We Can’t Believe Joe Bastianich is Leaving the MasterChef Franchise

 

No really — it’s game over for Joe Bastianich.

After filming the third season of MasterChef Junior this January, reports Variety, Bastianich will no longer be a part of the judging team. That means that Team Gordon Ramsay and Graham Elliot are in need of a third replacement judge to take over all MasterChef judging (and critical, death-entrapping stares, as that’s what Bastianich is best known for).

Still, Bastianich will be hosting his own CNBC show, Restaurant Start-Up (by the same production comapny as MasterChef, Shine America), and his Italian line-up of TV shows. Reports Deadline: “Bastianich has been focusing on his TV business in Italy; he will continue in his role on MasterChef Italia, he recently acquired the Italian production company Todos Contentos and currently is in production on Season 2 of On The Road for Italy’s Sky Network.”

It sounds like Bastianich wants to spend more time on the restaurant side of things rather than the TV side of things. Said Bastianich to Deadline, ““After several gratifying years as a judge on MasterChef and MasterChef Junior, I have decided to step down from my role on the show … As co-owner and partner of the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, as well as Eataly throughout the Americas, I will be focusing my time and energies on their continued global expansion.”

But seriously, we’re kind of surprised that Bastianich is leaving. MasterChef, we can get — the adult-version of the show is a done deal, a dud compared to the rest of reality cooking shows on TV today. But in a recent article by Buzzfeed, Bastianich seemed to at least take the role of MasterChef Junior very seriously. From the article:

I ask if they think all of the kids will really become chefs one day. They say no, of course not all of them, and they’re not trying to push restaurant work on them. This gets Bastianich’s attention.

“I think the more relevant question is the 6 million kids and adults who are watching,” he says, seizing an opportunity to give a positive spin and talk about something he’s proud of. “What message does that send to them, because that’s the greater impact, right? I think it’s a very positive one. We think that this is the cure, not the problem, for food-related issues in our society — whether it’s childhood obesity, whatever — knowing about the food, how to cook it, how to source it, how to manage it, is a very positive message that these kids launch for everyone else.”

Could it be that Bastianich wants to end on a high note? Abandon ship before it inevitably starts to sink? Not sure. More importantly, who will replace him? We nominate Anthony Bourdain: menace to the adults, father to children (and therefore more sympathetic and understanding for the MasterChef Junior contestants). Who else will have the right touch of terrifying criticism and empathy for both shows?

[Variety, Deadline, Buzzfeed]

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