MasterChef

We've just had the first series of MasterChef here and it's been a ratings monster. Last night was the final and 3.7m tuned in to watch it (the population's 21m). It was the third highest viewing figures for a show since 2001, with 2004 Australian Idol Final and 2003's final of The Block doing better (they love a bit of reality over here...).

There are articles here and here focussing on the business angle of things for you media buyers and sellers, no doubt saying what you all know in that as the first series of an unknown quantity, and with spots all bought up in advance, Channel 10's big ratings wouldn't have converted into big dollars.

We get the British version of MasterChef over here on UKTV and the main difference here is that they've given it the big X Factor treatment: eleminations, emotional journeys, sad melodies playing in the background as Sam the call centre spaz drivels on about this being the greatest opportunity he's ever had in his life and that it means so much to him, he just wants to make his family proud especially after watching his mum die from terminal wig cancer and his dad running off with his boyfriend... proper TV-off-the-balcony stuff half the time. The three judges are two midget chefs and a fat British food critic based over here called Matt Preston, who's the breakout star, mainly due to being British and wearing cravats.

It was also crap because I picked the bird who won it weeks ago: the white middle-aged mum of three who lived in Woop Woop, worked in IT, had a muzzy that would put Freddie Mercury to shame and just wanted to make 'good Aussie homecooking that the whole family can enjoy'. So she trudged through making roast chicken every second round, and getting massively biased scores from the judges, especially in the final three when she had a massive breakdown and crying fit because of the pressure, failed to finish any of her three dishes and served them all up incomplete. She should have been booted off early, but as she was up against Asians, Aboriginals, young ponces, gays, and just about every other marginal group that had no chance of selling any cookbooks (one of the parts of the winner's prize) it was obvious she was getting picked to win it and make the company money. You know me, I'm not normally the cynical type, but this one was too obvious for even me to ignore.

Talking of shocking decisions, they're not happy over here after beng robbed of three wickets in the last innings, and for those of you who haven't checked out the new ABC sports site I worked on, here's a good opportunity. There's a lot of angry bluster about the spirit of the game and Struass being a cheat here today, as the comments underneath show.