Endemol Shine North America, a Banijay Americas company, unveiled a new slate of partnerships for the hit culinary competition series’ MasterChef Junior, airing Mondays (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX, and MasterChef, premiering Wednesday, May 29 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. The announcement was made by Chris Lucero, Executive Director, Licensing, Banijay Americas.
Expanding MasterChef and MasterChef Junior’s current licensing programs, the US partnerships aim to give fans and foodies alike opportunities to experience their favorite cooking competition series by offering new consumer products and experiences in food & beverage, interactive toys, and more.
“With nearly 100 licensees around the world, the MasterChef brand is omnipresent, and as we near the premiere of our 14th season, it is paramount to continue to expand our commercial footprint by enabling our fans to live their MasterChef dreams in their own kitchens with these exciting, new food and beverage partnerships,” said Chris Lucero, Executive Director, Licensing, Banijay Americas. “From spice blends to shelf-sustainable gourmet meal kits and the expertly chosen wines to pair with them, now anyone can enjoy the elevated culinary experience that comes from cooking like a MasterChef. Moreover, I believe it is our responsibility to encourage the next generation of aspiring chefs with MasterChef collectible minis, MasterChef Junior roleplay toys, and delicious kid-safe recipes.”
Additionally, MasterChef is expanding the on-air integration with Blue Moon Brewing Company during its upcoming season with an off-air experience, allowing consumers to access co-branded kitchen accessories and exclusive recipes.
The full list of partnerships can be found below:
MasterChef
Blue Moon Brewing Co. – Food & Beverage
In conjunction with the show’s upcoming 14th season, MasterChef is partnering with Blue Moon, known for its well-crafted beers inspired by Belgian styles with a refreshing twist, for a beer-themed episode and North American promotion featuring co-branded kitchen accessories with longtime MasterChef licensee Arovo B.V. that will be made available to consumers via sweepstakes and on Blue Moon’s e-commerce platform. Additionally, a selection of MasterChef recipes featuring Blue Moon beer as the showstopping ingredient will be available at Blue Moon retailers throughout Q3 and Q4 2024.
De Silva Brothers & Company – Food & Beverage
The MasterChef brand comes together with one of the world’s largest wholesale importers of high-quality spices and blends to bring a wide range of spices, herbs, seasonings, blends, and dessert toppings, formulated so you too can cook like a MASTERCHEF. The “United Tastes of America” line blends include Pineapple Habanero, Smokey BBQ, and SoCal Chicken seasonings, as well as Key Lime Pie topper. Available for both home cooks and in commercial kitchen sizes at retail in North America, in-store, and online in Q3 2024.
Fratelli Desideri – Food & Beverage
Created by past MasterChef winners and Michelin Star Chefs from around the world and presented in the style of the MasterChef Mystery Box Challenge, these gourmet, shelf-sustainable, non-refrigerated meal kits combine the highest quality ingredients with gourmet flavor profiles and basic cooking skills to enable anyone to experience a MasterChef-level culinary experience in their own home. Available in North America at retail, in-store, and online in Q3 2024.
The MasterChef Wine Collection by Wines of the World – Food & Beverage
A selection of iconic wines from the world’s leading wine regions, The MasterChef Wine Collection has been chosen exclusively by Wines of the World wine experts so everyday consumers can easily pair these high-quality varietals with their own MasterChef-inspired recipes at home. The MasterChef Wine Collection will be available online at www.masterchefwinecollection.com and in retailers where alcoholic beverages are sold beginning in May 2024.
ZURU Toys – Toys
ZURU is one of the largest toy companies in the world and the creator of Mini Brands, a global phenomenon, that has shipped over 1.5b units in the last two years. The new partnership, available now online and in stores, sees a range of miniature MasterChef dishes to create Mini collectible versions at home. Fans can unbox all the detailed ingredients to make mini replicas of iconic MasterChef dishes. In addition, the collection will expand into a broad range of mini home products based on the hugely popular MasterChef Arovo range.
MasterChef Junior
Kidstir – Food & Beverage
This new subscription-based monthly cooking kit featuring winning in-show recipes and step-by-step cooking instructions will have your little ones cooking like a young MasterChef in no time. Starting at just $19.99 for an annual subscription and increasing to $23.99 for three months at a time, these kits come complete with an actual MasterChef Junior recipe, a Mystery Box Challenge, and chances to win prizes. MasterChef Junior kits from Kidstir are available now at www.kidstir.com.
KNP Toys – Toys
The MasterChef Junior brand kitchen and food line from KNP Toys bring an authentic series-like experience to aspiring young ones seeking to stoke their inner MasterChef from an early age. Kitchen roleplay sets ranging in size from tabletop to free-standing, 3’ 1/2” tall kitchen stations, motorized kitchen appliances, and high piece-count, color-changing, “cutable” plastic food accessories will launch in Q3 of this year, available just in time for the holidays.
Originally created by Franc Roddam, MasterChef is the most successful cookery television format in the world (Guinness World Records). Commissioned across 70 markets, the life-changing show has broadcast more than 14,000 episodes to-date and recently aired its milestone 650th season globally since its reboot in 2005. The MasterChef brand extends into a huge range of successful commercial activities across multiple platforms including extensive publishing, consumer products, experiential and live events, travel, digital and B2B activities.
MasterChef is part of the global offering from Banijay Rights, a division within media and entertainment powerhouse Banijay which encompasses brand licensing, merchandising, gaming, and gambling and represents brands from the world’s largest content catalogue, comprising 185,000+ hours of original programming.
Chris Lucero, Executive Director, Licensing, Banijay Americas will be available for meetings at Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, May 21-23, 2024.
MasterChef and MasterChef Junior air on FOX, streaming next day on Hulu.