Edited out of Masterchef

Something I've not seen happen before a UK TV show, popped up at the start of tonight's Masterchef: The Professionals -



Clearly there was some considerable warning of them having to re-edit like this, as they stretched three chefs out to the full time, and even seemed to speak as if the fourth, whoever they were, and whatever happened, just didn't exist.

Pretty seamless, pretty impressed actually. It didn't feel any different for missing one quarter of the evening's contestants, but not something I'd ever seen done on a UK show before - only really this year's US season of Drag Race, though not this seamlessly!

It happened on an episode of 15 to 1 once, I believe.

I spent the episode trying to spot the edits....... it was well done. The most obvious missing bit was the standard shot of all four standing together, which had to be left out.
Does anyone know why the 4th contestant couldn't be shown?
Not another inappropriate facial tattoo?!

It’s always either something inappropriate that they did which was later discovered (e.g. the tattoo), them being exposed as a criminal, or the person having died.

Having died is no reason in itself for not having someone appear on a programme. It depends on the relatives.


In terms of quality of the edit, if the issue was found before post production they'd have never edited him in in the first place.

One theory I've read online (according to a 'friends mum who works on the show') is that the contestant told one of the judges to, erm, f themselves.

One thing I had found, and it seems plausible, is that they cooked a meal which was a secret receipe from the restuarant they worked in.
Therefore it was down to the employer raising the objection to it being shown.

Maybe the family didn’t want them to be in the show if they died.

If they told the judge to, well, the above, I don’t know whether that is grounds for them to edit him out completely.

Yes, I remember hearing that. The contestant in question was involved in an (unrelated) court case or criminal matter and couldn’t be shown for legal reasons. They edited out his questions - and I believe he was eliminated after round one which made this easier. I’m not sure if he still appeared in long shots though.

It was more that they would have only had the original footage, and what couldn't be used - wide shots of the kitchen, group shots, and so on.
I imagine the opening shot of just three of them had to be redone, as that couldn't have been editted - or could it have been with the modern CGI type of image manipulation? Just wondering!

If it was the "go f yourself" comment, presumably in response to the judging, they could have made the decision to disqualify them and done some pick up shots with the remaining contestants on the day?

No, they didn't. It was actually in the final, in December 2000 - and they cut straight from the opening titles (featuring just fourteen contestants) to WGS starting the show, editing out his walk-on, so you couldn't see the missing contestant at any point. It was all very seamlessly done, and as you say they were immediately eliminated.

The heat they won was actually scheduled for just a few days before the final, and that was dropped completely and replaced by a repeat. I remember one of the other contestants in that heat posting on some forum or other at the time saying they'd just received a big bunch of flowers from C4 with a message apologising that their episode would now never be shown.

The Soviet Union used to airbrush people out of photographs who had effectively become enemies of the state for one reason or another, and this would have been long before the days of Photoshop and computers, although its an entirely different set of circumstances as that was all part of propaganda at the time.

However the point was that was possible 70 years ago, so with regards to Masterchef, it should be possible today with modern technology. It probably comes down to what was the best solution to the problem, which may have simply been not using certain shots. The question came up on BGT a few years ago when they were using a four judge setup for auditions in one place and three for the others (or whatever the arrangement was), and it was tooted as to whether CGI would be used to make the auditions look uniform, and in the end they did sod all about it in the edit and nobody really cared.