Francis, said the network had broadcast three stories on MasterChef during this series. There have been many more mentions, but Mr Francis would not elabaorate.
Nine was quick to snap up last year's MasterChef winner, Julie Goodwin, for a regular cooking segment on the Today show. The network's director of publicity, Victoria Buchan, declined to comment.
Ten's network head of programming, Beverley McGarvey, said it was extremely rare for a rival to promote a Ten show. "We saw a little of this in the early days of Idol, but we've never seen it to this degree. This is a case of Seven and Nine acknowledging that MasterChef has cut through into the pop culture of society, making it far harder for them to ignore."
Ten has not recorded the publicity value of the mentions, though it tracks the stories for accuracy.
Ms McGarvey said the value goes both ways. "There is value to a network to be able to say they have a MasterChef story, so value is a two-way street. We're flattered the other networks are talking about our show but we don't dwell on it. We just focus on what our viewers want."
Louise Di Francesco, a PR professional who was part of the publicity team at Nine in the 1980s and TV editor of a newspaper in the late 1980s, said: "This situation is really weird and would never have happened in my day; it's truly bizarre. The networks are usually so competitive that they would never talk about each other's shows. Clearly they know this is what their viewers want to hear about."
And if the shoe was on the other foot?
Ms McGarvey says Ten would probably behave the same way. "If MasterChef was on another channel I think it's fair to say that we would mention it on our network."
MEANWHILE FROM Christine Kellett:
MasterChef's ponytailed pasta master Aaron has bowed out of the competition.
He's had some close shaves with kitchen risk taking, but playing it safe has ultimately brought MasterChef's ponytailed pasta master Aaron Harvie undone.
With the finals in sight, the 37-year-old Sydney band manager took the traditional route with a simple plate of fish and chips but lost by a nose to elimination challenger Alvin Quah and his more modern take on the corner shop staple.
Harvie's crumbed fish and limp French fries were outdone by Quah's fat chips, twice-coated flathead and chilli-cucumber salsa in a 40-minute sudden death cook-off.
It was a near thing for Quah, however, with judges Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris admitting they were "splitting hairs" when trying to pick a winner.
"The thing that let you down was those chips," Calombaris told Harvie.
"They were just a big, soggy mess."
Competition curry man Jimmy Seervai was saved again after out-scoring Harvie and Quah in a name-that-fish challenge.
Harvie got off to a bad start in the final cook-off, losing a piece of his finger while peeling potatoes and "butchering" a John Dory fillet by skinning it the wrong way, but finished with time to spare after starting over.
He said he expected to feel devastated that his time in the MasterChef kitchen was up.
"I'm actually really proud of what I've done here," he said.
"If you've done as well as you can do and you've tried as hard as you can, you [should] have no regrets, and I have no regrets.
"It's reignited my creative side. I'm closing in on 40. It's inspiring to think outside the box again."
Mehigan thanked him for adding flair to the contest and applauded plans to open his own specialty pasta bar.
"You've brought us the pleasure of Mexian food, you've brought us the pleasure of good pasta," Mehigan said.
"You will bring a certain cool, a certain eccentricity [to your restaurant]."
Harvie, Quah and Seervai found themselves in the bottom three after a controversial pressure test on Wednesday night that saw youngest hopeful Callum Hann win a finals berth despite failing to plate up complete meals for a VIP judging panel.
Harvie, who postponed his wedding to take part in the program, will now follow MasterChef sweetheart Marion Grasby in launching his own range of Italian and Mexican sauces.
Channel Ten is keeping mum on the re-hashed finals format next week, but has revealed a celebrity Iron Chef will be part of the judging panel.
Email a friend