Back to basics: MasterChef judges Gary Mehigan, Matt Preston and George Calombaris have enjoyed a ratings bump this season. has beaten Seven's House Rules and Nine's Reno Rumble almost every night this year in the five major cities. (House Rules won for the first time last night.) Its audience is up by almost a third compared to the same point in 2014 – and that season was a dramatic improvement on the year before. What's going on? The evidence suggest viewers didn't give up on because they were sick of the concept. When the show launched, it was lauded for being a breath of fresh air. The non-nasty reality show. A ratings blockbuster with heart and soul.

All about the cooking: MasterChef's 2015 contestants. Credit:Network Ten Most programs lose viewers after a while – and was never going to sustain the record-breaking audiences of its first two seasons. But in trying to arrest the slide, producers made a couple of near-fatal missteps. The first was to bombard audiences with too many spin-offs: a celebrity, all-star, professional and kids version. One or two might have been okay. But four spin-offs, plus the regular series, was asking too much. Many fans simply gave up. The second mistake was to cast an envious eye over My Kitchen Rules's massive ratings and conclude that needed some MKR-style conflict. (Ironically, MKR rated softly upon its debut and was accused of being a copy. It is now Australia's highest-rating program by a huge margin.)

Think of it this way. When your cantankerous old uncle says something mean at Christmas lunch, no one is surprised. But when his mild-mannered brother says something not even half as bad, everyone is shocked. No one expected that from him. This is how we felt with MKR and . We knew from the start what were were getting with MKR: a mixture of heart-warming triumphs, kitchen disasters and contestants bitching behind each other's backs. But when dialled up the conflict, it seemed weird and unsettling. As judge Matt Preston told TV Tonight, the show has come a long way from a promotion in which he dropped a plate on the ground and declared its contents "disgusting ... disgustingly good." "[It] drew audiences, but not in a healthy or respectful way," Preston explained.

"Last year, we worked out what makes tick ... let's find people who are good cooks and help them develop into extraordinary cooks. Let's find people with real dreams and desires to create a new future for themselves in the industry of food, whatever form that takes. Let's enjoy that development, treat them with respect and fall in love with them." To their credit, Ten and producers Shine Australia have done exactly that. This new season of feels like the old . And that's a good thing. Yes, there is drama, but it's about the cooking. In television, it's all too easy to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. When a show becomes a hit, it's tempting to wring out every drop of revenue through endless spin-offs, then cynically overhaul the format to keep ratings up. As we argued in 2013, MasterChef deserved a second chance.

Fortunately, its producers have gone about it the right way – and have been rewarded by the return of their viewers. mlallo@fairfaxmedia.com.au