The 13th season of MasterChef Australia, with judges Jock Zonfrillo, Melissa Leong, and Andy Allen and the country’s best home cooks, plated up not only some of the most delectable, delicious and innovative dishes the MasterChef kitchen has ever seen, but also an average total audience of 724,000 viewers.
The season achieved its biggest ever live stream audience on 10 Play averaging 18,000 viewers, up 29% on 2020. MasterChef Australia: The Winner Announced achieved the biggest ever MasterChef live stream audience with more than 33,000 viewers.
Some of the biggest names in the world of food challenged the class of 2021, including the master of Middle Eastern cuisine Yotam Ottolenghi, Massimo Bottura, Queen of the kitchen Nigella Lawson, Clare Smyth, Heston Blumenthal and home-grown sensation Curtis Stone.
In 2021, MasterChef Australia cooked up:
- National total average audience (including 7-day TV and BVOD): 914,000 viewers.
- Capital city total average audience: 724,000.
- Live stream audience on 10 Play: 18,000 biggest ever live stream audience, up 29%.
- Minutes viewed: Over 311 million minutes viewed, up 4% compared with 2020.
- Facebook weekly page reach: 11.5 million, up 17% season-on-season.
- Instagram weekly impressions: 10.6 million, up 26.6% season-on-season.
- Twitter total impressions: 21.3 million.
- TikTok: 125.2k followers, 142% follower increase from start of season.
- Biggest Facebook post: Josh Niland’s Fish Disappearing Demo reaching 13.3 million, with 96,300 Likes, Comments and Shares.
- Biggest Instagram post: Linda using Liquid Nitro IGTV video reached 1.4 million and was viewed 759,000 times with 21,300 Likes.
- Biggest TikTok video: Pete’s Peanut Butter Recipe was viewed over 7.4 million times with 639,300 Likes.
MasterChef Australia reached 10.9 million people nationally across the season and posted strong commercial shares, including 25.0% in under 50s, 26.6% in 25 to 54s and 28.7% in 16 to 39s.
And it wouldn’t be a season of MasterChef Australia without capturing the imaginations of Australians in stores and online.
As a direct result of Australia’s unsung hero of the vegetable patch – the purple cauliflower – featuring in a Mystery Box challenge, Coles experienced a 430% increase in the volume of purple cauliflower sold in store, proving that the MasterChef effect is as strong as ever.
Maggi’s instant noodle challenge was again an instant hit with viewers, across all platforms. On MasterChef’s social channels, their sponsored post featuring Depinder’s pimped up instant noodle creation reached over 6 million Facebook users, 99% of which has been purely organic reach. With almost 3.3 million video views and 725k engagements, it was one of the top 10 posts of the season!
And, for the first time ever, Deliveroo was able to deliver from the MasterChef kitchen straight to Deliveroo customers’ homes through their unique integrated challenge. All three teams’ dishes sold out within minutes proving once again how excited and engaged people are with MasterChef Australia, highlighting the demand for great food.
Australia went nutty for Pete’s microwave peanut bread, with over 7.4 million views on TikTok and 5,720 people saving the video on Instagram.
The MasterChef Australia fan club showed love for alum royalty Emilia Jackson’s latest creation – her baby. Over 36,800 fans liked the congratulatory Instagram post, beating her Winner Announced post from 2020.
An average national audience of 1.2 million viewers watched on as Justin Narayan was crowned the winner of MasterChef Australia 2021, topping the entertainment charts in under 50s and all key demos. The audience peaked at 1.25 million.
Earlier in the evening, an average national audience of 1.05 million viewers watched the final cook-off – two intense dishes from star chef Peter Gilmore, one of which was the decadent golden crackle dessert.
Daniel Monaghan, Senior Vice President Content and Programming, 10 ViacomCBS, said: “MasterChef Australia transforms lives, inspires the nation, and impresses the world’s best chefs. And this season was no different.
“It was a pleasure to see Andy, Melissa and Jock back on our screens, and watch them experience their first season with the best home cooks ever.
“Their undeniable chemistry, combined culinary credentials, sheer joy for food, and relentless enthusiasm continues to resonate with the Australian public. There is no doubt Australia’s celebration, obsession and love of food remains strong.
“I would like to thank Jock, Melissa and Andy for their commitment, passion and expertise. Their warm rapport with contestants and each other has been truly enjoyable to watch.
“This year we welcomed 24 talented and passionate home cooks who all impressed the nation with their extraordinary cooking and exceptional stories. I would like to sincerely thank and congratulate each of them for bringing us such a heart-warming and inspiring season.
“And of course, a special congratulations to Justin on being crowned the winner of MasterChef Australia 2021.
“I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to Marty Benson and his team, and to all our friends and production partners at Endemol Shine Australia who were able to rise to the challenge again to produce another brilliant, heart-warming and premium season.
“Finally, thank you to everyone at Network 10 who has contributed to the success of this season, particularly executive producer Rick Maier.”
Lisa Squillace, National Sales Director, 10 ViacomCBS, said: “MasterChef Australia undeniably resonates in the Australian psyche as a premium, trusted and heart-warming show. Once again, it has proven it is a winning recipe as audiences and brands engaged in another compelling season.
“The unprecedented take up of sponsorships on the 2021 season, prove the credibility and influence of the premium MasterChef Australia brand. It tells us a lot about our culture, our clients and our audience.
“I would like to extend my sincere thanks to our sponsors for giving us the opportunity to showcase their brands and produce in the MasterChef kitchen. We are delighted to have been able to integrate these brands innovatively and seamlessly into the narrative of the show, creating collections of moments that resulted in commercial successes.
“After 13 seasons, MasterChef Australia continues to deliver highly meaningful and impactful campaigns for our partners. I’d like to thank all our sponsors for their support this season, and we are looking forward to working them again on Celebrity MasterChef Australia.”
