Realise your culinary dreams with MasterChef Singapore Season Four - auditions start today!

Singapore, 20 October 2022 – Do you dream of making a mark on Singapore’s culinary scene? Home cooks, ready your recipes to turn your dreams into reality, as the auditions for Season Four of MasterChef Singapore are now open! Leading distributor Banijay Rights, Singapore’s nation media network Mediacorp, and media management company Motion Content Group announced today the local return of one of the world’s most successful competitive cooking reality television formats.

From elevated hawker fare to experiments with molecular gastronomy, the ten-episode series will celebrate Singapore’s food heritage and spotlight local flavours, all while taking contestants a step closer towards achieving their culinary dreams. Cooking aficionados who wish to become the next MasterChef Singapore, here is some advice from returning judges Chefs Audra Morrice, Bjorn Shen and Damian D’Silva: be prepared to bring Singapore’s flavours to the world, local dishes to the next level, and sustainable cooking practices to the forefront.

Daryl Kho, SVP Asia – Formats, Banijay Rights, said: “MasterChef Singapore has raised the bar for culinary excellence on screen in this country – and last season took things to new heights with an array of colourful characters preparing a diverse selection of creatively-reimagined local cuisines. We’re once again pleased to be working with Mediacorp, Motion Content Group and Beach House Pictures on another outing of this incredible format.”

Angeline Poh, Chief Customer & Corporate Development Officer, Mediacorp, said: “For the fourth time running, we’re pleased to say: Welcome to the MasterChef kitchen! Having inspired countless cooking enthusiasts through three seasons, we look forward to working again with Banijay Rights, Motion Content Group and Beach House Pictures to celebrate Singapore’s rich culinary heritage and reopen the kitchen that turns dreams into reality, hobbies into careers and home cooks into master chefs. If that aligns with your passions, join our auditions today!”

Steven Murphy, Managing Director, Motion Content Group, APAC, said: “We are thrilled to be bringing MasterChef back to Singapore once again. Audiences will be in for a treat as we are looking to bring the show to the next level this season.”

Produced by Beach House Pictures, Season Four will be brought to screens in August 2023. This builds on the record-breaking success of the first three seasons, with the recently ended MasterChef Singapore Season Three emerging as the top local English variety series on Channel 5 for 2022 to-date1. Speaking to the nation’s collective fondness for food, the season reached more than 1.2 million viewers across Channel 5, meWATCH and the Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube channel, making it the most-watched season till date. Fans who wish to relive the mouth-watering magic of MasterChef Singapore Season Three can do so on-demand via meWATCH.

From students and teachers to stay-at-home mothers and high-flyer investors, Season Three attracted applicants and contestants from all walks of life. Case in point: the season finale in July saw dental student Johnathan Chew, visual arts instructor Azwandi “Andi” Robani and cars sales advisor S “Nares” Nareskanna fighting it out in an unprecedented three-way match, which eventually saw Chew crowned champion for his sophisticated spin on local cuisine and refined reimagining of homecooked fare. As the latest MasterChef, Chew walked away with bragging rights and more than $100,000 worth of prizes.

On his win, Chew, a third-year dental student, quipped: “MasterChef has created so many incredible opportunities for me that I had never thought possible. In just two months since the finale, I have taken up multiple live-cooking gigs both locally and abroad, been involved in the Singapore Food Festival 2022, and am currently collaborating with a local bakery to sell my curated selected of desserts. These experiences have been priceless, and truly a dream come true.”

In reflecting the calibre of contestants and prestige attached to MasterChef accolades, past winners and finalists alike have likewise achieved laudable culinary milestones since participating in the competition. Having all started as home chefs, decorated alumni include Genevieve Lee, founder of Sourbombe Artisanal Bakery; Aaron Wong, founder of Jiak Song Mee Hoon Kway; Sowmiya Venkatesan, founder of Kechil Kitchen; Shamsydar Ani, author of Spices & Lime; and Joshua Kalinan, Master Sake Sommelier.

Singaporeans and permanent residents looking to live their culinary dreams can apply at mediacorp.sg/masterchefsg by 15 January 2023. MasterChef Singapore is only open to those who are currently not working as a professional chef or those who have never worked as one before.

MasterChef, created by Franc Roddam, first launched in 1990 in the UK and was later revived in 2005, where it remains a number one hit for the BBC. In 2017, MasterChef was officially crowned the Most Successful Cookery Television Format by Guinness World Records. MasterChef celebrated its 500th series globally in 2021, with 49 productions in 33 territories airing last year. An international ratings hit, drawing in audiences in major markets including the UK, US, Brazil, Australia, Italy and Spain, the MasterChef format and finished programmes are represented internationally by Banijay Rights. Motion Content Group, part of GroupM, a leading media management company, has acquired the rights to produce and broadcast MasterChef Singapore from Banijay Rights. Banijay has recently announced several new iterations for the MasterChef format including Young MasterChef in the UK, MasterChef: Young Talent which is coming soon to Denmark and Norway, and MasterChef: Dessert Masters launching in Australia in 2023.

1 Viewership measured from 1 May to 21 September 2022. Source: SG-TAM (all rights reserved by IMDA). Data downloaded on 25 September 2022.

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Media contact
Lim Zi Ai
Communications Specialist
Email: ziai.lim@mediacorp.com.sg

About Banijay Rights
Leading independent global distributor, Banijay Rights, represents a world-class, multi-genre portfolio of over 130,000 hours of standout programming. Leading distribution for the largest international creator and producer, Banijay, the division handles the exploitation of some of the planet’s best scripted and non-scripted brands.

Representing quality, excellence and experience in the business of linear and non-linear television and ancillary activity across all platforms, Banijay Rights’ catalogue encompasses a host of top titles from Banijay’s 120+ in-house labels, and a number of third-party producers, spanning drama, comedy, entertainment, factual, reality, family, formats and theatrical.

Delivering high-quality IP, which was born locally and travels globally, the distributor offers the best stories told the best way. Its landmark brands include Survivor, Big Brother, MasterChef, Temptation Island, Grantchester, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Deal or No Deal, Versailles, Biggest Loser, Home and Away, Money Drop, Mr Bean and Black Mirror.

Built on independence, creative freedom, entrepreneurialism and commercial acumen, Banijay Rights operates under the direction of Chief Executive Officer, Cathy Payne.

About Mediacorp
Mediacorp is Singapore’s national media network and largest content creator. Its purpose is to create engaging and trusted content, as well as to connect communities and inspire people. Mediacorp engages over three million people in Singapore daily across four languages on its digital platforms including meWATCH, meLISTEN and CNA.asia, six TV channels and 11 radio stations. Beyond Singapore, Mediacorp also has a growing international audience through CNA and content distributed across markets.

With a focus on nurturing talent and growing the sector, the company is committed to investing in nation-wide initiatives like Star Search, Anugerah, Yaar Antha Star and SPOP, commissioning a wide variety of work from local content creators, and collaborating with institutes of higher learning. As Singapore’s first local Multi-Channel Network in partnership with YouTube, Mediacorp is also committed to developing a network of digital content creators.

For advertisers, Mediacorp has partnered industry-leading brands like ESPN, Mothership, Popcorn, theAsianparent, VICE, YouTube and 99.co to form the Mediacorp Digital Network in offering more effective content-driven solutions.

Mediacorp is the recipient of industry accolades including New York Festivals, World Media Festivals, PromaxBDA (World and Asia) and Asian Academy Creative Awards.

For more information, please visit mediacorp.sg

About Motion Content Group
Motion Content Group invests into entertainment content to support the commercial and editorial needs of over 200 network and platforms. It uses its global scale and relationships with the world’s leading talent, producers and distributors to gain access to the world’s best content for the benefit of our clients and media partners. Motion provides support and expertise to GroupM’s agencies and their clients to help realise and scale client entertainment ambitions. Headquartered in London and Los Angeles, Motion currently operates in 40 countries and has a broad range of award-winning programming distributed globally including LOVE ISLAND, on air in 21 markets, and Netflix’s hit social experiment THE CIRCLE. Motion is GroupM’s entertainment business, part of WPP.