Reviewing MasterChef Junior, Willa Paskin concludes that regular kids are ideally suited for reality TV:
Like all engaging reality TV stars, the junior chefs are unburdened by self-consciousness, but because they are preteens, this is age-appropriate and not a manifestation of narcissistic personality disorder. They have endearing personalities without all the triangulation and effort that goes into being a “personality.” Jack is a 10-year-old from the Rockaways, an old man stuck in a little boy’s body, with a kind, conciliatory spirit, a tendency to collapse on the floor with relief, a collection of Hawaiian shirts, and an old-school New Yawk accent. Sarah, blond and 9, is scared of nothing but clowns. Troy hides a bossy streak and preternatural skills under SoCal bangs and intonations: “Is it going to be duck, chicken, or horse?” he asks the camera. “You never know, man.”
And compared with adults, they’re remarkably gracious in defeat:
The contestants don’t always take [losing] well, but they take it so much better than just about every grown-up I’ve ever seen getting eliminated from a reality show. They lose, they tear up, they wipe off their tears and then say how much fun they had, and how great they feel to have gone this far. For grown-ups, a competition show is a referendum on their life’s work or dreams. But the kids on MasterChef get to go back to full lives – school, family, hobbies, friends, and yes, cooking – having gotten to spend time in a place as cool as the MasterChef test kitchen, their life’s work still ahead of them.
The Dish 