This Sunday the last chapter of MasterChef Celebrity, first version of the format in which the contestants were a group of celebrities. Not only has that been different in this cycle: the Channel 13 program took place in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, but what the final chapter will be marked by the health situation.
Thus, the last chapter will be a mixture of events: on the one hand, the final test that the finalists Rocío Marengo, Natalia Ducó and César Campos faced last March, prior to confinement, being the last thing that was registered in Colombia, where it was developed all season through the alliance between Channel 13 and the RCN station in that country.
After that, the only thing that remained to be recorded were the culminating moments where the winner or winner is known, which took place in Chile a few days ago, and in an unprecedented modality that combined the face-to-face with the virtual, since several of the actors who gave life to this season are not in Chile: chefs Fernanda Fuentes and Jorge Rausch, who are in the Canary Islands and Colombia, respectively, while Marengo is in his native Argentina.
Even so, says the executive producer of the project, Francisco Callejas, an attempt was made to create a special instance, as in previous cycles. “We want the finalists to spend the culminating moment of the program with the closest people. From that we obviously try to create this same emotion and closeness but in another way, using technology and connecting everyone, even the jury, on a TV set ”.
Callejas continues: “We did something that has not been done, I believe in any other MasterChef of the world, which is making use of everything we have in terms of technology and what the channel can offer, so I think the public is going to be quite surprised to see that all the people who were involved in this process are going to be together in the same set in a very special way ”.
In evaluating this cycle, José Miranda, Channel 13’s programming director, highlights not only the tuning achieved, with an average rating of 14.9 points so far, leading the slot every Sunday. At the same time, it highlights that this is the only entertainment space that by a fortunate coincidence -because all its chapters were recorded-, could remain on the screen without interruptions despite the pandemic.
“This delivery totally exceeded all expectations, it is far from the version of MasterChef with higher audience peaks. In addition, the commercial rating, which is a rating that is rarely seen by the audience, but which is very important today to make the business model sustainable, is by far the project with the highest commercial rating on Channel 13 and most likely the industry ”, Miranda analyzes.
All this has reinforced confidence in the project, and therefore they are “already working to hopefully be able to fulfill the illusion of having a new season next year”, warns the executive, although it is not yet defined whether it will be another “celebrity” version. a traditional one, or perhaps another kind. “It is something that we are going to do as much as possible, understanding that we still do not know what to expect, given what is going to happen next year with the coronavirus, but we hope to be able to have it on screen,” continues Miranda.
There would also be other factors under study. “It will depend a lot on the operational complexity when doing it in another country, and we are also seeing that, if there is another alternative country. That means that we have to evaluate if there are quarantine conditions, if there are sanitary conditions that allow us to do so, we are putting all of this on the radar of the analysis and evaluation work ”, details the programming director.
Callejas shares that caution regarding the cycle that he hopes to reach the screen in 2021. “In such an unusual situation, as a producer we have to take all measures so that the project comes out, and we do not have to cancel it, for example in the middle” , says considering what happened with the program Dancing for a dream, and that it had to stop its cycle due to the health emergency.
Regarding entertainment spaces faced with contingency, Miranda reflects: “Today what we have to do is take into account that the current situation makes and complicates the way of producing entertainment that involves a great display of talent, people, etc. because there is a practical thing about new conditions that we also did not know and we have been discovering with the guides that the authority is giving us. We hope in a minute to think that we will be able to do that type of entertainment again, but if before it was difficult to make it viable because they are high-cost projects, now it will be even more difficult to be able to do it because there is indeed a significant decrease in advertising investment , but we have to make the effort. I think we are a resilient channel ”.
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