After Torode & Wallace: Masterchef is a global TV brand
This week has seen the BBC sacking at arm’s length of Masterchef UK presenters John Torode and Gregg Wallace. They are in fact produced by Banijay a global production company. Wallace was sacked for being a Sexpest and Torode for making a racist comment (which he says he cant recall). BBC boss Tim Davie says it was the worst racist term that could be used but it seems unlikely Davie is an expert here. Richard Osman has broadly hinted what it was and it was entirely unacceptable but depending on who the remark was made to there are worse. In the world of culture wars and lawyers these matters resound.
The debate has focused on who might replace Wallace and Torode and whether an already filmed series with Wallace should be shown. For Banjay, beyond the parochial UK media, there may be global impacts.
Masterchef UK was relaunched in 2005 and is the original from which the format has been rolled out around the world (see link below). Australian Masterchef was the first to follow and still continues in a rather more frenetic, to my taste, format than the UK. The presenters were replaced in 2019 after issues, but the programme remains in production.
Why the French and Chinese versions didn’t work is perhaps of some interest. Not as much however as the notoriously parochial UK media (with some exceptions) failure to note that in 2025 the Masterchef brand really is not all about Torode and Wallace.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MasterChef
And by the way the answer to future Wallace and Torodes is not just that the BBC gets a better grip on ‘talent’ (top paid stars) but listens to and encourages membership of a union- in this case BECTU. People should not be in fear of calling out sexist, racist or demeaning behaviours whoever is doing it.
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