The eleventh edition of MasterChef premieres today on TVE's La 1 from 10 p.m. with two notable novelties: twice as many aspirants will take part (there will be 30) and the program will be broadcast two days a week , with a shorter duration and with only two tests instead of the usual three. In the first weekly installment (Monday) there will be two challenges on set, one of which is an elimination, and in the second installment (Tuesday), an outdoor test and another elimination. Each week two contestants will say goodbye.
This new programming tactic will allow TVE to double the content by dividing it into two recordings and will also advocate for time reconciliation so as not to end in the morning, as many viewers requested in previous seasons.
Macarena Rey, director of the production company Shine Iberia, pointed out during the presentation of this new season to the media that the first chapter and the final duel will only be a little longer. He also wanted to record that this new broadcast line was an imposition by RTVE that "should not be repeated".
"On a physical and human scale, it is very difficult to do two recordings per week, with twice as many contestants and everything that comes with it," said Rey. At the same time, he was grateful for the support of the corporation and the production team, since to shoot this edition another set had to be built, the existing ones redecorated and 22 cameras deployed, two from a crane and eight from robotised to "not lose detail".
This year, 70,000 candidates applied and, after several selections, 60 remained who will star in the first chapter, although only 30 of them will compete in the competition. Among the profiles already revealed are a 19-year-old cookery student, ex-participant of MasterChef Junior, an air traffic controller from Cádiz who wants to start a catering business for airlines, a young creator on TikTok, a judge who loves Harley-Davidsons, a Venezuelan Dominican priest and a technician from a Spanish multinational telephone company, MasterChef's number one fan, able to remember everything about the format.
"The casting has been a hoot: half of Spain is on set, life itself recorded and brought to the world of cooking, everything has been very beautiful, extravagant and very human", pointed out the jury Pepe Rodríguez. For his part, Jordi Cruz pointed out that this edition had meant "double the hurdles to jump, twice the effort to make, and offers an analysis of how the kitchen is today", while Samantha Vallejo- Nágera defined the edition as a "very entertaining edition, like a series you get hooked on".
