1) Base your new reality TV show around an activity that everyone can take part in, as opposed to one that requires contestants to dance around monkeys, sing like broken records, or lose the equivalent weight of a Mac truck through dangerous exercise methods. Borrow a proven concept originating from overseas TV to maximise chances of success.
2) Give the show a sense of credibility by rewarding skill, as opposed to popularity. Borrow the services of several renowned professionals in the field to adjudicate and decipher the eventual winner. Ensure the show is not a popularity contest by scrapping the laughable revenue raising exercise of viewer SMS voting that plagues other reality gimmicks.
3) Bake the new show for a few weeks in front of live national audiences.
4) Watch as viewers, even those not traditionally fond of reality TV, praise the show for its format being conducive to honesty and integrity, unlike pretty much every other "judging" based reality show.
5) With one week remaining, make a decision as to who would sell the best cookbook (the final prize) and thus rake in the most revenue for producers. Designate her "the chosen one".
6) Criticise someone for making food too basic to be worthy of final week competition, then reward the chosen one for making uncreative lamb and potatoes later on.
7) Punish the chosen one for completely botching a pie, by eliminating another competitor who at least competently finishes his.
8) Allow the chosen one to leave a fish raw, and eliminate another contestant, one whom the public believes should've deserved to be the eventual winner (based on apparent skill, and not just popularity).
9) Lay down a challenge which will primarily be judged on presentation and whether it can be "licked straight off the page." Then, to contradict yourself, proceed to save the chosen one who didn't even finish creating her dishes, and eliminate some other guy who managed to at least complete the task and plate up with some form of presentation. It doesn't matter who, just someone else. He is not the chosen one, and therefore expendable. To at least attempt gaining some semblence of popularity, make the expendable one the least liked one amongst public sentiment, despite the fact that he has been the most consistent performer, and easily one of the top two.
10) Bring in apparent cookbook extraordinaire Donna Hay to help judge the aforementioned presentation challenge. Allow her to show obvious premeditated agenda through use of overtly contrasting body language towards the chosen one and the expendable one throughout the episode.
11) Let the chosen one cry and sob in front of the cameras, and continuously mention something vague about family and cooking being her life. Allow judges to take in that emotional drivel and influence outcome. It will make them look human, and that can't be a bad thing in objective decision-making.
12) Disregard the fact that the chosen one, despite being able to cook some tasty homestyle food, really wouldn't cut it as a professional, commercial chef because she has nervous breakdowns, cannot handle pressure, shakes like crazy, is ridiculously messy, has no concept of time management, sweats more than an obese man running, cycling and swimming at the same time (and allows the sweat to drip into her food!), sabotages her own confidence by continuously muttering to herself that she's going to lose, and does not think laterally enough in her creations when compared to her competitors.
13) Sit back and watch as once loyal viewers vent frustration at the show at the water cooler and in online forums, for slapping them in the face and assuming they have no intelligence. Allow them to realise that they have been duped into believing the show was about the best amateur chef, rather than the one that the public can most relate to and will be most suited to making a sellable cookbook.
14) Consider changing the title of the show from Masterchef to Mediocrechef or Mastercookbook.
15) Make sure next season's chosen one will be in the demographic that makes up most of channel 10's audience (adults at the younger end of the scale). These are the intelligent ones that appreciate legitimacy and credibility over being smashed on the head with disguised petty drama and political influence, as opposed to the middle-aged housewives of the country that relate to the current chosen one because "yay! Go Julie because of I likes you and you have kids, and cry and make me cry and make hubby cry, and make kids want to cook for me, and such, and therefore you are Masterchef extraordinaire."
*Flicks back to the Lifestyle Food channel to watch the proper and original UK version of Masterchef*
