It’s Wednesday night, so that normally means a new episode of “MasterChef” 2026 tonight on FOX, right? The judges — Chef Gordon Ramsay, Tiffany Derry, and Joe Bastianich — keep throwing the challenges at these home cooks, but will “MasterChef” season 16 be new tonight? Check out the details below in our “MasterChef” spoilers.
Is ‘MasterChef’ New Tonight?
No! While the true competition just got started on “MasterChef” season 16, it looks like FOX will be taking a break from airing a new episode for a while.
The reason? It’s summertime, so that means sports coverage sometimes takes over the airwaves. For FOX, it’s time for the FIFA World Cup to take over. So, the last new episode took place on June 3, and “MasterChef” 2026 will return with a new episode on July 15.
Last Time on ‘MasterChef’ 2026
Last time on “MasterChef” season 16, the home cooks were getting ready for the World Cup. For the challenge, they had to create an elevated dish for a FIFA World Cup watch party. The dish not only had to be amazing, but also showcase their territory.
The home cooks had 60 minutes to create the dish. However, halfway through the challenge, Dave, who won the week prior’s team challenge, got to issue a red card. This meant he could bench any home cook, and they would have to stop cooking.
He could have used this advantage in two ways:
- Hurt one of the stronger teams by taking out their strongest chef, or
- Helping one of his own teammates who may be struggling with the challenge and stop them from cooking so they can’t possibly have the worst dish of the night, and be eliminated.
During the challenge, Rita from Team Africa was struggling. Her dish was a mess, so when the halfway mark came, Dave decided to save his own teammate and used the red card on Rita. However, that meant Heidi or Peter had extra pressure on them to remain safe for the week.
They did manage, as Peter did end up in the bottom dishes, but the judges all agreed he shouldn’t have been there and was only there by default.
The judges discussed the other two dishes (Nico from Europe and Maria from the Americas). In the end, it was Nico eliminated from the competition.
How Do Things Currently Stack Up?
Now that we have a break in the competition, let’s look at where things currently stand on season 16.
When “MasterChef” 2026 returns to FOX, we will have 16 home cooks remaining in the competition. Here is a breakdown by territory of who is remaining:
- Team Africa – Dave, Heidi, Peter, and Rita
- Team Americas – Britny, Jake, Maria, and Tkaiya
- Team Asia-Pacific – Aishu, Daniel, Foo, Jaime, and Shompa
- Team Europe – Aghata, Basia, and Julia
The season started with each territory having five members. Asia-Pacific is holding strong with its five members, while Team Europe has lost two of the four home cooks so far this season.
“MasterChef” will return on July 15, with episodes airing on Wednesdays at 8/7c on FOX. New episodes will then be available to stream the following day on Hulu.
