Producers only have themselves to blame

I announced last year that I was well and truly "over" My Kitchen Rules.   I'm sort of happy to see that I am not alone - this year the show has gone into a ratings downwards spiral so bad that it looks like it won't recover.

Noticing that they have apparently changed the format a little this year, I'll fess up to having had a look at it for perhaps 20 minutes last week.   It is no wonder the ratings are tanking.  At least in previous years, if there was a contestant who was really annoying, you knew they weren't going to be back the following year.   So what do I find this year - the guy last year assigned the role of "bitchy, apparently gay, dude" is back, along with quite a few others from last years' contestants.   And as for audiences being over it being played as a personal conflict drama, I tuned in just at the right time to find a room in which there was some confrontation going on about whether that episode's cooks were being "honest" or not about their past experience with cooking for a living, with tears and upset from one of the accused.  I assume Pete and Manu had gone outside for a breath of fresh air (something the audience was wishing they could have as well) because they were no where to be seen in trying to calm down the room.   (Not that I have any doubts that the producers were involved in making this happen.)

People are over the faked up inter-contestant conflict aspects of the show, I reckon; even though that was always part of the format, it was clear the producers thought that ramping it up would attract more viewers.  I think it has backfired spectacularly.  A little bit of "who are going to play this year's 'baddies'?" could be fun - but push it too far and it just starts looking manipulative, too transparent and as bad as most other reality TV.