Is MasterChef new tonight on Fox with season 14 episode 8?

Is MasterChef new tonight on Fox, or is the Olympic Games already taking the culinary competition our of commission? (Try to say the latter part of that sentence ten times fast.) There’s a lot to get into here, so read on!

First and foremost, the bad news — you will be waiting a while to see the series return with the next part of season 14 a.k.a. MasterChef: Generations. The show is not on the air tonight, but the reasoning behind it is actually different than you would inherently expecting. The hiatus is not actually due to the Olympics this week and rather, it is the two-hour finale for Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, which has been a timeslot companion for much of the summer so far. Beyond this week, the break officially begins for the Games in Paris.

The plan at present is to return to the MasterChef Kitchen as early as Wednesday, August 14, and there could be many two-hour blocks from then until the end of the season. If you are a longtime viewer, then you understand a big part of this format already. The break could give viewers a chance to at least catch up, but Fox clearly does not want to compromise the show’s ratings by airing new episodes against considerable competition. We will not pretend that the Olympics have the same live-TV impact that they had in the past; however, this is still an event that rarely comes about and it can capture much of America’s attention as a result. (The Games are set to run until August 11, and will be broadcast largely on NBC.)

So where do things currently stand in season 14 entering the break? Let’s just say that the producers are going to have to move quickly telling the stories of the rest of the contestants. There are still a whopping 17 people left! This is a reminder that we really did not need so many audition episodes, and a lot of the rest of the season could feel faster than it really should.

Even with that in mind, be prepared for the remainder of Generations to allow you an opportunity to show who these chefs really are, and also what they’d love their food brand to be every the season. There will be some hyper-intense challenges ahead, and also opportunities for strategy.

Fox has yet to issue an official synopsis for episode 8; hopefully, this will change over the next week.

Who are you rooting for to win MasterChef: Generations?

Would you have watched the show even during the Olympics? Be sure to share in the comments! We will have further insight soon enough.