BBC One’s MasterChef lost nearly one million viewers during its return last night, marking the final series with hosts Gregg Wallace and John Torode following their recent sacking

MasterChef lost almost a million viewers this week(Image: BBC)

MasterChef has lost almost one million viewers as fans snubbed the BBC One programme after the firing of John Torode and Gregg Wallace. The show’s latest series premiered on BBC One last night, marking the last with Torode and Wallace after their recent misconduct scandal.

Torode’s contract was not renewed by production company Banijay UK after it was alleged that he used racist language, whilst his co-star Gregg was fired from the programme after 41 of the 83 complaints against him were upheld by an investigation into his conduct. Despite the scandal, the BBC aired its 21st series, which was filmed before Torode and Wallace were let go from the programme.

It has now been revealed that just under two million people watched the show’s premiere on Wednesday, according to BBC News. This means that the show has lost almost a million viewers since last year, after last year’s premiere brought in 2.7 million viewers. It comes after reports Gregg Wallace is trying to ‘earn a living’ after MasterChef exit amid ‘battle every day’.

MasterChef hosts Gregg Wallace and John Torode returned to the BBC One show for the latest series(Image: BBC)

Wednesday saw the show return but with major changes as last minute edits were made to the series in light of the scandal. Both presenters appeared in the introduction shots of the first episode, however their screen time was massively reduced compared to the previous series.

BBC bosses have begun to airbrush them out of MasterChef – removing any promotional pictures of them and reducing their screen time. Neither presenter is mentioned in the descriptions for the three available episodes.

Those who did tune in took to X to say that they were switching off as they made the same complaint about the programme. One viewer wrote on X: “I shall tune in to this for 10 or 15 minutes just to see how it has been re-cut to remove its presenters,” before adding just minutes later: “Well I’ve switched it off. The @BBC has made no attempt to remove them from the show.”

A second said: “We have also switched off Master chef. I can’t bear to watch. Of course they could have edited the presenters out and had some sort of voice over.”

Earlier today, a PR specialist revealed that Torode has “one chance” to save his career after the scandal. Kayley Cornelius told The Mirror: “Should he take accountability for his actions, apologise to those he’s upset or disappointed, and demonstrate clear growth since the time of the incident, I do believe, based on current online sentiment, that he has a chance to win back some public support.”