YMMV / My Kitchen Rules

• Arc Fatigue: While the Instant Restaurant rounds are generally regarded as the best part of the series, some seasons ended up having too many Instant Restaurant Rounds that proved too much for the viewers.
  • Season 3 started off the trend of having 3 rounds, and would have been a contender for the longest time a team got eliminated first in competitive reality tv (which is 18 episodes).
  • Season 6 started the trend of 4 rounds (i.e. 24 episodes).
  • Season 7 would follow suit and be equally (if not more) tiring, since the one variable was that two teams would be eliminated instead of one - on the flipside, at least this time the show didn't go on hiatus for the Easter break.
• Broken Base:
  • People either sees Rose and Josh's relationship as very touching or very disturbing. Then there are those who think they're alright, but do not appreciate the show constantly trumpeting the fact that they're "the FIRST mother-son team in the history of MKR".
  • Channel 7's decision to postpone the season 6's final rounds by replacing one of the Wednesday slot with My Ireland with Colin — a 2-part documentary featuring guest judge Colin Fassnidge — was met with a divisive response. Many complained about the show dragging out the already-overstretched season (calling out MKR's cowardice for backing out of the ratings battle to Channel 9's The Block finals), but the rest are perfectly happy to see more of the Irish judge.
  • Will & Steve winning the title of MKR 2015 champions over Jac & Shaz. Those who favour the latter love to point out that Will & Steve have rushed with one of their dishes and served a "raw" duck for one of the other courses and don't deserve so many 9s from the judges. Their supporters would respond that, despite facing some troubles in the kitchen, the boys have demonstrated greater techniques than Jac and Shaz's more simplistic home cooking; also, "slightly undercook" is not the same as raw, and only one of the judges have that complaint — all but one of those ducks were cooked perfectly.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Ash, the self-proclaimed food snob, is very over-the-top in her delivery. Fans either find her an annoying bitch, or hilariously endearing.
  • Her semi-final rival, Steve, as well. He's very proud, intense and demanding to his partner. Many find his behaviour appalling (though not as bad as Drasko, apparently), but he and Will also has a lot of supporters, rooting for them to win the competition.
• Bile Fascination: The Vaudevillian drama between the contestants as they attempt to get along with each other during the Instant Restaurant rounds is one of the biggest point of complaint from its viewers... but it's also MKR's main draw, as millions of audiences tune in the show to "hate watch" it. This is presumably the reason why the producers try to increase the Instant Restaurant rounds with each season.
• Creator's Pet: Chloe and Kelly from Season 5. It was more than obvious to many viewers that something was going on when they won all but one of their potential eliminations by a single point, eventually making it all the way to the finale. Ass Pull doesn't even begin to describe it.
• Critic-Proof: The entertainment journalists of Sydney Morning Herald seem to loathe the show, and the recap articles of the series' episodes are almost always negative and sarcasm-ridden in their tone. Despite all these complaints, My Kitchen Rules have consistently maintained its position as Australia's #1 show in terms of viewer numbers.
• Designated Villain: The show frequently plays up some contestants' bitchiness to make them look as nasty as possible. Season 6 has Katie and Nikki, who complained that the episode clips frequently make them appear to be deliberately vain and/or insulting when they were supposed to have said those words as a joke; and also Kat, whom Sheri considers as a funny and lovable friend, but is made to look villainous when she gets snappy at other contestants.
• Elimination Houdini:
  • Season 3 Thomas & Carla, made it to the Top 9 despite being in the bottom 2 for 4 of their 5 weeks.
  • Season 3 Megan & Andy got last in their first Instant Restaurant Round, and went to Sudden Death cook-off 3 times. They made it to the semi-finals.
  • There was a huge outrage when Chloe & Kelly from Season 5 somehow made it into the Grand Finals, and many had complained about how the judges gave them far too many points for the store-bought desserts they served for an earlier round. Even the rival teams were expecting that their semi-final opponent — Paul & Blair — whom they beat by only 1 point (as had happened with all but one of their previous sudden deaths), would be the ones to win the round. Disgruntled fans vented on Twitter about how the show is rigged, and how the producers are judging personalities more than cooking skills.
  • Many viewers of the 6th season are quite vexed to see Kat and Andre managing to last in the competition for so long when they've messed up their instant restaurant twice, only barely scraping through the Redemption Round thanks to their strategic voting, and faring poorly in several the people's choice challenges — such as the Camping challenges and the Luna Park challenge. Thankfully for the viewers, they were finally eliminated just before the finals.
  • Season 6 Eva & Debra in their weaker days, where they were 1 point higher than the eliminated team in their 1st Instant Restaurant, and found themselves competing in 3 Sudden Death cook-offs. Of course, their stronger days helped them for their 2nd Instant Restaurant Round (even having the highest score in Instant Restaurant History) and the Top 4 placement.
  • Season 7 Carmine & Laura are considered one of the weaker teams of the season. Despite their constant bragging and complaining about the other teams hating on them unfairly, the food they serve are often just poorly made, and went to 3 Sudden Death cook-offs. Despite this, they actually won People's Choice for the Fisherman's challenge (thus giving them immunity for the next challenge), even though the two judges found several flaws on their side elements, leading to quite a lot of backdraft from the viewers. To the surprise of the rest of the team (particularly Zana), they finally ended up in the Grand Finals.
  • Overlapping with Shocking Elimination, a lot of people thought that Eve & Jason should have been eliminated instead of Mike & Tarq in the season's 5th Sudden Death, especially since the father and son team have proven themselves to be the stronger cooks over the course of the competition. During the elimination cook-off, Mike & Tarq showcased better technique and finesse, as well as teamwork. Meanwhile, Eve & Jason made simpler dishes and moved in a snail-like pace (as the other contestants pointed out), making viewers believe that they don't deserve to stay in the competition.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Father and son duo Mick and Matt from Season 4 were advertised to be this - and succeeded, thanks to being really likeable, friendly and down-to-earth blokes who were at worst fair but firm to the other teams; Mick's propensity for Manly Tears and his truly heartwarming relationship with his son also helped. Viewers were delighted that they, of all the teams, won the Comeback Kitchen rounds held by Colin, wherein they got to show how much they'd learned and thus ended their run on the show within the respectable Top 4.
  • Carly and Tresne from Season 5 rose to popularity very quickly, mainly due to being ridiculously kindhearted in stark comparison to many of the previous gatecrashers (the two are practically polar opposites of Ashley and Sophia), and Carly's Cloudcuckoolander tendencies making her rather adorkable.
  • After just two episodes into the 6th season, Texan Cowboy Robert Murphy have gained a large number of fan following for being a badass cowboy and fascinating storyteller, in addition to being incredibly humble and down-to-earth despite his skills in the kitchen. Even the show's official website regards him and his daughter as "fan favourites".
• Fan Nickname:
  • The series itself is labelled by its detractors as "My Kitchen Rigged" due to some of its obviously scripted dialogue, drama importation, designated heroism/villainy, etc.
  • As Rob Hemsworth from the 2015 series is nicknamed "Thor" by both the competing teams and the official website, some fans jokingly calls his partner Matt "Captain America".
• Heartwarming Moments: Near the end of the fourth Sudden Death Cook-off in Season 6, Colin remarked how judging the round had been difficult for him too, because both Jane & Emma and Rob & Dave were from his Secret Round teams, showing how he had gotten close to these people. He then further demonstrated his attachment to his group by giving Rob & Dave a farewell hug when they were eliminated, all the while telling them how they've done themselves, their state, and the group proud. Cue a collective "Awww" from the crowd of onlookers.
• Ho Yay:
  • The two hosts can get a little intimate with each other at times. Bloggers and journalists occasionally joke about what a nice "couple" they are.
  • It's very easy to mistake Will & Steve as a gay couple considering how frequently give each other hugs after cooking a dish (something that very few all-male teams do), and the fact that their reaction to being announced as MKR's Season 6 Champions looking suspiciously like The Big Damn Kiss. Of course, Will is married, and Steve has a reputation of being a womanizer, so these assumptions are simply untrue.
• It Was His Sled: Colin's "Secret round" probably counts as this. The teams' very existence were kept secret until the third round began, but now that they've integrated with the rest of the group, they are subsequently treated as a regular cast member. The official site's news articles actually labels these remnants as a part of Colin's "not-so-secret" group.
• Recycled Premise: The Instant Restaurants rounds and having teams of 2 competing is original, every other rounds can make you immediately compare it to MasterChef.
• Replacement Scrappy: Season 4's gatecrasher teams - the first to be brought in - were not well-liked in general due to being either not-that-good or, in the case of Ashlee and Sophia, hugely Jerkass; it didn't help that they all beat out established teams of likeable contestants for the Top 12 placement. Thankfully, future seasons have introduced gatecrasher teams who were considerably more likeable, competent, or both.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • At first, many viewers despised Katie and Nikki due to their bitchiness and constant need to tell everyone how hot they are. But when Kat and Andre proved to be a bigger hate-magnet, the promo girls becomes more tolerable to the audience (it helps that they appear less nasty in the Redemption round, and they are eliminated very early).
  • Bianca was hated at first due to her condescending attitude and blatantly dismissive mannerisms towards food, calling them "meh". Especially when she argued with Manu. However, she mellowed throughout the competition and as most of the other contestants develop even worse attitudes than her, she's regarded in a much better light.
• The Scrappy: Pretty much an Intended Audience Reaction, since almost every competition must have a designated villain for the fans to root against.
  • Ashlee and Sophia from Season 4 were loathed due to being extreme jerkasses and ridiculously pragmatic and critical. They even managed to push Jenna of all people into loudly telling them to fuck off! Needless to say, 7 milked them for all their worth when they finally reached their last legs.
  • Season 5: Chloe and Kelly were hated by many fans for their meanness and bullying of other teams. During the semi-finals, they heckled at Helena and Vikki, and caused the Greek twins a lot of misery. The fact that they managed to advance to the grand finals and their infamy for winning many of their sudden deaths by a single point caused a lot controversies, and a number of viewers campaigned to boycott the show. It got so bad that Kelly was admitted to hospital due to the stress brought on by being heavily ostracized in public.
  • Carol and Adam, the latter especially, were hated due to their obscene level of snobbishness and ego, flaunting at every possible opportunity. Other scandals involving Adam, including but not limited to rumours that he is close friends with one of the show's judges, only made things worse. Thankfully, viewers were spared from them early on when their cooking skills proved to be nowhere as high as their arrogance.
  • Kat and Andre (but especially Kat) are considered the "worst couple" in Season 6 due to their constant nitpicking on other teams' dishes and the strategic scoring they frequently use to save themselves from being at the bottom of the leader board. The abysmal score of 1 they gave to Katie and Nikki on the last redemption round stirred up a shitstorm in Twitter, and some people even said how they'd actually rather have Katie and Nikki stay (even though the latter is not that popular either, due to their bitchiness).
  • Drasko and Bianca, who were not all that popular to begin with, got even more heat from the audience when their negative behaviour at the Ultimate Instant Restaurant after being placed at the bottom of the leaderboard reminisces Kat and Andre's. Even the other contestants began to find it annoying as they got more and more nitpickingly critical with every restaurant.
  • Zana attracted immediate hatedom with her obnoxious snobbishness (especially since one of her first remarks when she appeared on-screen was that the MKR grand prize of $250,000 is not a huge amount to her, prompting the question of why she's even participating in the competition) and her constant mockery to the other team's dishes for not being "high-class" enough. Her and Gianni knocking out the more likable Luciano and Martino in Sudden Death definitely did not help endear her to viewers.
  • Jessica as well. She's a health/fitness nut who's constantly complaining about the dishes served to her because they either have too much carbohydrate, fat, oil, or sugar. She seems to hold anyone who isn't as health-conscious as her in contempt (including Manu!), and is not afraid to make thinly veiled insults to the others for it.
  • Josh was immediately slammed upon the MRK anniversary season due to his rudeness and blatant disrespect and condescending attitude to everyone else. He only gets better and better when it comes to cooking in the competition but instead of being seen as Awesome Ego, it's seen as a dose of Karma Houdini considering his horrible attitude still continues and, if anything, his mannerisms get worse to the point that he's even called a psychopath. His younger brother, Austin, gets it to a lesser extent due to the impression that he more follows Josh's example rather than developing his own opinion.
  • Piper was immediately detested due to her condescending preaching and two-faced attitude. The fact she can't seem to process that what she makes is not perfect, and she's somehow still in the competition has made her come across as a Karma Houdini. Opinion on her soured even more when she threw her partner, Veronica, under the bus not once but twice which even made Josh, another resident Scrappy, angry. There's a reason she was given the nickname "Piper the Viper".
• Shocking Elimination:
  • Mick and Matt in Season 4 - strong starting score, loads of advertising mileage, fan favourites early on, and then they only made Top 11 (having a break in the Top 12 due to winning immunity from the Instant Restaurant). Although they at least got another chance thanks to that season's "Comeback Kitchen" gimmick - which offered a place in the Top 5 for all the eliminated teams since the end of the Instant Restaurant Rounds - and ended up making it into the Top 4.
  • Season 6's fan favourites Robert & Lynzey had started with a high bar, having earned the first perfect score of the season in their Instant Restaurant, and was considered as one of MKR's top contenders by the other teams. It's quite shocking to see them get sent to Sudden Death so early in the season, and was eliminated for losing the battle.
  • In Season 7, both Gianni & Zana and Luciano & Martino were the top scorers of their respective instant restaurant groups, and were deemed the strongest cooks of the season. In the very first People's Choice Challenge they participated in, both teams served the weakest dishes of the day and were sent to a Sudden Death, which led to Luciano and Martino's elimination. Even Manu was surprised at this.
    Manu: I thought I'd be seeing you in the finals. What the heck is going on?
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The 10th Anniversary of MKR shaped up to this after the elimination of Lyn and Sal. Nearly all of the remaining teams are rude, condescending, whiny or two-faced and the bitchiness of everyone is off the scale. The revelation that Piper and Victor slept together broke the camel's back with most people just not caring about anyone anymore and wanting the show to just do its run and get out of its misery already.

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