Overview
- MasterChef UK and the BBC confirmed on-air and via programme channels that Saturday Kitchen host Matt Tebbutt will join the Professionals judging panel.
- Tebbutt teams with Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti for the 18th series, with guest judges set to appear in the early heats.
- He replaces Gregg Wallace after an independent Lewis Silkin review substantiated 45 of 83 complaints about Wallace’s conduct; a racist-language complaint against John Torode was also upheld.
- BBC One and iPlayer will carry the new Professionals series, with a transmission date yet to be announced.
- Separate reports say Grace Dent and Anna Haugh are in line to judge the main amateur series, and that Tom Kerridge was ruled out over advertising conflicts, with the BBC declining to comment.