February 1st, 2010 11:16 pm

My Kitchen Rules

Hot on the heels of Network Ten’s hugely successful cooking sensation ‘MasterChef Australia’ comes Seven’s ‘My Kitchen Rules’. How does it compare?

When Network Ten announced plans to scrap ‘Big Brother’ for ‘MasterChef Australia’ back in November 2008, there was a resounding “huh?” across the industry. Little did we know that a mere 7-months later ‘MasterChef’ would be breaking ratings records in Australia.

Skip forward 1 month and Seven have announced plans to revive the ‘Rules’ brand in a new cooking format, pitting state against state and kitchen against kitchen.

If Seven were ever going to take another stab at a cooking show, then why not try to leverage the success of their most resounding cooking format?

So after several weeks of heavy promotion and publicity, ‘My Kitchen Rules’ is finally here. But will it set kitchens on fire?

From the get go, ‘My Kitchen Rules’ would be in for a tough battle, trying to beat down the stigma of being just a ‘MasterChef’ rip-off. In that regard, the ‘Rules’ name probably works strongly in its favour, seeming more like revival and less of a copycat format.

Renowned chefs Manu Feildel and Pete Evans play judge on ‘Kitchen Rules’, who are probably the greatest assets of the show. Coincidentally (or not), both Feildel and Evans also provided guidance to the aspiring chefs on ‘MasterChef’ last year. I gather they won’t be receiving invitations back to the ‘MasterChef’ kitchen this year…

It’s clear that ‘My Kitchen Rules’ has taken plenty of inspiration from its Network Ten counterpart. From the show’s (arguably-simulated) high drama presentation, to the whimsical mood-setting soundtrack, there are ‘MasterChef’ cues written all over it.

None of this is a surprise really. This style has become somewhat synonymous with the reality TV format — just watch ‘The Biggest Loser’, ‘The Amazing Race’ or ‘Survivor’.

The problem of utilising this high-drama presentation style on ‘My Kitchen Rules’ is that no matter how different the show may be, audiences will automatically be reminded of ‘MasterChef’.

To its advantage ‘My Kitchen Rules’ differs from ‘MasterChef’, in that it pits couples against couples — a competition style which proved highly successful for ‘My Restaurant Rules’ and Nine’s renovation spectacular ‘The Block’.

What made these formats so engaging was the highly competitive nature of the contestants, whose ego’s became even more inflated as the series progressed. This made for must-see TV back in 2003-2004.

But will this be enough to keep viewers glued to the screens in 2010?

Just examining the most popular reality TV shows on the air today — ‘MasterChef’, ‘So You Think You Can Dance’, ‘The Biggest Loser’, ‘Beauty and the Geek’ — theres clearly a new trend where reality shows pride themselves on being a positive and uplifting. Contestants are guided and nurtured, despite being in competition with each other.

It’s possible that the spitefulness and negative nature of ‘My Kitchen’ contestants judging each other could prove fatal for Seven.

Just look at last year’s biggest reality flop, Nine’s renovation disaster ‘homeMADE’, which pitted one team of designers against another. The show was fast paced and had plenty of drama, but there was also a significant amount of manipulation and sabotage at play.

Even ‘Big Brother’ struggled to maintain its popularity once this new “positive reality show” trend set in.

Will ‘My Kitchen Rules’ be the one to buck the trend? Only time will tell.

If it doesn’t catch on, Seven will no doubt need to significantly rejig the format if they even hope to retain somewhat of an audience over the season. Scrapping its ludicrous and obviously flawed contestant-on-contestant judging system would be a start. Distancing itself from the elephant in the room that is ‘MasterChef’ may be slightly more difficult.