The BBC has sacked both presenters of MasterChef, Gregg Wallace and John Torode, after misconduct investigations that brought one of British television's most durable formats to a humiliating halt.
Wallace, who had presented the cooking competition for 21 years, was dismissed in July 2025 after a nine-month investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour. The inquiry examined 83 complaints made between 2005 and 2024 and upheld 45 of them. The report found that the majority of the substantiated allegations related to inappropriate sexual language and humour, while a smaller number concerned other inappropriate language and instances of Wallace being in a state of undress.
The controversy had been building since late 2024, when Wallace stepped back from the show after 13 people accused him of making inappropriate sexual comments. His lawyers denied that he engaged in sexually harassing behaviour, and he committed to cooperating with the investigation. But he then provoked outrage by dismissing the complainants as a handful of middle-class women of a certain age, a remark that drew condemnation from across the industry. The singer Rod Stewart was among those who weighed in, calling Wallace a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully and accusing him of having humiliated his wife Penny Lancaster during her appearance on Celebrity MasterChef.
Torode, Wallace's co-judge of two decades, was also fired in the wake of the report after an upheld complaint that he had used what was described as an extremely offensive racist term during after-work drinks in 2018. The departure of both hosts within days of each other left the BBC scrambling over the future of a format that had been a ratings mainstay.
Wallace's downfall did not end with his dismissal. He launched a £10,000 legal claim against the BBC and BBC Studios for what court documents described as distress, harassment and loss of amenity caused by his sacking. But the corporation later confirmed that Wallace had discontinued the claim ahead of a planned court hearing, abandoning the action without explanation.
The double sacking formed part of what commentators called a disastrous three years for the BBC, in which a string of its biggest names were forced out amid scandal. The disgraced former news anchor Huw Edwards was convicted of making indecent images of children, the Match of the Day presenter Jermaine Jenas was dismissed, and the corporation faced repeated questions about its workplace culture and its handling of complaints against star talent.
For MasterChef, the challenge now is rebuilding. The show, which launched in its modern form in 2005, had become one of the BBC's most valuable entertainment brands, spawning Celebrity MasterChef, MasterChef: The Professionals and international versions around the world. Industry insiders said the BBC would need to find new presenters capable of carrying the format while distancing it from the behaviour that brought the Wallace era to an end. Wallace, once a greengrocer turned television personality famous for his catchphrase buttery biscuit base, has largely disappeared from public life since his dismissal.