MasterChef Australia

Ratings Friday July 23, 2010

A very rare Friday night win for Ten with the final Masterchef Masterclass attracting nearly 1.9 million viewers and Jamie Oliver keeping 1.3 there until 10pm. Ten were way in front of second Seven in primary channel shares, with only a large 7TWO share helping push Seven ahead in network shares by just 0.1%.

It just goes to show that there is actually people around to watch TV (other than football) on a Friday night – you just need to have something on worth watching!

Shares:
1 Ten 26.2% (network 27.3%)
2 Seven 23.4% (network 27.4%)
3 Nine 21.5% (network 25.8%)
4 ABC1/News 24 12.2% (network 14.3%)
5 SBS ONE 4.8% (network 5.2%)

6 GO! 4.3%
7 7TWO 4.0%
8 ABC2 1.5%
9 ONE 1.1%
10 ABC3 0.7%
11 SBS TWO 0.4%

Top shows for the day:

Pos Show Channel TOTAL Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 Masterchef Australia – Masterclass Ten 1,880,000 540,000 616,000 283,000 200,000 241,000
2 Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Ten 1,326,000 408,000 390,000 198,000 159,000 172,000
3 Seven News Seven 1,291,000 336,000 385,000 254,000 139,000 178,000
4 Today Tonight Seven 1,254,000 336,000 365,000 234,000 148,000 171,000
5 Nine News Nine 1,177,000 354,000 369,000 247,000 107,000 100,000
6 A Current Affair Nine 1,089,000 330,000 370,000 205,000 89,000 94,000
7 The 7pm Project Ten 1,067,000 256,000 367,000 198,000 106,000 139,000
8 Two And A Half Men -Rpt Nine 967,000 310,000 321,000 164,000 74,000 98,000
9 Home And Away Seven 929,000 272,000 279,000 151,000 114,000 113,000
10 Better Homes And Gardens Seven 908,000 233,000 300,000 144,000 95,000 136,000
11 ABC News ABC1 908,000 244,000 269,000 168,000 93,000 133,000
12 Ten News At Five Ten 797,000 215,000 245,000 128,000 89,000 120,000
13 Trial And Retribution: Ghost Train ABC1 706,000 183,000 241,000 106,000 82,000 95,000
14 Seven’s AFL: Rnd 17: St Kilda Vs Hawthorn Seven 698,000 7,000 452,000 13,000 126,000 100,000
15 Nine’s Live Friday Night Football Nine 644,000 409,000 n/a 235,000 n/a n/a
16 The Simpsons Ten 643,000 162,000 228,000 74,000 81,000 98,000
17 Deal Or No Deal Seven 639,000 168,000 208,000 124,000 78,000 61,000
18 Hot Seat Nine 634,000 179,000 185,000 157,000 69,000 45,000
19 Neighbours Ten 587,000 152,000 226,000 71,000 58,000 79,000
20 Collectors ABC1 561,000 150,000 181,000 114,000 64,000 53,000
21 Stateline ABC1 507,000 174,000 107,000 100,000 55,000 71,000
22 Customs -Rpt Nine 446,000 n/a 292,000 n/a 83,000 71,000
23 The Bold And The Beautiful Ten 444,000 104,000 155,000 75,000 49,000 61,000
24 Antiques Roadshow -Rpt Nine 425,000 104,000 134,000 95,000 57,000 35,000
25 Grumpy Old Women Rpt ABC1 407,000 115,000 121,000 75,000 52,000 44,000
26 Nine’s Friday Night Football Nine 395,000 269,000 n/a 126,000 n/a n/a
27 Huey’s Kitchen Ten 390,000 102,000 147,000 74,000 44,000 23,000
28 Can We Help? ABC1 381,000 105,000 109,000 77,000 39,000 51,000
29 Sunrise Seven 380,000 126,000 85,000 86,000 37,000 46,000
30 Numb3rs Fri Ten 369,000 114,000 84,000 68,000 43,000 60,000

Seven’s AFL: Rnd 17: St Kilda Vs Hawthorn – After The Game Seven 349,000 n/a 249,000 n/a 71,000 29,000
Motorway Patrol -Rpt Nine 349,000 n/a 228,000 n/a 72,000 49,000
Today Nine 299,000 91,000 98,000 62,000 16,000 31,000
Judge Judy Ten 283,000 83,000 82,000 61,000 32,000 25,000
60 Minute Makeover 7TWO 263,000 69,000 104,000 35,000 27,000 26,000
Coast SBS ONE 252,000 62,000 75,000 45,000 34,000 37,000
Lateline ABC1 225,000 91,000 67,000 33,000 17,000 17,000
The Oprah Winfrey Show Ten 193,000 46,000 66,000 31,000 20,000 29,000
CSI: Miami Go! 186,000 46,000 76,000 21,000 21,000 22,000
Dr Phil Ten 178,000 40,000 69,000 28,000 17,000 24,000
Total Drama Action ABC3 176,000 34,000 70,000 39,000 12,000 21,000
The Morning Show Seven 172,000 50,000 37,000 44,000 21,000 20,000
Ready Steady Cook Ten 170,000 49,000 58,000 23,000 22,000 18,000
Dirty Jobs ABC2 170,000 37,000 56,000 40,000 25,000 11,000
World News Australia SBS ONE 160,000 62,000 43,000 27,000 11,000 18,000
Tour De France 2010 Live – Stage 18 SBS ONE 159,000 32,000 52,000 19,000 16,000 40,000
The Vicar Of Dibley Seven 150,000 79,000 n/a 71,000 n/a n/a
Sports Tonight Ten 141,000 44,000 23,000 39,000 14,000 22,000
Tour De France 2010 Highlights SBS ONE 131,000 39,000 51,000 24,000 9,000 8,000
Kerri-Anne Nine 113,000 37,000 45,000 15,000 8,000 8,000
Late Show With David Letterman Ten 105,000 19,000 24,000 29,000 15,000 18,000
The Ellen Degeneres Show -Rpt Nine 104,000 34,000 34,000 22,000 8,000 6,000

OzTam Five city Live and As Live Preliminary Ratings Figures. Raw data sourced from TV Tonight, Mediaspy and the various networks. Five Cities are Sydney (S), Brisbane (B), Melbourne (M), Adelaide (A) and Perth (P). Shows not aired in all five cities denoted by their letters. Prelimanry figures do not take into account overruns, late starts or very last minute programming changes.

Tonight the top 24 of Masterchef reunite on one final Masterclass before Sunday’s finale.

Recipes featured include Alvin’s drunken chicken and Fiona’s chocolate tart.

The tables are turned, as judges George and Gary are given a mystery box challenge, judged by finalists Callum and Adam.

Adam and Callum get to spend a day in the life of award winning chefs Justin North and Peter Kuruvita.

Masterchef Masterclass on Ten, 7.30 tonight (Friday July 23).

Masterchef finale on Ten, 7.30 Sunday July 25. 

Ratings Thursday July 22, 2010

Masterchef passes 2.5 million while the season premiere of Rush only attracts 1,070,000, but wins the timeslot ahead of Nine’s Sea Patrol. The 7PM Project also wins it’s timeslot, as does Law and Order SVU – giving Ten a win for the night.

Nine is 4.6% behind Ten in primary channel shares, but the huge Thursday night GO share brings the Nine network within 0.1% of Ten’s network share. Yet again Seven is left in their dust – leaving the question as to how they can still say they are the number one network overall for 2010 so far.

The launch of ABC News 24 special on ABC1 was watched by 608,000 while the new channel itself – the 12th full time free to air digital channel (mainland cities, excluding community TV) is not yet separated into its own channel as far as channel shares go. ABC News 24 shares would most likely still be part of ABC1, as ABC HD was prior to ABC News 24.

Shares:
1 Ten 27.9% (network 28.6%)
2 Nine 23.3% (network 28.5%)
3 Seven 19.0% (network 21.1%)
4 ABC1 13.6% (network 16.0%)
5 SBS ONE 5.5% (network 5.9%)

6 GO! 5.2%
7 7TWO 2.1%
8 ABC2 1.6%
Eq 9 ABC3 and ONE 0.7%
11 SBS TWO 0.4%

ABC News 24 not separated from ABC1 yet.

Top shows for the day:
1 Ch: TEN MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA 2,513,000
2 Ch: 7 SEVEN NEWS 1,380,000
3 Ch: 7 TODAY TONIGHT 1,280,000
4 Ch: 9 NINE NEWS 1,246,000
5 Ch: 9 A CURRENT AFFAIR 1,131,000
6 Ch: TEN THE 7PM PROJECT 1,120,000
7 Ch: TEN RUSH 1,070,000
8 Ch: ABC1 ABC NEWS-EV 1,053,000
9 Ch: 9 SEA PATROL 1,025,000
10 Ch: 9 TWO AND A HALF MEN -RPT 961,000
11 Ch: 7 HOME AND AWAY 907,000
12 Ch: 9 THE FOOTY SHOW 899,000 (NRL 204,000 / AFL 695,000)
13 Ch: TEN TEN NEWS AT FIVE 864,000
14 Ch: TEN LAW AND ORDER: SVU 795,000
15 Ch: 7 HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER 1ST EP 756,000
16 Ch: 7 HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER-THU (R) 2ND EP 754,000
17 Ch: ABC1 THE MAKING OF MODERN AUSTRALIA-EV 750,000
18 Ch: 9 GETAWAY 739,000
19 Ch: 9 HOT SEAT 700,000
20 Ch: 7 DEAL OR NO DEAL 658,000
21 Ch: TEN THE SIMPSONS 642,000
22 Ch: TEN NEIGHBOURS 612,000
23 Ch: ABC1 ABC NEWS 24 LAUNCH: ABC NEWS SPECIAL-EV 608,000
24 Ch: ABC1 GRAND DESIGNS REVISITED-EV 572,000
25 Ch: 7 HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER-THU (R) LATE 547,000
26 Ch: ABC1 A GOOD MAN-LE 511,000
27 Ch: 7 THE VICAR OF DIBLEY 484,000 M,A,P (Seven 7.30 combined 837,000)
28 Ch: 9 ANTIQUES ROADSHOW -RPT 413,000
29 Ch: 7 M*A*S*H 400,000
30 Ch: 7 SUNRISE 386,000
31 Ch: TEN THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL 385,000
32 Ch: 7 THE MATTY JOHNS SHOW 353,000 S,B
33 Ch: 9 TODAY 351,000
34 Ch: GO! THE BIG BANG THEORY 9.30pm 349,000
35 Ch: TEN HUEY’S KITCHEN 343,000
36 Ch: 7 COUGAR TOWN 321,000
37 Ch: GO! THE BIG BANG THEORY 9.00pm 308,000
38 Ch: GO! THE BIG BANG THEORY 10.00pm 307,000
39 Ch: GO! THE BIG BANG THEORY 8.30pm 302,000
40 Ch: 7 SEVEN NEWS AT 4.30 296,000
41 Ch: TEN TEN LATE NEWS WITH SPORTS TONIGHT 289,000
42 Ch: TEN DHARMA & GREG RPT 286,000
43 Ch: TEN JUDGE JUDY 281,000
44 Ch: 9 NINE AFTERNOON NEWS 252,000
45 Ch: GO! TOP GEAR -EV 249,000
46 Ch: 7 TRUE BEAUTY – FACE OF VEGAS 248,000
47 Ch: ABC1 GRANDPA IN MY POCKET-AM 246,000
48 Ch: SBS ONE TOUR DE FRANCE 2010 LIVE – STAGE 17 237,000
49 Ch: ABC1 THE WOTWOTS-AM 231,000
50 Ch: ABC1 MINUSCULE-EV 230,000

OzTam Five city Live and As Live Preliminary Ratings Figures. Five Cities are Sydney (S), Brisbane (B), Melbourne (M), Adelaide (A) and Perth (P). Shows not aired in all five cities denoted by their letters. Prelimanry figures do not take into account overruns, late starts or very last minute programming changes.

The finale of MasterChef Australia will be contested by Callum Hann and Adam Liaw after Claire Winton Burn was eliminated tonight.

The Melbourne lawyer left the competition after failing to shine during a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to cater a dinner at Government House for the Governor-General Ms Quentin Bryce and 30 of her guests.

The three contestants each had a course to cook – Adam on entrée, Claire on main and Callum on dessert – which was served in the main dining room to the Governor-General, her guests and MasterChef Australia judges Matt Preston and George Calombaris.

With the contestants cooking under the watchful eye of head chef Stephen Evered, all three excelled, but deliberating with guests, the judges decided that Claire’s roasted rack of lamb with mushrooms, broad beans and fetta polenta was the least impressive dish of the dinner.

“I was the worst cook on the day and you just have to take it on the chin,” says a disappointed Claire, who slightly overcooked her lamb and needed help to get her food plated up in time for service.

“In that place at that time there was probably nothing else I could have done but there’s some amount of satisfaction to look back and realize I couldn’t have done anything differently. It was devastating to hear that I was out. I’ve given

nine months of my life and given up everything to be here and I just sat there thinking, ‘what am I going to do? I don’t have a job to go back to, and where am I going to live’, and all those practical things occurred to me first.

“But I’m really proud of making it as far as I did and the competition has spurned me on to work in the food industry and I really want to follow my dream.”

With the contestants having six hours to prepare and cook for the dinner, Claire spent hours prepping her 70 cutlets of lamb and needed help by the Government House kitchen staff in order to prep 350 broad beans and cut kilograms of mushrooms.

“The thing I struggled with was just the scale of what I had to do and that was what cost me my place in the final,” she says. “I wasn’t quick enough to get everything done. With the lamb, I had to partially debone them, take the sinew off, then French the bone so it was quite an involved process. The scale was pretty daunting. I dread to think what my poor butcher now thinks of me as he watched me completely make a meal of the lamb.

“My biggest fear was not getting everything on the plate so I had to make a call that I was up against it and do I ask for help or not. I asked Stephen for help because in the end it wasn’t about me, it was about the occasion and making sure people in the dining room got their dish in the full form. At the end of the day, you just have to let your ego go, which probably cost me, but I’d do the same thing again.”

Claire acknowledges the pressure of cooking at an event where expectations are high but says the pressure didn’t get to her.

“Government House is certainly no ordinary restaurant,” she says. “It was an absolute honour to cook for the Governor-General and her guests, and the expectations were probably higher than they’ve ever been during the whole competition. But it doesn’t matter who you cook for, you just want them to love the food that you serve them.”

She realizes that a humble lamb cutlet has cost her a place in this Sunday’s finale, but rather than dwell on ‘what if’ she is doing something about it.

“It’s shown me that there’s several areas where my skills aren’t up to scratch and butchery is one of them,” she says. “Certainly it’s an area I need to work on so I’ve organized some work experience with my local butcher.

“I’m hoping that he can set me on the right path so I’m prepared for the next time I have to cut up a truckload of lamb. I love cooking and to cook really well you need to master the basics, which is something that Gary and George always talk about. One of the things that is really getting lost in the way people cook now is just basic craft of cooking; knowing how to fillet your own fish or de-bone your lamb. We just assume that everything is going to come to us fully prepared.

“I think mastering those skills is everything that a keen cook should do. I feel like I have a duty, having fallen down on that point, that it’s something I need to work on.”

Now back at her Melbourne home, Claire is determined to turn her back on law and instead forge a career in food. She is planning a concept where she caters for Sunday lunches and wants to follow her dream of delving into food writing.

“I’ve been doing a little bit of food writing and reviews, and I just love it,” she says. “I’m looking at establishing a food column and I’m currently working on a book proposal which combines my two loves of writing and cooking. If I can do that, how good would that be?

“I’m also starting a website – www.cookingfromthehearth.co – and ‘hearth’ is the name of the restaurant I want to one day open,” she says. “The website will be all about delicate, delicious food that people love. It’ll be everything food and will also talk about a Sunday lunch concept I have.

“It’ll be more discreet than a catering company – although I’ll be doing catering by appointment as well – but one day I’ll find a permanent home for a restaurant.”

Claire is under no illusion that breaking into the food industry and one day opening a restaurant is hard work, littered with failures and heartbreak.

“MasterChef is the first step in a very long journey,” she says. “I don’t think there’s any one of us who thinks we can just walk out and open a restaurant tomorrow without the hard work, effort and skill. It’s a really tough industry and everyone is going to have to work extraordinarily hard to make it.”

And the final Two for Masterchef is…

We find out tonight!

The final three face their final challenge before the big finale on Sunday July 25 at 7.30pm. Adam, Callum and Claire battle it out in once last cook off to decide the final two who will go head to head in Sunday nights’ battle.

Our poll on Throng has Claire in third and therefore most likely to be eliminated with Callum second, and the clear favourite Adam first with 55% of the vote.

The three had to chose one course each to prepare for a party of 35 guests, hosted by Her Excellency the Governer General of Australia.

Adam did entree, Claire the main, Callum the desert.

Adam served a minute or so late while Claire was not ready in time resulting in the main going out 20 minutes late.

Callum’s desert was on time, but some of the fondants were over cooked.

At the judging table…

Adam was declared safe.

Then Callum… was …

also safe.

Meaning Claire was the final elimination for Masterchef.

Adam and Callum will go into the final on Sunday July 25 to decide whi will be Australia’s next masterchef.

Just three contestants are left on MasterChef Australia, after curry maestro Jimmy Seervai was eliminated tonight.

His dream of being named as Australia’s next MasterChef was left in tatters after a risky move to experiment away from his love of Indian food backfired. With the challenge requiring the cooks to create a three course meal that would appear in their own cookbook, Jimmy decided to spice up his cooking by ditching the Indian and veering for an Asian influenced offering.

As cookbook legend Maggie Beer starred as special guest judge, the final four contestants – Jimmy, Claire, Callum and Adam – had two-and-a-half hours to prepare the three dishes that would entice the Australian public to buy their potential book.

Jimmy looked unsettled right from the beginning, changing his mind on what dishes he would cook and ending up with a prawn bisque that was below par, a duck dish that the judges decided was overcooked, and an unset crème brulee.

“I think I took way too much of a risk not sticking with curries for this challenge,” admits Jimmy, suffering his second elimination after initially leaving the series at the end of May in a Rick Stein pressure test. “But had I played it safe I wouldn’t have been happy with myself. The food that I’ve plated up so far in the competition hasn’t been the best presented dishes and I wanted to push the boundaries.

“It’s ironic that people tell you to not just stick with what you know but the moment you try to push yourself you’re out of the competition! At the end of the day it is a competition and I took the risk of pushing myself too far and it was my demise.”

The contestant has come under fire for concentrating too heavily on Indian inspired dishes throughout the competition, but Jimmy shrugs off the tag of ‘one trick pony’.

“I don’t care about that label at all,” he says. “I actually want people to think I’m a one trick pony because I want to open up an Indian restaurant, not a café with different styles of food or a French restaurant.

“Although I’ve been constantly criticized for it, it works for me in the long run because it’s the kind of food where I see myself focusing on.”

Though he failed to win over the judges, Jimmy – who was the last second chance contestant left standing after Courtney’s elimination yesterday – stands by what he served to the judges.

“I was quite satisfied with what I plated up,” he says. “When you’re down to the top four people, hopefully the judges are splitting hairs when they’re speaking about your dishes.

“At the end of the challenge I didn’t look at anyone else’s and think ‘did I beat them or not?’ My crème brulee didn’t set properly because I put them in the blast freezer instead of the fridge and if I’d had more time I could’ve saved it. I guess my dishes were more inspired rather than tried and tested.”

In the end, when the judges told Jimmy his time in the kitchen had come to an end, it wasn’t a huge shock.

“There’s a certain sense of satisfaction knowing that people had written me off from the time that I had walked back in to getting into the top four,” he says. “There was a little bit of sadness at the thought of never being able to cook in the MasterChef kitchen again. It’s been such a big part of my life. But it’s nice to be able to come home to my fiancée and family.”

His fiancée Jem, pregnant with their first child, is glad to have him home and the couple is planning for not just for the sound of little pitter patter, but also the birth of Jimmy’s restaurant. He plans to open his dream Indian restaurant later this year in Surry Hills, Sydney.

She came back into the MasterChef competition to prove that she could cook with the best, and cook she has done. But procrastination over what sweet dish she should create in a Mystery Box challenge ultimately left a sour taste in the mouth of Sydney bar manager Courtney Roulston, who was eliminated from MasterChef Australia tonight.

The sweet and savoury Mystery Box challenge – where contestants had to cook a savoury dish and a sweet dish using 12 ingredients – proved to be her downfall. Her spicy dahl and pakoras and crepe with lemon and ginger curd failed to win over the judges and guest celebrity chef Shannon Bennett.

“It should have been named Misery Box!” says Courtney, suffering her second elimination after initially leaving the series in May when she failed to identify mint properly in a taste test. “When I first lifted up the box I was fine knowing I had to cook a savoury dish. What totally stuffed me was when they told me I had to make a sweet dish.

“Sweets are not my strong point. I was just looking at the ingredients going, ‘Oh my God, what can I turn these things into?’ I spent so much time procrastinating and not locking in what I was doing that I wasted 20 minutes that I really needed for presentation. I literally plated up my crepes in 15 seconds.

“It looked like a seagull had flown over my dessert plate by the time I finished.”

With Jimmy rewarded for his stand out performance in the previous night’s V8 cake cook-off, he got to pick the ingredients for the Mystery Box – and really put the cat among the pigeons by not choosing a protein ingredient like chicken.

The ingredients, including chick pea flour, Muscat, lemons, gorgonzola, chilli, tomatoes, garam masala and curry powder, were chosen by Jimmy to give him an edge over his competitors. But he faltered throughout the challenge and was out-curried by Callum in their savoury dishes.

“Jimmy had all night to plan his menu and I think at one stage he was in danger of ending up as one of the bottom ones with me,” she says. “It kind of backfired on him by not having any protein in the box. For me, well, I’ve now thought of a million other dishes I should’ve done on the day! I wish I hadn’t panicked so much about the dessert and allowed myself more time.”

Despite her dahl winning praise, the judges couldn’t look past Courtney’s uninspiring dessert.

Lumped in the bottom two dishes alongside Claire, she was told for the second time that her MasterChef journey had come to an end.

“It was disappointing but not heartbreaking…unlike the first time,” says Courtney, who leaves just four contestants in the competition – Claire, Callum, Jimmy and Adam. “I put my hand up straight away when asked who thought would be going home so I wasn’t shocked. You know when you don’t have a good day in the kitchen.

“I can’t complain. I got back into the competition and I got into the final week. I was happy just to get a second go to prove that I could actually cook. First time round I knew that a lot of doors wouldn’t open for me [once leaving the show] because no one really got a chance of seeing what I could do. But now, things are different.”

Courtney looks on the bright side of her elimination and admits that having a second crack at the MasterChef title has finally got a monkey off her back. She made headlines earlier in the year when she became the fifth person to be eliminated after wrongly identifying mint as spearmint.

“There are no regrets second time around and I’m happy with how my time has gone,” she says. “For the months that I was out, I was always thinking about what I should or shouldn’t have done. It went through my head over and over again how I stuffed up something so simple as naming mint as spearmint. I was so cut up about the mint thing.

“I’m surprised with how far I’ve gone, but I’d also gone into the competition second time round with a different mindset.”

Now back at her Sydney home with her partner, Courtney is steaming ahead with her food dream. There is talk of a small wine bar in Sydney’s burgeoning small bar culture, but for now, she is concentrating on gaining experience as a food stylist and recipe tester.

“I’m more confident this time round and I know I definitely want a job in the food industry,” explains Courtney. “In my time off I did some recipe testing work and I had a great time. If you can do a job and not be watching the clock to wait until 5pm comes around then you know it’s what you want to do.

“One day I want to have a little wine bar that does seasonal dishes, but that won’t happen for a while yet. I’ve love to do work experience with someone like Donna Hay or Christine Mansfield.

“I’m certainly not going to say no to any work experience.”

The first and probably only debate of the 2010 election campaign between Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott will be scheduled for 6.30pm and not the previously advised 7.30pm to avoid clashing with Sunday night’s Masterchef Finale.

Julia Gillard has said that one of the great things about living in Australia is you can chose what you want to watch on TV while Tony Abbott is pushing for three debates, not just the one.

Last years’ Masterchef Julie – seen on Nine’s Today show – said “what were they thinking” going on to say that by having the political debate against the finale of Masterchef shows they are out of touch with the Australian people.

With a potential audience peak of 5 million* nationally expected to tune into the Masterchef finale, pitching the debate against the show would severely diminish the number of viewers able to watch the debate. While many would simply record one and watch the other, those who can only watch one show at a time would be forced to make a choice, and, sorry to say, it is the debate that would lose.

There has been some criticism in the media suggesting that adjusting the time of the debate to fit in with television was absurd. We all know that a leadership debate would not be held at the same time as the AFL Grand Final or the Melbourne Cup so why would they do it at the same time as a television event that will actually be watched by more people than either of those two events?

The story was the lead on Ten’s five o’clock News, who called the debate the entrée to the Masterchef finale.

The debate is expected to be telecast live on ABC News 24, ABC1, Sky News and Nine. It will be interesting to see how Nine adjust their programming for the night – whether they’ll make it part of 60 Minutes with a special start time of 6.30 or simply show a regular edition of 60 Minutes at 7.30 after the debate.

* Total national ratings including 5 city and regional. With Australia’s population at 22 million, that’s close to 1 in every 4 people in the whole country.

Who else that recorded Masterchef last night missed the end of it?

In Sydney (can’t speak for everywhere else) the Ten EPG had Masterchef finishing at 8.30pm exactly, with the Great Debate ending at 10.17pm.

Masterchef did not end up finishing until 8.45pm. The debate finished within a minute or two of the time on the EPG.

As wrong as it is, we are all used to channel Nine especially not having correct EPG times ever, and Seven on occasions, but when it happens on Ten, it comes as a surprise. When recording a show on Nine in prime time, I always automatically make sure to use the “plus 20” feature on my IQ2 (which adds 20 minutes of recording to the time a show was supposed to end.

On Ten, I never worry about recording significant extra time – the 10 minute overrun default is usually enough – and usually not even needed thanks to Ten almost always keeping their EPG up to date. At worst – they may be off by a few minutes.

In watching Masterchef back last night, the recording cut off about 10 seconds after the announcement of Alvin’s elimination at just before 8.40pm – which meant – I saw who was eliminated, but not the part where we find out what he had been doing since the elimination not the preview for the next night.

My understanding of why the networks show incorrect times is in an attempt to 1) keep viewers on their channel past the shows’ finish time without letting them know how long they will need to be watching for – thereby messing up plans to watch another channel after, and 2) as a way to have viewers for two shows at once tuned in – those waiting for the 8.30 show and those still watching the 7.30 show.

The second point is used frequently when promoting a new show – hoping people will see the end while they wait for the next show and perhaps tune in next time it airs.

But given that over two million are already watching Masterchef – that’s something like 1 in every 6 people* – the benefits of having the EPG correct would surely outweigh the possible backlash by misleading viewers with program starting and finishing times and risking viewers not seeing the end? What about viewers who set their PVRs based on the assumption that the Ten EPG will be correct? They would have missed out completely on the outcome of Masterchef.

I suggest – that anyone recording Masterchef this week whould allow an extra 20 minutes to record the end – should the EPG say “8.30″. Even if it says “8.33″ don’t get caught out!

In this age of electronic program guides, PVRs, digital TV, and multiple sources of television, not showing accurate starting and ending times for shows simply does not make sense. It is one of the major complaints against commercial free to air TV and it is about time some basic rules were put into place to put an end to this stupidity.

A minute or two here and there is not a problem, but anything over 5 minutes should not be allowed. 15 minutes late is just blatant disrespect for viewers.

* Ratings figure of over two million does not include regional ratings. The 5 city metro ratings figures are out of the population of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane – which add up to about 13 million so one sixth of that is about 2.2 million – about what Masterchef is rating now.

7.30pm Sunday, July 25

Season Finale!

From the thousands that applied just two contestants remain, and tonight one of them will be crowned Australia’s MasterChef.

It might have been a tough journey to get here, but the work isn’t over. Tonight comes the chance to showcase the skills they have learnt, impress the judges and push themselves to their cooking limits over a series of challenges. The pressure is on, and there can only be one winner.