My Kitchen Rules

My Kitchen Rules
Genre	Cooking
Directed by	Mark Adamson (Series 1-3, 7) Nick Davies (Series 4-6)
Judges	Pete Evans Manu Feildel
Narrated by	Septimus Caton
Opening theme	"Tik Tok" by Kesha (Series 1-3) "Best Night" by Justice Crew (Series 4-)
Ending theme	"The Pink Panther" by Christophe Beck (Series 1-3)
Composer(s)	Jay Stewart
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	7
No. of episodes	276 (as of 26 April 2016)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Rikkie Proost
Producer(s)	Matt Apps Greg Swanborough Evan Wilkes
Cinematography	Tim Hawkins
Running time	60-120 minutes per episode
Production company(s)	Seven Productions
Release
Original network	Seven Network
Picture format	576i (SDTV)
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	1 February 2010 – present
Chronology
Related shows	My Restaurant Rules House Rules My Kitchen Rules NZ
External links
Website

My Kitchen Rules is an Australian competitive cooking game show broadcast on the Seven Network since 2010.^[1] The series is produced by the team who created the Seven reality show My Restaurant Rules, and was put into production based on the success of Network Ten's MasterChef Australia.^[2] My Kitchen Rules was renewed by the Seven Network for a fifth series which began screening on 27 January 2014.^[3] Series 7 debuted on February 1, 2016.^[4]

Format

Contestants

The Australian show initially had teams of two contestants with pre-existing relationships—from New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia—competing against each other to "transform an ordinary home into an instant restaurant complete with theme and table decorations for one pressure-cooker night."^[5] From 2011, the number of competitors grew as teams from Tasmania joined the show. A team from New Zealand took part only in the third series. In the fourth series, there were fifteen teams made up of two teams from each state, plus three additional teams—the gatecrashers—from New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.^[6][7] Season 5 has introduced a team from the Australian Capital Territory.

Judging panel

The current judging panel consists of celebrity chefs and hosts Pete Evans, Manu Feildel and as of series 6, Colin Fassnidge. Three additional guest judges, Liz Egan, Guy Grossi and Karen Martini, give critique during Sudden Death cook-offs as part of the blind tasting panel. Colin was previously a guest judge with additional roles such as facilitating the Comeback Kitchen and Food Truck challenges in series 4 and 5 respectively. In series 6 and 7, Colin and Manu had rotated roles for judging. Colin was present for People's Choice challenges, while Manu is involved for Headquarters challenges. Colin was also featured for the first time in an Instant Restaurant round in the same series. Series 7 also introduced new special guest judges who appeared in specific challenges alongside the main panel. They include, Rachel Khoo during Round 3 of the Instant restaurants and Curtis Stone during one of the Kitchen HQ challenges.

Original format

Applicable only during the first series, the show followed a sudden death format—where two teams will cook a three-course meal and the losing team will immediately be eliminated from winning the competition.

• Initially, participating teams were split into two groups of five to compete in a separate round of instant restaurant.
• A team who placed last (fifth place) in each instant restaurant group will be eliminated from the competition. However, teams who placed third and fourth will compete in a cook-off, and the two lowest scoring teams will be eliminated.
• After the cook-off, the remaining six teams competed in quarterfinal of three rounds, wherein:
  • #2 teams in both instant restaurant groups competed in first quarterfinal round;
  • #1 team in the first instant restaurant and #1 team in cook-off competed in second quarterfinal round; and
  • #1 team in the second instant restaurant and #2 team in cook-off contended in last quarterfinal round.
• Losing teams of each quarterfinal rounds were immediately eliminated. However, the overall highest scoring team in quarterfinals advanced straight through the grand final. The remaining two teams contended in a semifinal, the last berth to the finale round.

Current format

Instant restaurant round

Grouped into two, the teams initially are to compete in an instant restaurant round. Each episode focuses on one team's day of cooking, setting up their instant restaurant and serving a three-course dinner—entrée, main, and dessert—for the judges and their opposing teams. Teams could only start cooking three hours before the other teams and judges arrive at their house. After the team served all three meals to the judges and their opposition, each opposing team must rate the total meal out of ten, then each main judge must rate each of the three courses separately out of ten. The lowest scoring team will be then at risk of elimination.

Contestants do not necessarily cook in their own homes, for example in third series, eight of the twelve couples did not use their own kitchens mainly due to their homes being too small to accommodate the production.^[8] In most cases when this happened it is the home of a family member or friend or a holiday home of one or both members of the team.

Team progress and eliminations:

There were variations on format in team progress and elimination process in this round.

• During the first series of the show, the lowest scoring teams (fifth place) of each instant restaurant round were eliminated immediately from the competition. Meanwhile, top two scoring teams on both rounds advanced through to quarterfinals round. Teams placing third and fourth on both instant restaurant rounds have to compete in a Kitchen Cook-off, where two losing teams will be eliminated and the other two will proceed through to quarterfinals.
• On the second series, the lowest scoring teams of each instant restaurant round competed in a Sudden Death cook-off, wherein the losing team was eliminated from the competition. The remaining teams advanced to the People's Choice Challenge—a new competition format replacing quarterfinals round.
• During the third series, the three lowest scoring teams of each instant restaurant round competed in yet another instant restaurant, thus having three rounds for this season. The losing team of the third instant restaurant was eliminated from the competition.
• During the fourth and fifth series, there were two rounds of instant restaurant with six teams each, wherein the lowest scoring team of each group was immediately eliminated from the competition. However, after the second round, the tally of the instant restaurant scores for both groups were combined and the three lowest scorers out of the remaining ten teams competed in another instant restaurant round with new set of teams—titled as the gatecrashers. The losing team of the third round was also eliminated from the competition.
• During the sixth series, after the first two groups had completed their rounds, a third instant restaurant group were introduced as 'Colin's secret round'. In that round, Colin Fassnidge is the only judge critiquing that group and is also the first time ever in the show, where Pete and Manu do not make an appearance as hosts. The lowest scoring teams from each of the three groups is eliminated. Then the bottom 2 teams from each group competed in an Instant Restaurant Redemption round to eliminate two more teams.

Pre-finals round

After the instant restaurant, the remaining teams compete in a four-round format which was introduced in 2011 series. In 2014, a fifth round, The Food Truck was added. In series 6, these rounds were simplified and challenges went from People's Choice directly to Sudden Death, skipping most of the usual process.

• People's Choice Challenge – During this offsite challenge, teams would all have an hour and a half to prepare their dish relevant to a theme or event. The team with the most number of guest votes (sometimes, the best-selling dish if all are tasked to sell their meal) is declared as the People's Choice and will be safe for the rest of the round (For series 5, some winning teams were given an advantage for the next Food truck challenge as an even number of teams were required to compete). A team with the worst dish will be chosen by the judges and will proceed straight through the Sudden Death round. For series 6, the two weakest teams went straight into Sudden Death
• Food Truck - Used only in series 5 (2014), during the rounds from Top 12 to Top 9, remaining teams from the People's Choice will compete in a new Food Truck challenge. This sees teams split into two even groups (dependent on the number of teams remaining in the competition) and will each run competing restaurants, cooking in a large semi-trailer which opens up into two kitchens. Patrons dining will pay for what they believe the meal was worth. To win, the group must earn the most amount of money. The losing group will continue onto the rapid cook-off, whilst the winning group, become safe from elimination and formed as the team's jury.
• Rapid Cook-off – In Kitchen Headquarters, teams are challenged to create a dish using a key ingredient in 30 minutes. All teams will be reviewed by the judges with certain number of teams who will be safe from elimination, and who will be competing in a following showdown. In series 5, dishes were not only judged by Pete and Manu, but also by a teams' jury, which is formed by all teams currently safe for the round. They were able to select one of teams to be safe.
• Showdown – Teams with the worst dishes during rapid cook-off compete in this round by cooking a meal using a core ingredient in 60 minutes. A team with the worst dish, again, will be chosen by the judges and will proceed straight through the Sudden Death round.
• Sudden Death – Two losing teams from People's Choice Challenge and Showdown will battle it out producing a three-course meal for Pete and Manu, as well as for the four guest judges. Both teams must prepare their dishes for a total of three hours—90 minutes prior to serving entrée, 60 minutes for main course, and 30 minutes for the dessert. Each judge will score the total meal out of ten and the lowest scoring team will be eliminated from the competition. As of the fourth series, blind tastings were introduced and the guest judges will critique the dish without the knowledge who cooked it.

Finals round

Finals round consists of three rounds: two sets of semifinals, and a grand final. All follow a sudden death cook-off format where in teams will produce a three-course meal for the main judges and for the four guest judges. Teams will be scored their total meal out of ten by the judges and the lower scoring team will be eliminated.

Semifinals

Prior to grand final round, four remaining teams compete in a semifinal round. Teams going head-to-head in this round is determined variously in different series.

• In 2011 series, there were four knives on a table, two of which have Semifinal 1 label and the other two have Semifinal 2 on the blade. The labels were covered, leaving the knife handle visible. Each team are asked to select which knife. Teams who picked Semifinal 1 knife competed on the first semifinal, while teams who chose Semifinal 2 contended in second semifinal.
• In 2012 series, teams competed in a seeding round. Teams competed in two challenges, and their dish on each challenge was scored out of ten by the judges. The highest scoring team (#1) of the seeding round cooked against the lowest scoring team (#4) in first semifinal, while #2 and #3 teams competed in second semifinal.
• In 2013 and 2014 series, the final four were divided into two semifinal match-ups based on their rankings in the Final 5 round. Like last time, #1 cooked against #4, and #2 cooked against #3.

Grand final

Winners of each semifinal will go straight through the grand final round, the last stage of the competition. Each team will be scored and the higher scoring team will be declared the My Kitchen Rules champions.

Series overview

Colour legend:

     – Winner

     – Runner-up

Foreign series

New Zealand

My Kitchen Rules NZ debuted in 2014 on TVNZ 1.^[9] The first season ended in October 2014, won by Waikato's Neena and Belinda.^[10] The second season is due to begin in late 2015 and will air on TV2.^[11][12][13]

Russia

A Russian version of MKR was broadcast on TV channel REN TV in December 2013. Only 5 episodes were shown.

Serbia

In Serbia, local production company Emotion Production purchased the format rights. The show is called Moja kuhinja, Moja pravila (English: My Kitchen, My Rules). The first series premiered in 2014 on B92.^[14]

United Kingdom

Following the show's national and international ratings success in 2013, broadcaster Sky Living purchased the format rights to My Kitchen Rules for a United Kingdom version. The British franchise debuted on 25 January 2014,^[15] hosted by cook and author Lorraine Pascale and chef Jason Atherton.^[16][17]

A second British series aired on Channel 4 in September 2016, to be made of 30 hour-long episodes, hosted by Prue Leith and Michael Caines and produced by 7 Wonder Productions, offering a £10,000 prize.^[18][19]

United States

In 2012, US-based production company Kinetic Content acquired the format rights for an American version of the show during the MIPTV Media Market event in Cannes, France.^[20][21] U.S. TV network Fox has ordered 8 episodes of MKR featuring celebrities in their Hollywood homes with Curtis Stone & Cat Cora as series co-judges.^[22][23][24]

Awards and nominations

The reality program has received nominations on the following awards:

Ratings and viewership average

Seasonal television ratings on aggregate figures for My Kitchen Rules on free-to-air Seven Network channel were gathered from TV Tonight covering only the five city metro across Australia, namely: Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. The number of viewers presented in the table below are in millions.

Criticism

My Kitchen Rules Series 5 was criticised by angry viewers who set up a Facebook page to boycott the series 5 finale as the runner-up team "bullied other teams." ^[40] Many viewers hold the opinion that My Kitchen Rules is viewed less for the cooking and skill side of the show than for the gossip and conflict which certain contestants are encouraged to cause. The integrity of the show and the standard of cooking is substantially lower than other shows such as MasterChef Australia or Iron Chef Australia, however it is seemingly more entertaining for the general audience rather than food connoisseurs. Finally many non-loyal viewers have criticised the format of the show being confusing as new contestants are often being added and the constantly changing 'batches' of contestants making it difficult to follow.

International broadcast

Country	Network	Current broadcaster?	Source(s)
Canada	Gusto TV	Yes	[41]
Cyprus	Fox (Arabia) via Nile Sat	Yes
Estonia	Sony TV	No
India	Colors Infinity	Yes	[42]
Ireland	RTÉ One	Yes
New Zealand	TV2 (until 2016), Choice TV (from 2017)	Yes
Philippines	Colours	No
Portugal	Fox Life	Yes	[43]
South Africa	MNET Series	No	[44]
Spain	Divinity (as En Mi Cocina Mando Yo)	Yes	[45]
United Kingdom	Channel 4	Yes	[46]
Netherlands	NET 5	Yes	[47]
Belgium	Vitaya	No
Italy	Sky Uno	Yes	[48]

See also

• MasterChef Australia
• Come Dine with Me Australia

References

External links

• Official website