MasterChef beats Love Island and The Voice to be named 'world's most popular reality show'
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MasterChef beats Love Island and The Voice to be named ‘world’s most popular reality show’

Research suggests it is searched for on the internet more than any other series

MasterChef beats Love Island and The Voice as the ‘world’s most popular reality show’, according to research.

That’s because the telly franchise apparently comes in for the highest amount of web searches per month.

Several other British reality series included in the top ten, which ranked show position by global search volume.

Masterchef are search favourites, study claims
Masterchef are search favourites, study claims (Credit: BBC)

Why is MasterChef the ‘world’s most popular reality show’?

According to a study from online gambling community CasinoGuide, MasterChef comes in for over 2.4 million searches online on average a month.

Love Island places second, with an average of 1.98 million searches, and The Voice (1.22 million) comes in at third.

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Other series that do particularly well in the UK that feature on the list include The Masked Singer (4th, 1.11 million).

However, it isn’t clear if numbers are boosted by international versions or series spin-offs.

For instance, Masterchef has a TV presence of some form in more than 40 different countries.

These include Australia, the United States, Brazil, and China, as well as the various formats viewed in the UK.

And spin-offs include MasterChef: The Professionals, Celebrity MasterChef and Junior MasterChef.

Strictly Come Dancing, which does not share the same name as the US series with a similar format, places 8th.

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Strictly Come Dancing came eighth in the study (Credit: BBC)

Which other reality series are in the top 10?

American Idol is in fifth place, with 734,000 searches, and The Bachelorette (711,000 searches) is in sixth.

Too Hot to Handle comes in at seventh, with 595,000 searches.

The top sub-genres of reality television are music and romance.

Ninth is Married at First Sight (499,000 searches). And Keeping Up with The Kardashians is tenth (447,000 searches).

‘Reality TV has a winning formula’

A CasinoGuide spokesperson commented that reality TV has a “dedicated and loyal fanbase”.

They added: “Viewership allows shows to run for decades. The data highlights that MasterChef is a prime example of this after being on air for 32 years!

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“It is also interesting to see that the top sub-genres of reality television are music and romance. Four shows are singing and dancing competitions and three are dating programmes.

“This signifies that the reality category has found a winning formula for appealing television.”

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Robert Leigh
Freelance writer