Category — Junior Masterchef

The nominations for the 54th Annual Logie Awards were announced this afternoon, with many Aussie reality shows not making the cut into the small five-contender field of Most Popular Reality Program.

In the running is the award’s reigning champion and two-time winner, MasterChef Australia (Network Ten). But it’s not the only cooking show in the mix, with Channel Seven’s rival program My Kitchen Rules is also vying for the title.

Seven has the most nominees in field, with Beauty and the Geek Australia and The X Factor Australia also making the cut. And in the final slot to round off the nominees is The Block from the Nine Network.

If I had to predict the winner out of this bunch, my money would definitely be on either MasterChef or My Kitchen Rules! Seeing the popular of MKR at the moment does make me question what faith I have in Ten’s cooking series, but I will back Matt, George and Gary just for another year! Sure, the quality of the show has declined since the brilliant first season, but I still think it has the upperhand over MKR for the loyal fan base that it has.

But I do wonder how many votes were pulled away in favour for Junior MasterChef, even if the kids version of the show failed to make the top 5 list. In the end, I think people would have voted for MC because it really got the reality genre back where it belonged: at the top! However, MKR likely to take the crown in next year’s race. The show keeps getting better and better.

Now, back to the other nominees. I haven’t seen much of Beauty and The Geek Australia and The Block last year, but I don’t think neither have the support to win.

Same goes for The X Factor Australia, which I did watch religiously last year! It was too good to say no with Mel B and Natalie Bassingthwaighte rounding off an amazing panel of judges. It’s a singing show, so the mentors should be performers and not radio hosts! Though I must admit, in order to watch it, I had to give up on The Renovators. I would’ve stuck with Ten’s design show otherwise, but it was getting to a point that things weren’t moving quick enough. And surely, despite realityravings readers voting it the number one reality show in a recent poll, it failed in the ratings and hasn’t landed any Logie nominations. I don’t think there was much support by Ten in the Logie contenders submissions stage to begin with. No presenter from the show was put forward for Most Popular Television Presenter.

So it’s the five nominees for the category are: Beauty and the Geek Australia, The Block, MasterChef Australia, My Kitchen Rules and The X Factor Australia. I’m really not surprised by this list, but I must say this category is definitely one of the most competitive. We’re currently in a television landscape that sees reality shows doing generally better than Aussie dramas.

Two programs that have been consistently nominated in the last few years but dropped out of the field this year are The Biggest Loser and Dancing with the Stars. As a big supporter of last season’s families edition of Loser, I am upset that it hasn’t been included. It’s actually the show that I voted for! (Didn’t go for MasterChef because I knew it would have enough votes). On the other hand, I don’t watch Dancing with the Stars and it’s popularity has slightly dwindled over the last few years. It still rates considerably well, but struggles to receive the same buzz that it use to.

The good news for Loser fans is that trainer Tiffiny Hall is up for Most Popular New Female Talent! She’s unlikely to win being up against Underbelly‘s Anna McGahan and Chelsie Preston Crayford, Melissa Bergland from Winners & Losers and Demi Harman from Home and Away. But it’s lovely to see her nominated as she brought a different air to the program and livened it up! Realityraver seems to disagree with me about Tiffiny, so maybe she could chime in in the comments?

Realityraver’s Logie pick, The Amazing Race Australia also failed to land a nomination.

Also, not appearing this year is The Farmer Wants A Wife, hosted by Natalie Gruzlewski, who actually shared hosting duties with Bondi Vet‘s Chris Brown at the Logies nominations party in Sydney this afternoon. I’ll only consider voting for the dating show if we start seeing some gay farmers.

From the Nine shows, it was clear The Block would come out as their strongest contender. But some may be disappointed at the omission of The Celebrity Apprentice Australia, which exceeded expectations and really delivered the goods by the end, with comedienne Julia Morris taking about the winning title. You can catch Julia as a presenter at the Logies when the awards special airs on April 15.

Of course, you might not be able to catch it live if you’re watching Dancing with the Stars or MasterChef instead! Seven, Nine and Ten are going all out to win ratings on the Sunday night. If last year’s ratings is any indication, MC has the upper hand in the TV battle, as it averaged 1.569 million viewers to the 1.363 million the Logies pulled. Though, Nine did have the highest overall share for the night (Source: Mediaspy.org).

On another note, I know not many people watch The Family on SBS, but it was really interesting viewing for me to watch the Cardamones in their suburban family life in Melbourne over a few months time. It definitely got me wanting to see Big Brother on air again. It’s a shame the fly-on-the-wall program isn’t being recognised anywhere. It could have been nominated for Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Program (peer-voted as opposed to viewer-voted), but the Logie judging panels obviously don’t agree with my praise for the SBS show.

Speaking of Big Brother, maybe we’ll see it nominated next year in Most Popular Reality Program? That’s only if it doesn’t flop and Nine’s willing to put it up for submission, which is something Network Ten didn’t do for the last series. Since it was axed, they just didn’t bother. I was very upset when the show was missing from the initial voting ballot in early 2009 (for the 2008 television year).

And lastly, if you’re wondering why Australia’s Got Talent hasn’t had a mention in this category, it’s because Seven has been submitting the show in another field: Most Popular Light Entertainment Program. It’s definitely an easier category to break into, when you’re going up against shows like Sunrise, and in previous years, Deal or No Deal. Though I really don’t understand why Seven would qualify the program as light entertainment when it’s a talent quest just like The X Factor Australia. The season that saw young singer Jack Vidgen win the competition, is also nominated for Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Program.

A full list of nominees can be found here.

You can see who wins on The 54th Annual Logie Awards, airing Sunday April 15 on Channel Nine.

Network Ten’s new Chief Executive James Warbuton started this week, and it looks like he will axe reality shows The Renovators and Junior Masterchef.

He thinks the Network relies too heavily on the big name reality shows for ratings.

In an article in the Daily Telegraph he gave his view about these matters.

As he entered his new office for the first time yesterday, Mr Warburton said Ten’s dependence on the reality programs that take up much of its schedule had to be reduced.

“We’ve got to do more than that, and have more of a connection with the viewer on multiple fronts throughout the course of a week,” he said.

Other sources close to Ten indicated Junior MasterChef and The Renovators were set to be two of the first programs to get the chop under the Warburton regime, as Ten sought a greater range of programming to win viewers.

He also talked a little bit about his strategy to bring the viewers back to Network Ten.

Part of that rebuilding will be developing a broader consistency in programming outside the network’s big reality franchises, boosted by a $50 million injection of funds into programming in 2012.

“We now have a number of new franchises such as Young Talent Time, which add a layer of depth and consistency to our schedule,” he said.

“We need to have more depth for the viewer and we need to ensure as many viewers as possible have an appointment to view programs consistently throughout the week.”

Greta who has been a front runner from the start on Junior Masterchef tonight beat Jack in the final.

There were two challenges in the very long two hour finale. First they went head to head in an invention test involving fruit.

Jack made deconstructed strawberries and cream, and Greta made a Deconstructed Citrus Tart with Tropical Mousse on Macadamia Nuts with Fresh Fruit.

For the cooking amateurs out there “deconstructed” is a term you use in cooking when you want to make a mundane dish sound posh, or you stuff up dish and need to smear it over the plate.

They then had to make special guest judge Tetsuya’s dish of Steamed Tian of Queensland Spanner Crab with Bean Curd, Water Chestnuts and Junsai.

Greta won with a total score of 92/100 to Jack’s 84/100.

Greta won $15,000 and Jack $10,000.

If you are a fan of the show you are going to be disappointed as it is highly unlikely it will be returning next year.

It has been revealed today that Junior Masterchef contestants in the Herald Sun are told what the challenges are in advance so they can practice to ensure the dishes they turn out are good and the viewers will then be amazed at these kids skills.

The father of a contestant turned whistleblower told the paper:

The young chefs know in advance what they will be cooking and can perfect dishes at home, it has been claimed.

Some contestants have crammed in professional cooking and acting lessons before the show started.

And dishes can sit on benches for two hours before being tasted and then judged, it is claimed.

The father of one contestant has admitted to hiring a private chef for three days a week over six weeks to teach his child, who was in the top 50, the recipe to success.

Production company Shine, also the brainchild of reality cooking juggernaut MasterChef, said contestants did “get some information about the challenges in advance” but not recipes.

But the father, who cannot be identified because he signed a confidentiality agreement, said while the contestants were talented, their skills were groomed prior to the food being cooked.

“The kids act all surprised but they have had the recipes for weeks.

“While everything looks spontaneous, the reality is these kids have cooked the dishes 50 times.

“It’s not reality it’s all staged.”

The contestant’s mother said parents also complained their children were feeling flattened after a gruelling day and a psychologist was brought in to “pump up” morale.

The Shine spokeswoman admitted that in certain challenges not all dishes were tasted because of time and that not all dishes were hot when judged.

“The judges allow for this when making their decisions,” she said.

It comes as figures show Junior MasterChef is off the menu, with its ratings sliding to a record low.

The second season began three weeks ago with ratings of 1.129 million viewers.

On Monday night it dropped to an audience of 741,000.

It appeared to be obvious the kids got a heads up on what the challenges were in advance, however I am surprised that they found out so far in advance and get the opportunity to practice them over and over.

Last year there were pictures (pics now removed but they were there I promise) taken where they had recipes stored underneath the bench tops to refer to. This was in a blog post titled Junior Masterchef how much smoke and mirrors should there be.

I don’t think anyone expects 10 year olds to be able to razzle out a perfect dish from a mystery box, or remember a recipe off the top of their head, however if they are getting weeks to practice a dish that is another thing entirely.

What do you think? What is the fair preparation time these kids should get?

The other issue of note is how the contestant’s mother complained about the gruelling nature of the shoot. To be fair to Shine Australia they do outline in their contract (see previous blog post here) that they are able to exploit your child. However this is the first complaint from a parent from either season about how draining shooting the show is.

Another point that needs to be raised is if they are not tasting all the dishes does that mean the judges are just tasting favourites so they have a better chance of winning points and being up the top of the leader board?

The complaint about the judges not tasting the dishes immediately is what occurs on proper Masterchef, I think they taste the dishes whilst they are cooking. I don’t have a problem with that.

I also suspect the child of these parents has been eliminated from the show…..

Tonight the children were killing lobsters and I did wonder if by the end of the series these mini chefs would have to kill a sheep and butcher it.

It was an elimination challenge tonight with eight of the top 20 in a cook off for Junior Masterchef survival.

The first challenge was for the kids to cook the perfect roast in one hour which is not much time considering the prep they had to do as well.

Alysha and Tom were judged to have done the best in that round and were safe. Both had cooked a version of roast chicken.

The second challenge was to cook guest judge’s Lobster Risotto with chanterelles and truffles. Interesting that the kids had to pick the lobsters off the ice and shove them into boiling water. It did surprise me.

Zac even though he poured all his stock onto the rice at once was judged to have a top two dish, as was Marcus. They were both safe.

Therefore Aya, Caroline, Hannah and Jade were eliminated.

There was a lot of doom and gloom in the media about the Masterchef Australia brand and how disappointing the third series of the franchise was, however after attending Masterchef Live it made me realise how popular the show still is.

Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris were like rock stars to their audience with people lining up to see them on stage and have their books signed by them. Also Anna Gare was impressive with how hard she was working on the day. She told Jill Dupliex that she was asked to cook for the Queen, and how she almost turned it down because she was already booked to make cup cakes on that day.

Anna Gare also turned up at a Junior Workshop with last year winner of Junior Masterchef Isabella, with other little ones from last year, Sofia, Jack, and Pierre, as did Hayden Quinn.

Hayden Quinn was everywhere. Where ever I went he was on stage. Good on him he has realised to increase his fifteen minutes of fame he is going to have to work his patootie off.

I spotted Kate Bracks briefly doing a cooking demonstration, as well as Justine who did a cooking demo with Hayden at the Lilydale Theatre. Justine is now very confident with her public speaking skills.

Junior Masterchef is not rating well last night it was under 900,000. Personally I would like to see it flicked and The Renovators given another go. But that will not happen. This franchise still has another couple of years in it.

Matt Preston spoke to TV Tonight at the Kids Choice awards and he wrote:

Matt Preston has just returned from 2 weeks holiday in Lombok, Indonesia, so he hasn’t seen much of Junior MasterChef yet.

But asked about changes to the main event for next year, he said:

“I‘ve spoken before about things we need to do better. We need to work on the Immunity Challenges and make them better. We need to make sure that our perception of the contestants is the way you see them on screen. I think that’s really important. If we think that they are better cooks than the previous year, you need to see it on the television. So it’s a matter of looking at how the edits go.

“Hopefully it will be re-energised by having a different selection of contestants and that’s always a great joy. So much depends on what the raw material is like. Having Shine looking in different places I think we’ll get some good people.”

Asked about is involvement in casting, he said: “We come in at the Top 100 but the boys come in a bit earlier. They often do a hidden tour you don’t often see on camera.”

 

IN the second episode of Junior Masterchef the remeaining 45 children were split into two groups to compete in two different heats. Four from each heat were going into the top 20.

The first heat was to make healthy junk food. Mireade got through with a healthy version of salt and pepper squid, Jade made salmon with a asian glaze, Alysha made a healthy mexican hotdog not sure I could eat a whole chorizo, and Marcus made healthy fish and chips.

The second heat started with Gary Mehigan coming in with a Mr Whippy van and no surprise it was an icecream challenge.

Caroline clearly has been watching the main Masterchef and made two batches of ice-cream just in case one stuffed up.  Indigo who had manicured fingernails made it through to the top 20 with a delicious kulfi. It was no surprise that cute boy Dee got through with his hazelnut parfait, and Chandler who already has his own business cards made into the top twenty as well as he shizzled out some brandy snaps.

The second season of Junior Masterchef premiered last night and again it involves high production values with some very talented young chefs. This year they are again between the ages of 8 and 12.

I mean who had even tasted crab and duck by the age of twelve let alone know how to cook them.  This year the kids are going to go to Disneyland if they stay long enough in the competition some spoilers can be found through this blog post on TV Tonight. Who knew there was a Disney blog?

Tonight we saw the top 50 cooks, with five of them getting through to the top twenty. Each section was overseen by one of five of Sydney’s top chefs who had a ingredient their section had to cook.

The positives of the show:

• Everyone remains very positive about the cooking and the children;
• The cooking standards were high;
• The set was amazing and the hour goes quickly;
• It is a great show to watch with the kids;
• I like the chemistry of Gary Mehigan, Anna Gare and Matt Moran, but I must confess I did query on twitter last night that if Anna Gare was out of shape like some of the male judges would she be on the show;
• Putting through the winners means at this stage none of the kids are meant to feel bad about being on the show.

Four lucky Sydney readers I have the opportunity to win four family passes to attend the Powerhouse Discovery Centre at Castle Hill this Saturday the 10 September which is holding very special food themed open day to support NSW History Week’s 2011 EAT History program.

The open day program will include a range of programs including a special open day guest Junior Masterchef Top 12 contestant Nick Lieurance who will cook up a new twist on an Aussie favourite for open day visitors.

Following Nick’s demonstration he will be available to sign copies of the Junior Masterchef cookbook which will be for sale at the open day ($29.99).

Other programs include the story of early market gardening in Castle Hill and also the history of vegemite through an illustrated lecture and display of the Powerhouse Museum’s collection of Vegemite jars through time. There will also have fun kids make and do activities planned for the day.

Go to www.castlehill.powerhousemuseum.com to check out some of the other great activities and workshops they are having on the day.

If you can’t make it on Saturday, they also have an awesome School Holiday program.

To win the family pass, just be the first four people to put a comment on this blog post, and then email me your mailing address on realityravings@hotmail.com. Good luck.

The address of the Powerhouse Discovery Centre is 172 Showground Road, Castle Hill.

The opening hours are 10.00am—4.00pm.

Entry fee is $8 adult, $5 child / concession / senior / pensioner, $25 family (2 adults + 2 children) Free admission for Powerhouse Members and children 3 years and under. Additional charges apply for some programs and tours.

How acceptable has reality TV become when the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard is lining up to to be a guest judge on Junior Masterchef?

The Courier Mail reports Julia Gillard was on the set yesterday filming her appearance as guest judge on the show. She was a definite hit with the awestruck kids.

It has been a difficult week for the Prime Minister with leadership speculation, and the question has to be asked what will the producers of Masterchef do if is no longer PM at the time the episodes screens?

As a former political advisor I can see the pros and cons of her appearing on the show, something I will write about over the next day after I have fully thought about it. However at a time where the media is saying she lacks authority  will her going on the show help her regain it? However it also gives her an opportunity to connect with 1.5 million viewers on a different level. To see the “real” Julia.

In the past male prime ministers have used sport to ingratiate themselves with the populist, so why not use reality TV which is nearly as popular to bond with potential voters.

@michaelbyrnes also pointed out Bob Hawke appeared on A Country Practice and The Comedy Company. In fact I rang my A Country Practice guru (yes I have one) who said the episode had been on recently and Hawke made Wandin Valley a Nuclear Free Zone!

Pity Project Runway Australia wasn’t around when Paul Keating was PM the challenge could have been to make him a suit. Not sure Keating would have gone on a reality show, but hell he would rock it on Celebrity Apprentice.

Julia Gillard is not the first politician on the Masterchef franchise as Queensland Premier Anna Bligh appeared on Celebrity Masterchef. Anna Bligh a natural media performer came across quite well on the show. Her aim for going on the program was to promote Queensland produce.

What message will Julia Gillard try and get across?

Interestingly from the Reality TV Insights Survey and the findings from the effectiveness of product placement, my research partner Julie Houston from Nitty Gritty, suggested non-profit organisations and Governments should consider using this medium to get their message across and it appears we will continue to see more and more of this branding occur.

What do you think of Julia Gillard going on Junior Masterchef? What do you think the challenge should be? What other politicians would be suited to other reality TV shows. Personally I would like to see Tony Abott on Wipeout. Or the ten politicians from each side of politics with a couple of Greens thrown in on a tropical island for a show called Political Survivor.