The latest episode of Masterchef Australia aired on Sunday. This was the episode featuring the Duchess of Sussex as a guest-judge. Meghan filmed “late in the season,” the quarterfinals, which is traditionally when a lot of people tap back into a competition series, to see who will make it to the final and who will win. Still, given all of the advance notice viewers had about Meghan’s appearance, the tabloids were absolutely pushing a narrative of “people hate Meghan, so everyone will boycott her episode of MasterChef!” Instead, the network promoted the hell out of Meghan’s appearance, and her episode pulled in a huge audience:
Meghan Markle’s MasterChef appearance pulled in a massive audience for the Channel 10 program, despite viewers threatening to boycott the episode.
A whopping 1,160,000 people tuned in on Sunday night to see the Duchess of Sussex serve as a guest judge on the show, according to TV Tonight.
Meghan gave contestants a variety of ingredients she’d love them to highlight in their cooking – including strawberries, celeriac and carrots.
Viewers had previously threatened to boycott the episode when Meghan’s appearance on the show was teased in April. But it seems that Aussies couldn’t help themselves.
In fact, it was the show’s highest rating Sunday audience since June 14, when 1,175,000 people tuned in to watch Adriano Zumbo kick off Sweet Week. The only other higher-rated Sunday episode was the show’s premiere, where 1,301,000 people tuned in.
Meghan looked genuinely excited to be on the show, talking about how much she’d love to cook in the pantry and being excited by the cook’s stories.
That’s great, especially when you consider that MasterChef Australia is really just the local franchise, airing only IN Australia. This was not supposed to be something for a global audience. Instead, Meghan brought a global audience to a MasterChef franchise. It’s crazy work that people were screaming “boycott” about this too, just Meghan appearing on MasterChef. No one threatens to boycott the Princess of Wales’ sad, annual piano recitals but those Christmas concerts are some of the most poorly-viewed television specials in the UK. Organic, quiet boycotting, I guess.
Incidentally, the Telegraph carried their own summary/review of Meghan’s MasterChef appearance, just as the Times did. Much like the Times, the Telegraph’s Bitter Betty was disgusted at the very idea of Meghan “benevolently drop[ping] by the Masterchef Australia quarter-final…to tell us mere mortals how we should be living.” They were also mad that the contestants were excited to see her AND that Meghan had her own extensive garden on her 7.5 acre Montecito estate. FUMING! RAGE! Who does Meghan think she is???
Photos and screencaps courtesy of Channel 10 and MasterChef’s Instagram.
The gutter UK press are isolating themselves because on the global stage all who interact with Meghan praise her for her kindness and authenticity. It is just the agenda driven rats on salt island who chooses to caricature this amazing woman.
It’s really vicious, vitriolic stuff from the UK press, isn’t it? Bizarrely and unnecessarily so. The male journotrolls are awful, but the female ones are even worse, imo. Beyond weird.
@Beth, Harry is a heterosexual man. The women think they have a shot with him if Meghan would just get out of the way.
The more the UK press spout bile, the more they isolate themselves from the rest of the world. Meghan is proving over and over again who she truly is and it’s a lovely and charming woman.
Why are they acting brand new like guest judges don’t exist on every single reality show, from singing competitions, to cooking shows, to dancing competitions, fashion competitions to drag. When Lewis Capaldi shows up as a guest judge on the voice, or Keke Palmer as a guest judge on Drag Race no one thinks that they are “benevolently dropping by”, looking down their noses at the poors.
Anyway. That’s a pretty impressive number, given the actual population of Australia. That’s a significant portion of the populace that tuned in. Which is probably another reason that they will be pissy. Because if I say the more people get to see the unfiltered, non-tabloid caricature of Meghan the the less effective these ridiculous screeds become.
Also, why are they reviewing her episode? If they haven’t reviewed any other episodes, why does this need to be reviewed? She’s not a working Royal, and this isn’t a show that airs live in the UK, so why does a national newspaper need to review it other than because you’re obsessed with her? I wish they were just admit that everything about her entrances them.
Masterchef Australia airs throughout the Middle East and parts of Asia. That’s where I first discovered it along with My Kitchen Rules, The Block and a bunch of other shows (not all reality) from down under. It could be due to licensing rights, but in many countries Australian content is shown almost exclusively and many programs are more well-known than US shows.
They’re so bitter. They sound so snarky and mean it just makes me want to like and support her more. And apparently it has a similar effect on audiences if we’re going by the numbers bc they tuned in to watch.
They are really angry that they didn’t break her, Harry or their marriage. Her return to Australia was a return to who she was before Harry and has always been and they can’t stand that others are really getting a good glimpse of that. Meghan has judged on a cooking show before her personality is perfect for this. The episode and the reactions from the show, other hosts, contestants, the audience and those watching it on Sunday, is only a clearer sign to her haters that she’s still winning with her amazingly Prince of a husband who loves her immensely just as she loves him immensely. I love seeing her in her element and I love cooking shows so this was a real treat. I was just as excited as everyone there.
It is absolutely ridiculous that those two British “newspapers” reviewed a show that doesn’t air in their country.
If the British press had discipline and stop paying attention to Meghan’s every move, then perhaps she would fade away as they want her to.