MasterChef Greece
MasterChef Greece is a Greek competitive cooking game show. based on the original British MasterChef. The show began airing on 3 October 2010 on Mega Channel and aired two seasons until 2013. From 2017, the show is airing on Star Channel. Until now have been aired five seasons, with the sixth season is current airing on Star Channel.
| MasterChef | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Cooking |
| Directed by |
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| Presented by |
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| Judges |
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| Theme music composer | Scissor Sisters |
| Opening theme | Fire with Fire |
| Country of origin |   |
| Original language(s) | Greek |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 382 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
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| Producer(s) | Nikos Christoforou |
| Production location(s) | Studio Karamanos AE |
| Running time | 90–150 minutes (including commercials) |
| Production company(s) | Shine Group in association with Ziji productions Studio ATA |
| Release | |
| Original network | Mega Channel (1–2) Star Channel (3–) |
| Picture format | 576i (PAL), 1080i |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | Original series: 3 October 2010 – 2013 Revival series 4 May 2017 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The first and second season of the show aired on Mega Channel from 2010 to 2013, with presenters Eugenia Manolidou and Mary Synatsaki respectively. In March 2017, Star Channel acquired the rights to the show by restoring MasterChef after four years. The third season premiered on 4 May 2017. Two more seasons of episodes followed in 2018 and 2019. The show was renewed for a sixth season premiered on 27 January 2020 on the same channel.
After the completion of the first season, Mega Channel created the derivative of the competition in which children aged 8–13 took part and was awarded the title Junior MasterChef Greece. The corresponding one was shown in the 2011–2012 season with presenter Maria Bekatorou. In 2018, Star Channel brought Junior MasterChef back to its second season.
Hosts and Judges
| Starring | Seasons | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |||||||
| Current | ||||||||||||
| Sotiris Kontizas | Host & Judge | |||||||||||
| Panos Ioannidis | Host & Judge | |||||||||||
| Leonidas Koutsopoulos | Host & Judge | |||||||||||
| Former | ||||||||||||
| Dimitris Skarmoutsos | Judge | Host & Judge | ||||||||||
| Lefteris Lazarou | Judge | |||||||||||
| Yiannis Loukakos | Judge | |||||||||||
| Eugenia Manolidou | Host | |||||||||||
| Mary Synatsaki | Host | |||||||||||
Series overview
| Season | Number of contestants | Number of episodes | Originally aired | Classification of first trinity | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | Network | Winner | Runner-up | Third place | |||
| 1 | 20 | 72 | 3 October 2010 | 28 December 2020 | Mega Channel | Akis Petretzikis | Michalis Kalavrinos | Giannis Apostolakis |
| 2 | 22 | 83 | 24 December 2012 | 14 March 2013 | Kostis Kampas & Mpampis Koudouris | George Gerardos | ||
| 3 | 20 | 72 | 4 May 2017 | 30 July 2017 | Star Channel | Lambros Vakiaros | Constantinos Tsiatsios | George Porphyris |
| 4 | 22 | 84 | 10 January 2018 | 8 May 2018 | Timoleon Diamantis | Christos Glossidis | Argyris Aglamisis | |
| 5 | 21 | 84 | 21 January 2019 | 22 May 2019 | Manolis Sarris | Spyridoula Karaboutaki | Christos Barkas | |
| 6 | 23 | 77 | 27 January 2020 | 17 June 2020 | Stavros Varthalitis | Stavris Georgiou | Maria Veli | |
Series synopsis
Season 1 (2010)
The first season of MasterChef premiered on 3 October 2010 and ended on 28 December 2010 and was hosted by musician and television presenter Eugenia Manolidou. The judges of the Greek show were Yiannis Loukakos, Lefteris Lazarou and Dimitris Skarmoutsos. The winner of the first series was Akis Petretzikis.
Season 2 (2012–2013)
The second season premiered on 24 December 2012. This season was hosted by Maria Synatsaki and all three chefs remain as judges. The show was put on hiatus after the penultimate episode due to financial difficulties of both the production company, Studio ATA, and Mega Channel itself, resulting in both finalists being declared winners. The two winners are Kostis Kampas and Mpampis Koudouris.
Season 3 (2017)
The third season premiered on 4 May 2017. The judges of the third season are Dimitris Skarmoutsos, Panos Ioannidis and Sotiris Kontizas. The winner of season 3 was Lambros Vakiaros.
Season 4 (2018)
The fourth season premiered on 10 January 2018. Ioannidis and Kontizas came back for their second series while Leonidas Koutsopoulos is the new judge in the series. Winner of season 4 was Timoleon Diamantis.
Season 5 (2019)
The fifth season premiered on 21 January 2019. All three chefs from season 4 remain as judges. The winner of season 5 was Manolis Sarris.
Season 6 (2020)
The sixth season premiered on 27 January 2020. All three chefs from season 5 remained as judges. The winner of season 6 was Stavros Varthalitis.
Spin-off
Junior MasterChef Greece premiered on 27 November 2011 and ended on 5 February 2012. The judges were the same as MasterChef Greece (Yiannis Loukakos, Lefteris Lazarou and Dimitris Skarmoutsos) and it was hosted by Maria Mpekatorou. The winner was twelve-year-old Lilian Emvaloti.
The second season of Junior MasterChef Greece premiered on 13 September 2018 on Star Channel and ended on 24 December 2018. The judges were Eleni Psyhouli, Manolis Papoutsakis, Magky Tabakaki. Among 44 children, the judges choose the top 22 children (11 girls and 11 boys). The winner was twelve-year-old Konstantinos Christopoulos.