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US celebrity version of MKR starring Curtis Stone opens to lacklustre ratings

America's Fox network tries to replicate the success of MKR, substituting vaudevillian heroes and villains for celebrities.

Andrew Murfett

This week marks the return of the Australian Open and with it another ubiquitous January staple: incessant My Kitchen Rules promos.

For more than five years, MKR has admirably functioned as Seven's sturdy launching pad.

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Trailer: My Kitchen Rules US

My Kitchen Rules US is a cooking series that pits celebrity duos against each other as they cook and critique each other’s food.

In 2016 the series averaged a remarkable 1.5 million over an elongated 48-episode run.

MKR's unremitting success and enduring appeal over Australian audiences is something to behold, particularly for a series initially derided as a poor man's riposte to MasterChef.

It did not go unnoticed in the US market.

A handful of Australian series such as Rake and Kath & Kim have been remade specifically for US audiences, with mostly tepid returns. Yet those series exploited significant cultural quirks unique to Australia and difficult to replicate for US audiences.

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Last week saw the debut of an American My Kitchen Rules franchise on the US network Fox. Here was an Australian-conceived ratings blockbuster with significant potential to translate to international audience.

However Fox premiered MKR in the network's Thursday primetime schedule and was met with a shrug from viewers: just 2.57 million viewers tuned in.

By comparison, the CBS comedy Mom landed 7.33 million and NBC's Chicago Med had 6.75 million.

While discouraging, the disparity in viewers is not entirely reflective of the show. As fluffy as a plate of pancakes, this rendering of MKR is nothing if not entertaining.

In the capable Curtis Stone, the series boasts an Australian judge and also retains the striking MKR logo and apron. Yet elsewhere there are some significant differences.

Firstly, as opposed to Seven's epic 48-episode, multiple-weeknight season, MKR USA airs once a week over a slender eight-episode season.

Secondly, rather than unearthing previously unknown characters, Fox has hired a cluster of celebrities as contestants.

The first duo was the singer Brandy and her brother Ray J, whom the show tells us surreptitiously is best known for his role in a notorious sex tape with Kim Kardashian.

Others in the group include country singer Naomi Judd, comedian Andrew Dice-Clay, pop star Lance Bass and Real Housewife Brandi Glanville. The presence of the latter is notable as Glanville provides the show's snark.

With the exception of the mild-mannered Bass, subtlety has no place here.

The show's unseen narrator is not immune, either. "The prep time disappears faster than a celebrity marriage," he notes dryly over meal preparation footage.

In Australia, MKR designates its cast as either heroes or villains and ensures the stakes feel elevated. Life will surely change for the winner.

However the stakes in the US version feel exceedingly low. There is some voyeurism certainly in visiting the celebrity's homes, something the celebrities themselves acknowledge on-camera. There is yet more voyeurism in watching awkward pre-meal small talk and the at-times eccentric dinner conversation.

Dice-Clay for instance, flippantly dismisses one couple's platonic relationship.

"It's going to end up in the back seat of a car one day, trust me."

For her part, Judd gladly plays the bonkers guest.

"I promise not to steal anything," she tells Brandy upon entering her home, in a tone suggesting otherwise.

Stone hams it up a little too, appearing mildly amused and occasionally alarmed by his dinner guests and light-heartedly playing the vaudevillian judge role perfected by the Australian show's hosts Manu Feildel and Pete Evans.

Not unlike those two, he also occasionally appears utterly disinterested.

Whether the audience grows and the format succeeds Stateside remains to be seen.

Still, the comparison to Seven's MKR is flattering for the Aussie network. The Americans have been unable to replicate the dexterous casting and editing that ensure most MKR episodes possess an addictive, well-crafted narrative.

Australian diehards may also see some irony in Fox's programming choice for the American MKR lead-in: MasterChef.

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