Network Ten has announced a shake-up to the judges’ lineup on the hit reality TV show MasterChef Australia after the sudden death of Jock Zonfrillo, with the former contestant Poh Ling Yeow joining and the food writer Melissa Leong leaving the panel.
Just Andy Allen, who won the MasterChef title in 2012, will remain as a judge in 2024, being joined by Ling Yeow, who was the runner-up on the show’s first season in 2010, the French Michelin-starred chef Jean-Christophe Novelli and the food writer Sofia Levin.
“After an extremely difficult year in 2023, and upon reflection, the decision to return to the series is not one I took lightly,” Allen said.
“But there is something special in the MasterChef Australia kitchen, and it feels right to come back to work with the amazing production team, and to play my role in seeing the contestants do as I have done.”
Zonfrillo died in April at the age of 46, having joined the hit show with Allen and Leong when the original judges, Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston, all left after a pay dispute with Network Ten.
From next month Leong will co-host a new cooking reality show, Dessert Masters, with the pastry chef Amaury Guichon. The show is being made by Endemol Shine Australia, the production company behind MasterChef, and is already lined up to return for a second season in 2024.
On Monday night Leong issued a statement on Instagram, calling her three years on MasterChef Australia “a great gift” and said it was “with great warmth and enthusiasm that I wish this new lineup of judges and hosts all the best in making it theirs”.
“To have been given the opportunity to learn and grow – and now to be given the vote of confidence to expand and evolve the MasterChef universe is huge!” she wrote, adding: “The changing of the guard is one I always planned to embrace, and I’m so glad to do that, on my terms, today.”
A Network Ten spokesperson said the lineup change was due to filming schedules, and because Dessert Masters will air back to back with MasterChef Australia, each show would need “its own unique hosting team”.
On Tuesday morning Paramount, which owns Network Ten and the streaming service Paramount+, announced its 2024 lineup, which includes an Australian version of Top Gear presented by the actor Jonathan LaPaglia; Steve Irwin’s son Robert joining I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! as a co-host alongside Julia Morris, as well as appearing in a new reality show about his family; a reboot of the gameshow Deal or No Deal hosted by Grant Denyer; and a new version of Wheel of Fortune that will be hosted by the UK-based chatshow host Graham Norton and shot in the UK, with expat Australians as contestants.
