‘MasterChef Junior’ season 3 premiere video: Meet the youngest contestant!

Given just how much stuff is on the air tonight, it may be somewhat easy to gloss over the fact that it is the third-season premiere of “MasterChef Junior” on Fox. Still, the cooking competition is back, and it appears as though there are many fun moments ahead!

The video below introduces you to who may be one of the youngest stars of the entire competition in Riley, who is just eight years old, but already seems to be very accomplished. He speaks not only English and German, but a little bit of French, as well. This is without even really going into a whole lot of his culinary skills. He is cooking salmon for his first dish, and he has the challenge of trying to compete against many cooks who probably have more experience than he does as a whole.

Do we enjoy this show? Always, but we will admit here that it feels like somewhat of a mistake for Fox to air another season so quickly after the second one. You want to make these seasons feel like events, and you also want to reduce burnout from people who watch all “MasterChef” all of the time. With this being said, we do understand very much why there is another episode coming on the air again so soon: Fox desperately needs more programming. The ratings for many of their new shows bottomed out, and this is a chance for them to really bring some successful stuff to the table, while supporting some of their other new shows that are coming up.

One last thing that is notable here? This is the last season to feature Joe Bastianich as a judge. The regular “MasterChef” this summer will feature a whole new person on the panel.

Are you excited to see the new season tonight? Share with a comment.