THIS year’s Celebrity MasterChef winner has been crowned.
The final series to feature John Torode after he was axed has now crowned a champion after a tense final cook-off.
In a nail-biting result, Ginger Johnson was revealed at the winner of the BBC contest.
John and fellow judge Grace Dent, who replaced Gregg Wallace following his axe amid a slew of complaints, handed the trophy over to Ginger after an impressive feat on the show.
The RuPaul’s Drag Race star beat presenter Dawn O’Porter and former rugby star Alun Wyn Jones who finished as this year’s runners-up.
Reacting to her win, Ginger said: “I cannot believe this, I’m so shocked. I really thought I was going to come here and have a laugh. I can’t believe this is the end result of the competition. It’s absolutely crazy! I can’t wait to tell my mum and dad. I’ve actually learned a real-life skill!”
Grace added: “Throughout this entire competition Ginger has delivered these intriguing, inventive, exciting, imaginative, difficult feats. What’s she’s done is something really impressive.”
John said: “With all the presentation, all the fun, the laughs, her food tastes delicious and she’s an extraordinary cook. For me, that’s why she is our champion.”
This series of Celebrity MasterChef is the final to feature John after he was let go following the results into an investigation into the behaviour of the hosts on the show.
Whilst Gregg had already left amid mounting accusations, viewers were left surprised when the results emerged which forced the BBC to take John off air too.
John was accused of using a racist term off-camera during production of the programme leading to the BBC to take action.
The chef has always denied the allegation.
Grace Dent replaced Gregg on the current series and will be back next year.
She will be joined by Anna Haugh who will be stepping into John’s shoes.
Celebrity MasterChef is expected to return next winter.
This year’s stars included Love Island stars Chris Hughes and Uma Jammeh as well as radio star Noreen Khan and Blue singer Anthony Costa.
In a huge blow to MasterChef, it was revealed that the show has lost over a third of its viewers this year amid increasing scandals.
The first episode of the current series failed to make the BBC’s top 50 most watched programmes of the week in a gobsmacking outcome.
It is currently scrambling to top 1.3 million viewers.
It has been trailing behind its show rivals, with ITV’s I’m A Celeb pulling in a whopping 9.5 million viewers that same week, followed by Strictly Come Dancing which attracted 8 million, and even Celebrity Race Across the World drawing around 5 million.
Ever since, the show’s viewing figures have tanked ranging from 1.2 to 1.4 million, a shock contrast from last year when it peaked an audience of 2.6 million.
