Matt Tebbutt Leaving Show Leaves BBC Exit Row After One Series
Matt Tebbutt said matt tebbutt leaving show after one series on MasterChef: The Professionals left him “really upset,” and he said the exit could have been handled a lot better. The TV chef, 52, said the response to his departure came after he had already settled into the programme’s new run with Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti.
September 2025 and one series
Tebbutt was announced in September 2025 as the new presenter for the 18th edition of MasterChef: The Professionals, then told Radio 4’s The Food Programme that he was “I mean, I’m not going to say I wasn’t upset. I was really upset. And it could have been handled a lot better. But it is what it is.” He added: “You know, there’s worse things going on. You’ve got to be pretty resilient. It’s part of the game, really.”
He also said: “Walking into such an established show, whatever had happened before, you don’t want to be that guy that turns up and steamrollers everything.” Tebbutt said: “To then go in and get to know the personalities of Monica and Marcus, and get to know the crew and still do your job and deliver, it was a lot.”
Gregg Wallace and Birmingham
Last month, it was revealed that Tebbutt would not return for the next series, even though he said on Instagram: “A lot of lovely people have contacted me about not doing the next series of MasterChef: The Professionals.” He added: “I was only ever doing one series and I loved judging on it, and will continue working with MasterChef.”
The series had already entered a new phase after Gregg Wallace was dismissed by the last July following an independent review last year that upheld 45 out of 83 misconduct allegations against him. The production also moved to a new studio location in Birmingham, so Tebbutt’s departure lands in a format that was already being reset rather than in a stable run of continuity.
What Tebbutt keeps
For viewers, the practical point is simple: Tebbutt is out of this series, but he says he is still working with MasterChef. That makes this less a clean break than a reset inside a franchise that has already changed presenter, studio base and tone around the edges.
On the evidence he gave, the cleaner read is that the wanted a different shape for the show after one series, while Tebbutt wanted the exit handled with more care. In television terms, that is rarely just a personal annoyance; it is a sign that the production and the presenter were not moving in lockstep anymore.
