Celebrity MasterChef 2008: is this the last series?

It's a year later and once again John Torode and Gregg Wallace are back on our screens with another bunch of C- to Z-listers hoping to follow in the footsteps of previous winners Matt Dawson (2006) and Nadia Sawalha (2007) to become Celebrity Masterchef 2008.

This is a programme which has always had a steady following, and for avid armchair foodies it helps to fill the yawning summer chasm between one winter's glut of food-related TV (including the regular MasterChef which usually hits our screens early in the new year) and the next. There are worrying signs however that Celebrity MasterChef might have run its course - could this be its last season?

1. The celebrities: how many have you heard of? How many do you remember from the dim distant days when they really were famous? OK, maybe that's just me, but....

2. The scheduling: instead of the usual daily half-hour show as in previous years they are running two heats back-to-back on Wednesday and another two on Thursday, followed by an elimination heat on Friday - what's all that about?

3. The official website: where is it? Instead of the usual detailed list of biographies, recipes and interesting snippets of information there is just a bald list of schedules - each one giving nothing more than exactly the same information that can be found in our TV listings magazines and websites.

Is this the end for Celebrity MasterChef? I hope not but I very much fear that the writing is on the wall.....

Foodie TV forum (including Celebrity MasterChef)