TLDR
Network 10 is bringing back Junior MasterChef Australia in 2027, six years after its last season, with Poh Ling Yeow hosting and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, as special guest. Her July guest-judge episode of MasterChef reached 1.16 million Australians and gave the show its biggest Sunday audience in three years.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The announcement
Network 10 will bring back Junior MasterChef Australia in 2027, six years after the last junior season. Poh Ling Yeow will host, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, joins as a special guest to help guide the young cooks, the network said on Tuesday.[1]
"I had an incredible time with the whole team at MasterChef this past April," Meghan said in the announcement.[1] She told Variety Australia that saying yes to a return was "an easy yes".[4] Poh said: "I'm thrilled to bits that Junior MasterChef is returning to our screens."[1]
Endemol Shine Australia, part of Banijay, makes the series, and Banijay Rights sells it internationally. The network has not given an air date, filming dates or the contestants' ages.[1]
Why 10 wants her back
Meghan filmed a guest-judge episode of MasterChef Australia's 18th season in April. It went to air at 7pm on Sunday 26 July.[3] That night the show reached 1.16 million Australians, with an average audience of 738,000, the biggest overnight Sunday audience for MasterChef in three years, and it set a record for the show's overnight streaming audience at 118,000.[2]
It still did not win the night. Seven's evening Commonwealth Games coverage reached 2.556 million people, and its average audience of 964,000 was well ahead of MasterChef's.[2] A celebrity guest bought 10 one of its best Sundays in years on a night Seven had the Commonwealth Games, and a junior series built around her is a bet that it can do the same again.
Her record with kids' cooking shows
This is not Meghan's first junior cooking format. The network notes she was a guest judge on Food Network's Chopped Junior in the US in 2016, and describes her as Emmy-nominated for her own series, With Love, Meghan.[1] Netflix ended its partnership with her lifestyle brand As Ever earlier this year, after deciding not to renew With Love, Meghan beyond two seasons, Variety Australia reported.[4]
Poh across both shows
Poh will also return in 2027 to judge MasterChef Australia's 19th season with Andy Allen, Sofia Levin and Jean-Christophe Novelli.[1] Network 10 has not said which series will air first.
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James Dore is founder and editor of Prompt the Market and Strategy Director at Bushnote, a Sydney strategy, SEO and AI search agency. He has a background in strategy, media and financial services, and led consumer product marketing at MONEYME. He writes on AI search, answer engines, technology policy and media economics.
