Celebrity MasterChef Australia

Celebrity MasterChef Australia
Genre	Cooking Game show
Judges	George Calombaris Gary Mehigan Matt Preston
Narrated by	Nicholas McKay
Theme music composer	Katy Perry
Opening theme	Hot n Cold
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10
Production
Executive producer(s)	Paul Franklin Cathie Scott
Location(s)	13 Doody Street, Alexandria, New South Wales
Running time	60 minutes (including commercials)
Release
Original network	Network Ten
Picture format	576i (SDTV)
Audio format	Dolby Digital 5.1
Original release	30 September – 25 November 2009
Chronology
Preceded by	MasterChef Australia (season 1)
Followed by	MasterChef Australia (season 2)
External links
Website	www.masterchef.com.au/home.htm

Celebrity MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking game show. It is spin-off of MasterChef Australia, itself an adaptation of the British show MasterChef, and features celebrity contestants. It began production in early September 2009, and premiered on Network Ten on 30 September 2009.^[1]

Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan returned as judges for the show; however Sarah Wilson did not reprise her role as host from the first season of MasterChef Australia.^[2] Instead Calombaris and Mehigan will also serve in a general hosting capacity.

Former world-record holder & Olympic medalist Eamon Sullivan won the series, taking home $50,000 for charity Swim Survive Stay Alive.

In February 2010, executive producer Mark Fennessy stated that he doubted the spin-off will return for a second season.^[3]

Format

In contrast to its parent show, the celebrity version is based around a heats and semi-finals format similar to MasterChef Goes Large, and is aired only once a week in an hourly format.^[1][4]

Celebrities are split into groups of three as they compete in a heat round featuring two challenges, with one celebrity making their way from each heat into the semi-finals. The heats consist of an Invention Test, in which they prepare a dish of their own concoction, and a Pressure Test, in which they must complete a dish from a professional chef. Due to the difficulty of these dishes contestants are given a single "lifeline" in which the chef is able to aid them for 90 seconds.

The six remaining celebrities will then face further challenges in order to secure their place in the final.^[5]

Contestants

Celebrity MasterChef Australia features 18 celebrities as contestants. Network Ten officially revealed the first batch of contestants on the 3 September 2009 episode of The 7pm Project.^[6] However, several contestants were revealed before Ten's official announcement of their participation.

The contestants include:^[5]

Ten initially announced that actor Steve Bisley would also be a participant, but he later withdrew from the show. Ten cited a scheduling conflict for his departure, though the ABC have claimed that Network Ten are using it as an excuse as the announcement of his participation on the show was on the same day the actor was charged with assaulting his ex-wife Sally Burleigh during an argument between the former couple.^[7] Rachael Finch previously auditioned for the first series of MasterChef Australia, but did not make past the initial rounds.^[8]

Special guests

• Matt Moran - Heat 1 Pressure Test
• Brent Savage - Heat 2 Pressure Test
• Kylie Kwong - Heat 3 Pressure Test
• Stephanie Alexander - Heat 4 Pressure Test
• Tony Bilson - Heat 5 Pressure Test
• Katrina Kanetani - Heat 6 Pressure Test
• Steven Krasicki - Semi Final 2
• Adriano Zumbo - Semi Final 3
• Andrew McConnell - Grand Final

Episodes

References