IT'S a sliver of the show it was in its heyday and after five years MasterChef is going back to basics.

Channel Ten is dumping all spin-offs of the reality cooking show including professional, all-stars, kids and celebrity versions to concentrate on its original Australian format next year.

Tonight's MasterChef grand final will be the last time we see judges Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan for nine months.

The move comes after disappointing ratings for this year's fifth season of MasterChef Australia which followed less-than-stellar figures for MasterChef: The Professionals.

Recent episodes of MasterChef Australia have averaged around 800,000 viewers.

This year's series has been fried by rival shows including The Voice, The X Factor, The Block Sky High, 60 Minutes and House Rules.

Worse still, MasterChef Australia's crown as the country's most popular cooking show has slipped. My Kitchen Rules is king, regularly smashing through the 2 million viewer barrier this year.

"There has been a lot of MasterChef on in the past couple of years so really what this show needs is a break," Ten program chief Beverly McGarvey says.

"It is definitely our intention to rebuild the brand - to grow the numbers next year. We think it is still a great show. We like what it represents. It is about dream fulfilment.

"We think the audience likes that too but they're just a bit tired. We're not going to do a variant (spin-off) this year. When it has a break we think people will respond to it the way they used to."

Ten will still be hoping that tonight's cook-off between Emma Dean, Samira El Khafir and Lynton Tapp rates big but there is no chance it will match the show's heyday.

Nearly 4 million viewers saw Julie Goodwin win series one in 2009 and Adam Liaw win series two in 2010.

Media analyst Steve Allen predicts this year's finale will top out at around 1.3 million viewers - a third of those spectacular figures.

"This year's MasterChef has had very disappointing ratings," Allen says. "It got off to the wrong start, had ill-conceived on-air promotions and poor casting.

"Many of this year's contestants were not good cooks. Granted, some of them improved but this is MasterChef so you expect the best."

Things went wrong early.

The 1950s style Boys v Girls launch promotions were slammed for being sexist. Then Judge Gary Mehigan got into hot water after he labelled My Kitchen Rules "bogan television" and that came across as sour grapes.

Mehigan and fellow judge George Calombaris admitted that this year's contestants weren't in the same league as last year's amateur cooks. Producers hoped the inclusion of solid rather than brilliant home cooks would make the contestants more accessible, but it seems the audience preferred to be dazzled.

The endless theme weeks, including Italian, Kids, and Wild Wild West felt gimmicky and contrived.

And fans have taken to social media to vent their dissatisfaction.

"Ten have only themselves to blame for oversaturating the brand in such a short space of time," viewer Alvar posted on the TV Tonight blog.

"Don't rely on gimmicks like Boys v Girs", "Get some contestants who are likable and know how to cook", "auditions should return" and "bring in a new, preferably strong female, judge" were other gripes.

Viewer fatigue also played a part. By the time Ten launched MasterChef on June 2, viewers had already endured months of My Kitchen Rules and MasterChef: The Professionals.

Nine got in on the act with The Great Australian Bake Off and this week Ten launched Recipe to Riches.

"MasterChef had the field to itself in 2009," Allen says. "Back then it was a unique and unchallenged concept but now the field is crowded."

McGarvey is confident MasterChef can recapture much of the glory of past years.

"These days any established brand is valuable," she says. "Having no variant will build an appetite (in viewers).

"It is up to the creative team to keep it invigorated."

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