[SPOILERS for the Masterchef Australia finale.]
The Daily Telegraph ran a little fluff piece on tonight’s winner of Masterchef Australia. It was released on their news website just before the end of the show, leading some to be a little unhappy about the spoilers.
The article is reproduced at the masterchef_au livejournal community, and there’s a screenshot at Simon T Small.
The article contains the usual interview quotes and soundbites you’d expect in such a piece:
Using her cultural connection of her upbringing in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur and the traditional influences her parents Christina and Steven have taught her over the years, Ling Yeow was stunned with the verdict but happy to embrace it.
“This is really a surreal feeling,” the 35-year-old, who hails from Norwood in South Australia told The Daily Telegraph. “New ground is forged when you take risks and I’ve taken a few during this competition which have paid off.” [...]
Celebrating the triumph with her parents, her eldest brother Casper and his four children, as well friends and relatives in SA, Ling Yeow said learning to adjust to a new culture when her family migrated to Australia when she was nine gave her the ammunition she’s need to succeed in many parts of her life. [...]
After pocking [sic] the $100,000 cash prize and a cookbook deal Ling Yeow says she’s excited about launching her book Food From Mars.
With a heavy Asian influence, the MasterChef winner believes Australians have been waiting for a cookbook which explores her roots.
“I think Australia is at a stage in our food history where we are willing to be adventurous now,” Ling Yeow said. “That’s why I put fairly exotic ingredients into the competition because I think the public is ready to try exotic food.
“It’s part of my story of who I am as a migrant and food has played a very important part in terms of me identifying with my culture because I’ve lost touch with lots of other aspects of it like language and values. That’s happened because I grew up here.” [...]
Disappointed but humble, [Julie] Goodwin praised her feisty opponent for her success.
“Poh’s a very deserving winner,” she said. “I’m proud of her, she’s a good friend and I wish her every success in the world.”
The only mistake? Poh didn’t win.
It sounds like they’ve taken soundbites from a pre-finale set of interviews and set them up as if they were taken afterwards.
So stupid. If they just wanted to be the first out with the story, why not do a mock-up of both possible outcomes, have them sitting there ready to go, and just hit ‘publish’ on the correct one when the result was known?
Heh, that’s funny. Maybe they watched the last bit I saw where Chris was saying that Julie’s pastry looked dodgy and decided to go with Poh. I’m keen to watch the rest so I can see what happened now.
Watching only three (non-sequential) Masterchef episodes before the end probably wasn’t the best plan. But my six year old will be happy, he wanted Julie to win right from when he first laid eyes on her.
I bet they had both stories written because the journalist knocked off early, and just hit “publish” on the wrong one. Early.
Apparently the journalist interviewed both, on a hypothetical scenario of If You Win, and the editors uploaded the wrong reaction story.
Aren’t you glad we’re getting such authentic media? Crikey tackles it further. Apparently they not only did the interviews on spec and supposedly hypothetically, but they did them after the finale had already been filmed, and after the contestants (well, winner and loser) had been thoroughly briefed by the show on what to say and how to fake it.