MasterChef viewers slam 'really unfair' twist in immunity challenge: 'Disadvantaged'

The MasterChef crew are back in Australia after their whirlwind trip to Hong Kong and the judges wasted no time in throwing yet another challenge at the contestants for them to win the last shot at immunity for the week. With Nat and Darrsh already safe, it was up to Lachlan, Mimi, Harry, Pezza and Sav to battle it out for safety from Sunday's elimination.

The challenge consisted of a lucky dip where contestants had to pick two mystery ingredients inspired by Hong Kong and create a dish with them. Sav, who missed out on the overseas trip, ended up with shrimp paste and okra and got to work crafting something that would hopefully see her on the gantry come Sunday.

However, several viewers took umbrage at her being in the challenge, on account of her having missed out on immunity tests that the contestants had to endure while in Hong Kong.

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MasterChef viewers angry over immunity cook

"Why does Sav get a go at immunity, she should go straight into elimination not fair sorry," one disgruntled viewer wrote on Facebook.

"Seems a bit unfair that Sav misses out on 3 HK cooks and still has a shot at immunity, when others who have missed out on cooks go straight to elimination," someone else wrote on Reddit before clarifying that their comment was not a "hate comment" for Sav.

On X, some fans echoed the thoughts that it was unfair for Sav to have a shot at immunity given that when other contestants have had to go straight into elimination after missing cooks.

"So people miss cooks and go straight to elimination but why does Sav have a chance at immunity still? Seems really unfair," someone wrote on the platform.

"So Sav doesn’t even have to automatically go into elimination!" another noted.

Fans defend Sav

Although some thought that it wasn't right for Sav to have the opportunity to win immunity, others were quick to come to her defence and explain that, actually, it was all above board.

"It’s bc she hasn’t missed any cooks that had elimination consequences I think (when they were in HK), otherwise she would’ve been in the next elimination regardless," someone explained.

"It was fair," added another person. "She didn’t miss an elimination cook. She missed out on a trip and immunity cooks. The only thing that wasn’t fair this week was Nat being in a team challenge so one of the others lost out on immunity."

"Because the others were cooking for immunity not the final three for elimination. Completely different situation. She was disadvantaged missing out twice for immunity. The others had three chances she only had one," a third person reasoned.

Why wasn't Sav in Hong Kong?

Viewers first started questioning whether Sav would be travelling to Hong Kong after noticing that she didn’t appear in any of the teaser videos.

“What happened to Sav?” one person asked, while another added, “I hope all is ok with Sav”.

“I’m so panicked rn I can’t see Sav in any of the Hong Kong trailers,” a third wrote.

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Meanwhile, one fan posted a theory on X that Sav may not have been allowed to travel to Hong Kong due to her Sri Lankan citizenship - although this hasn’t been confirmed.

“It's possible that Sav is an Australian permanent resident who still holds a Sri Lankan passport, in which case her ‘personal reasons’ could be a lack of passport privilege,” the viewer shared. “The visa process for Sri Lankan citizens to visit Hong Kong is complicated and expensive.”

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