My Kitchen Rules

My Kitchen Rules (often abbreviated as MKR) is an Australian competitive cooking game show broadcast on the Seven Network since 2010. The show is currently hosted and judged by chefs Manu Feildel and Colin Fassnidge, with Feildel being the only judge who has appeared in every season of the show. Fellow chef Pete Evans co-hosted until his departure after season 11. Other celebrity chefs and food critics frequently appear as guest judges or mentors in the kitchen. The series was originally produced by the team who created the Seven reality show My Restaurant Rules, and was put into production based on the success of Network 10's MasterChef Australia.
For many years, the program performed strongly in the ratings and was regularly one of the highest rated programs on Australian television, with the finales of each season consistently ranking amongst the top 10 highest rated programs of the year. However ratings declined notably during season 10 in 2019, and with further significant declines for season 11 in 2020, commentators speculated that 2020 would be its final season.
Seven did not renew the series at their annual upfronts in October 2020, but suggested the show may return in future. During Seven’s annual upfronts, the series was confirmed to return for a twelfth season in 2022. In December 2021, Feildel was announced to be returning as a judge. In April 2022, it was announced Nigella Lawson and Matt Preston will be joining the series as judges alongside Feildel with fellow returning judge Colin Fassnidge appearing as a judge in Kitchen HQ alongside Curtis Stone with a quest appearance from new judge Gary Mehigan. In October 2022, the series was renewed for a 13th season which aired from 4 September 2023. For the 13th season Fassnidge became a main judge and co-hosted alongside Feildel, with Lawson returning as judge for the finals, though Preston did not return to the show. In October 2023, the series was renewed for a 14th season which will air on 9 September 2024, with Feildel and Fassnidge returning. The fifteenth season auditions opened in October 2024.
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." 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 season. In the fourth season, 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. Season 5 introduced a team from the Australian Capital Territory, whilst season 11 marks the first time that there was not a team from South Australia.
Applicable only during the first season, 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.
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 season, eight of the twelve couples did not use their own kitchens mainly due to their homes being too small to accommodate the production. 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.
There were variations on format in team progress and elimination process in this round.
After the instant restaurants, the remaining teams compete in various challenges, either off-site or at Kitchen headquarters. Teams who cook the best dishes or receive the most votes/money can win People's Choice or Judge's Choice and are given advantages or are guaranteed safety from eliminations. Teams that fail to impress and receive poor reviews from the judges end up in a Sudden Death elimination.
Finals round consists of three rounds: two sets of semifinals, and a grand final. All follow a sudden death cook-off format where teams produce a three-course meal for the main judges and for the four guest judges. Teams' meals are scored out of ten by the judges and the lower scoring team is eliminated.
Prior to the grand final round, four remaining teams compete in a semifinal round. Teams going head-to-head in this round is determined variously in different seasons.
Winners of each semifinal go straight through the grand final round, the last stage of the competition. Each team's meal is scored and the higher scoring team is declared My Kitchen Rules champion.
The winner of My Kitchen Rules receives a cash prize:
The reality program has received nominations on the following awards:
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.
Season 5 was criticised by angry viewers who set up a Facebook page to boycott the finale as they claimed the runner-up team "bullied other teams." The show faced continued accusations of promoting bullying behaviour in subsequent seasons. In season 9, a team was dismissed from the show for their antagonistic behaviour towards other contestants and for getting into a physical altercation with another team off-camera; the incident has been blamed as one of the reasons behind the show's drop in viewership in later seasons. In April 2021, Seven was ordered to pay former season 10 contestant Piper O'Neill workers' compensation for “psychological injury” she suffered from her time on the show due to "vilification and bullying from producers and the network."
Later seasons were also criticised by long-time viewers who lamented the show shifting to focus more on interpersonal drama instead of cooking. Seven later acknowledged this criticism of the program and have attempted to refocus the show away from personal drama following the show's return in 2022. During his tenure, the show also faced viewer consternation with the negative press garnered by former judge Pete Evans for his controversial lifestyle and dieting views that were sometimes at odds with the program.
From 2010–2013, a Québec's version of MKR was broadcast on Casa and TVA for 3 seasons, under the title of Ça va chauffer! (It Will Get Warmer!) with chefs Jonathan Garnier and Mathieu Cloutier.
Dinner Party Wars, was hosted/ judged by Corbin Tomaszeski (Canadian chef) and Anthea Turner (UK style and etiquette expert). The show had two seasons in 2017, based in Toronto, Ontario. Shown on Food Network Canada.
The show is produced in Israel by July August Productions for Keshet Media Group in October 2018, and is broadcast on its television channel Keshet 12, under the title of MKR The Winning Kitchen (Hebrew: MKR Hamitbakh HaMenatze'akh).
My Kitchen Rules NZ debuted in 2014 on TVNZ 1. The first season ended in October 2014, won by Waikato's Neena and Belinda. The second season ended in December 2015 and was won by Wellington's Jess and Stella. The third season began on 25 September 2017, hosted by Pete Evans and Manu Feildel.
A Russian version of MKR is broadcast on TV channel SONY SET TV. 10 seasons were shown.
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.
My Kitchen Rules SA premiered in South Africa on M-Net in 2017.
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, hosted by cook and author Lorraine Pascale and chef Jason Atherton.
A second British series aired on Channel 4 in September 2016, made up of 30-hour-long episodes, hosted by Prue Leith and Michael Caines and produced by 7 Wonder Productions, offering a £10,000 prize.
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. 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.