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Off the back of its 2010 success, MasterChef, with its judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace, is moving to a brand new kitchen which will accommodate a bigger group of amateur cooks all hoping to be the next champion, it was announced today.

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One has commissioned Shine TV to produce MasterChef's seventh series as 15 one-hour programmes. Kicking off the action for the first time ever, John and Gregg will audition amateur chefs chosen from the 20,000 applicants. Over the course of the auditions the 20 best contestants will be chosen to don the MasterChef apron and go through to the brand new kitchen.

Then, across the series, viewers will be able to follow the 20 lucky hopefuls as they face more ambitious tests than ever before, designed to really develop their culinary skills and test them to limit.

Shine TV Executive Editor, Karen Ross, said: "Although we have always enjoyed the six weeks of heat shows to select the final eight semi-finalists, we are very excited to have the opportunity to start with a smaller group of cooks and follow them across the series.

"It will allow viewers to see more development of the contestants and enjoy an entire series of challenges that up till now have only been possible in the last two weeks of the semi-final and final rounds.

"The new massive kitchen will give us the space to do this and having the same competitors across the series will not only help them to become even stronger cooks, but it will also give our viewers a chance to engage with them even more."

Jay Hunt, Controller ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One, said: "MasterChef has grown into unmissable event television on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One. The new series will give viewers the chance to be part of the action from the very beginning and to experience more drama and cooking than ever before."

MasterChef is based on a format created by Franc Roddam and has been produced by Shine TV since 2005 and has gone from strength to strength, moving from an original tea-time slot on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Two to 9pm on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One. A record 7.8 million viewers watched Lisa Faulkner win the Celebrity MasterChef series on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One last week.

Notes to Editors

The new set has been created by James Zafar with lighting by Rob Mansfield. Shine TV has been producing the MasterChef series for the past five years, creating six series of the amateur series, five series of the celebrity series, three MasterChef The Professionals and Junior MasterChef 2010.

RB