MasterChef: How the final eight measure up

Three of the contestants (from left) Glenda Clark, Leo Fernandez and Lily Brown.

Steve Braunias is addicted to MasterChef NZ. He casts his eye over the final eight contenders.

One poor wretch won't be able to stand the heat and will be sent out of the kitchen, in disgrace, in tears, into the dark night to sit in the back seat of a big black car going God knows where on tonight's MasterChef NZ.

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It's down to the final eight contestants. The tension is mounting. Slowly.

The latest series had a shocking start; research shows that absolutely no one watched it for the first few weeks.

It would be harsh to say it was all the fault of new judge Mark Wallbank, who may well be the most boring man on New Zealand TV right now. But it was all his fault.

Most of the eight remaining contestants have it in them to emerge as the winner.

One or two are lucky to be there and are only really waiting for Wallbank and his fellow judges, weird Al Brown and tense Josh Emett, to have them taken out and shot.

Perhaps that's what happens when they get out of that big black car. We may never know.

Certainly it's a matter of life and death from now until the grand finale.

Who's looking good? Who's looking bad? How do the final eight rate on a score of five pies good, zero pies bad?