Why Master Chef is So Popular
Posted Jul 18 in Opinion tagged Master Chef
Before I go on I have to confess I’ve never watched MasterChef, never given it a spare 5 minute glance. Hence, this post may fall down under interrogation. That declared, I want to have a guess as to the three reasons that make MasterChef so popular:
1. Sport for Females
Sport always has an inherent drama in its structure. The good (who you support) and the bad (the others) do battle. The good overcomes adversity to win the day, or alternatively there is an injustice and they die. MasterChef is a sport for females. Why? It’s easier to passionately follow a sport if you’ve played that sport yourself, even at a very junior levels. That way you can relate to the skills on show. The field of endeavour in MasterChef, cooking, is something many women (and of course men) can relate to. They can compare their gravy to the gravy made by the contestants on the show. The women love it, the (non-cooking) men can still enjoy it (it’s sport), and therefore couples and families watch it together – both satisfied.
The entire show is structured like a good footy competition (complete with bad umpiring decisions) and with up to 5 million tipped to watch the final episode that will make it bigger than the AFL Grand Final (3.75 million).
2. It’s Simple
Who is the best cook. Australian’s don’t like to have to think about their TV to hard. MasterChef keeps it really simple.
3. It’s a Great Vehicle For Brands
With so many sponsors included in the show, there are many opportunities for the show to exist outside of the TV program format and it permeates into all parts of culture. If each brand endorsing the show, also mentions MasterChef in their communications then the show starts to create its own sense of bigness and popularity, thereby normalising the watching of it, bringing in even more viewers.
OK, so I’ve never see the show. They’re not the only reasons – but anything that captures Australia’s imagination as completely as MasterChef has is worth a few minutes analysis.
What would you say are the key reasons it’s so popular?
Fritz Bachen is a Consumer Psychologist and Founding Partner at Naked Communications. Fritz can be seen, read or heard at; The Gruen Transfer, ABC Radio (Sunday nights), Adnews columnist, as well as The Australian, Cleo, Mumbrella, Shop Till You Drop and so on. He speaks at numerous conferences on marketing, ideas, contemporary culture, and consumer behaviour. Fritz has degress in clinical psychology and commerce (marketing). A registered psychologist and has worked in private practice, forensic settings, advertising (Saatchi & Saatchi) and marketing consultancy (Added Value). He was also state under 12 chess champion on WA, and has a board game called The Analyst selling well in the Benelux countries.
Comments
Ken
Jul 18th, 2010Probably the most basic reason is that there are a lot of Australians looking for something that is free, doesn't require much thought and they haven't seen before. After all, a few years ago Big Brother was getting massive ratings. The novelty wore off, and it just looked contrived.
The only question left about MasterChef is whether the public will work out how little it has to offer before the station execs. I'd give it another year and then there is a risk that people will stop watching en mass. then Channel 10 will have to bring back whatever it was that they had at 7.30. Repeats of American sitcoms ?
mikej
Jul 18th, 2010Id have to question the concept of 'a sport for women'. Ive looked around a lot of australian friends and it seems that the boys have made cooking a sport more than the girls.
Living in London most of my english friends laugh at how much boys are interested and talk about cooking. It can be very competitive. Any photos posted on facebook etc starts off the competitive edge.
Nick Winbanks
Jul 18th, 2010I think there is also an underlying 'positivity' to the show that resonates with both men and women. Contestants are judged not for producing the 'worst' meal – but rather the 'least impressive'. Master Chef lacks the vicious variety of schadenfreude typical of most reality programming and is instead as positive as it can be within what is still a competitive environment. With Master Chef, the audience celebrates accomplishment, rather than reveling in a contestant's failure.
Fritz Joseph
Jul 26th, 2010I like social commentator David Chalke's take on the success of MasterChef, based on trend analysis from AustraliaScan:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/masterchef-a-phenomenon-waiting-to-happen/story-fn5mfq13-1225896457641
hello_emily
Jul 26th, 2010I think people like it for the reasons you stated – people can pick their favourites and their villains and passion leads to interest and loyalty.
I think that the #MasterChef Twitter discussion could have a lot to do with it as well. It regularly made it to the top 10 trending topics on Twitter throughout the series. Discussing the show with the community at large, vying for funniest tweet, retweeting others, rejoicing, commiserating together – it added a layer of interaction and community that kept me interested until the end (and home at 7:30).
Also, it's great content – it's reality but it's well-made with high production values.
And it's nice. I think we're sick of overconfident attention whores a la Big Brother and America's Next Top Model. It's a breath of fresh air in reality programming.
Emily
Andrew
Jul 29th, 2010Further to the sport aspect…perhaps viewers are not that far away from being able to project themselves into the competition (most people can cook)…probably why many go out and buy the ingredients the following week.
hello_emily
Jul 29th, 2010Further to my previous comment, here is a blog post I wrote re the social media aspect of MasterChef
http://www.loud.com.au/blog/uncategorized/social-media-square-eyes/
Fritz Bachen
Aug 1st, 2010@Ken somewhat cynical – but tend to agree,
@mikej agree with men cooking, but thats the flipside of the argument. most women I know tollerate televised sport – with the massive exception of Masterchef.
@ Nick, hi mate havent seen you for a while. Agree entirely, and think / hope its part of a general trend towards a 'nicer' culture
@Fritz tend to agree
@emily social media is helping spread the popularity of many shows, interesting how passive entertainment is now active.
@Andrew you said what i was trying to say, but much more eloquently.
The Racing Secrets
Sep 21st, 2010I like your points, except the 'sport for females' is a little sexist and almost crossing the line…but it's funny so we'll let you get away with it!
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