Cooking Shows Next Week (Sept. 14–20, 2026): Halloween Baking Monday, MasterChef Winner Wednesday
- Monday is the premiere. Halloween Baking Championship season 12 opens Sept. 14 at 9 p.m. ET on Food Network, two hours, ten bakers, $25,000.
- Wednesday is the ending. MasterChef names its season 16 winner Sept. 16 at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.
- Tuesday is the busiest night of the week: four hours of new cooking television across FOX and Food Network.
- Thursday is empty. Hell's Kitchen does not start until the following week.
Two weeks ago this grid had almost nothing new on it. Next week it has a franchise premiere, a season finale, a two-hour Gordon Ramsay wrap-up and a pair of Bobby Flay hours, and then a Thursday with nothing at all.
Here is the whole week on one screen, then the reasoning night by night.
| Day | Time (ET) | Show | Where | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon, Sept. 14 | 9–11 p.m. | Halloween Baking Championship, S12E1 | Food Network | Two-hour season premiere |
| Tue, Sept. 15 | 8 p.m. | Bobby's Triple Threat, S5E4 | Food Network | “Titans vs Danny Garcia” |
| Tue, Sept. 15 | 8–10 p.m. | Kitchen Nightmares, S10E11–12 | FOX | Two-hour season finale |
| Tue, Sept. 15 | 9 p.m. | Bobby Flay's The Line, S1E2 | Food Network | Fabio Viviani’s Giostra |
| Wed, Sept. 16 | 8 p.m. | MasterChef, S16E18 | FOX | Finale Part 2 — winner crowned |
| Thu, Sept. 17 | — | Nothing new | — | Hell’s Kitchen starts Sept. 24 |
| Fri, Sept. 18 | 9 p.m. | Triple D Nation, S8E8 | Food Network | Food TV, not a competition |
| Sat, Sept. 19 | 12 p.m. | Cook Like an Italian, S1E5 | Food Network | Instructional |
| Sun, Sept. 20 | 9 p.m. | Halloween Wars, S16 | Food Network | Episode 2 — no listing posted yet |
Times are ET/PT. Food Network episodes land on HBO Max the next day; FOX episodes land on Hulu the next day.
What's on Monday?
The one appointment of the week. Halloween Baking Championship returns for season 12 with a two-hour premiere at 9 p.m. ET, which is the network's usual way of saying it expects the biggest audience of the night.
Ten bakers compete for $25,000. John Henson hosts; Stephanie Boswell, Aarti Sequeira and Zac Young judge. The season is staged inside a fictional Museum of Unnatural History, and the premiere episode — “The Museum of Unnatural History” — opens in the foyer with a challenge Food Network is calling Best Halloween Ever.
👉 Set the recorder for two hours, not one. Every Halloween Baking premiere in recent memory has run long, and this one is dated as a double.
The season sits at 9 p.m. Mondays from here. There is more on the format, the prize and the full judging panel on our baking championships page.
Why is Tuesday so crowded?
Because two networks put their heaviest food hours on the same night, and one of them is signing off.
FOX runs a two-hour Kitchen Nightmares block at 8 p.m. — episodes 11 and 12, “Wick 'n Ore Kitchen & Tap” and “Firenze Restaurant & Pizzeria.” Listings show no episode 13, which makes those the last two of season 10.
Opposite it, Food Network runs Bobby Flay for two straight hours: Bobby's Triple Threat at 8 and Bobby Flay's The Line at 9. The Line is the new one — it premiered Sept. 8, and next week is only its second episode, built around Fabio Viviani's Giostra.
| Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET | Tuesday, 9 p.m. ET |
|---|---|
| Kitchen Nightmares E11 (FOX) | Kitchen Nightmares E12 (FOX) |
| Bobby's Triple Threat (Food Network) | Bobby Flay's The Line (Food Network) |
If you only pick one, pick by format: Ramsay's is a restaurant rescue with a fixed ending, Flay's two are competitions where the outcome is live.
Who wins MasterChef on Wednesday?
Unknown, and that is the point of the night. Finale Part 1 on Sept. 9 sent nobody home — the hour ran out mid-entrée with all three cooks still at their stations.
So Part 2 carries the entire decision: the rest of the entrée round, the dessert round, and the name.
| Finalist | Team | Where Part 1 left them |
|---|---|---|
| Jake Kelley | Americas | Strongest appetizer of the three |
| Peter Egede | Africa | Close behind on the judges’ notes |
| Heidi Muston | Africa | Mixed response — needs the back half |
On the table: the trophy, the title and $250,000. We keep the running answer on who won MasterChef season 16, and it gets updated the night it airs rather than moved to a new address.
Is anything on Thursday?
No. Not a single new cooking competition, on any of the networks this desk tracks.
That gap exists because FOX is holding the slot. Hell's Kitchen season 25 takes Thursdays at 8 p.m. starting Sept. 24 — eighteen chefs, all 25 or younger, which the show has done exactly once before. So next Thursday is the last quiet one until January.
Food Network fills Thursday with library programming. Neither Chopped nor Beat Bobby Flay has a new episode dated; the most recent originals ran May 5 and Aug. 18 respectively.
What about the weekend?
Thin, and one line of it is genuinely unsettled.
Friday brings Triple D Nation at 9 p.m., Saturday has Cook Like an Italian at noon — both Food Network, neither a competition. Sunday should carry the second episode of Halloween Wars season 16, which premiered Sept. 13, but no title or listing had been posted for Sept. 20 when we checked. Treat that one as expected rather than confirmed.
Nothing new drops on Netflix either. The Great British Baking Show starts on Channel 4 in the UK on Sept. 22, and Netflix still has not dated the American release — the pattern from last year points at Friday, Sept. 25, but that is arithmetic, not an announcement. More of the streaming side is here.
How many new hours is that?
Nine, if you count everything on the grid; seven if you only count competitions.
| Night | New competition hours | Other new food hours |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 2 | 0 |
| Tuesday | 2 | 2 |
| Wednesday | 1 | 0 |
| Thursday | 0 | 0 |
| Friday–Sunday | 1 (unconfirmed) | 2 |
Compare that with the week just gone, which had one competition hour on Wednesday and nothing else dated. The fall ramp starts Monday.
Where does all of this stream?
Two answers, and they do not overlap. Food Network originals go to HBO Max the day after broadcast. FOX shows — MasterChef, Kitchen Nightmares, and Hell's Kitchen from Sept. 24 — go to Hulu the next day.
Which subscription covers the most of next week is worked out in our Food Network streaming guide, and the season-long version of this table lives in the fall schedule.
Quick answers
What cooking shows are on next week? Halloween Baking Championship (Mon), Kitchen Nightmares, Bobby's Triple Threat and Bobby Flay's The Line (Tue), MasterChef's finale (Wed).
What time is the Halloween Baking Championship premiere? Monday, Sept. 14, 9 p.m. ET/PT on Food Network, running two hours.
When is the MasterChef finale? Wednesday, Sept. 16 at 8 p.m. ET on FOX. It is Part 2 of two; the winner is named in this one.
When does Hell's Kitchen come back? Thursday, Sept. 24 at 8 p.m. ET on FOX — the week after this one.
Sources
- Food Network — Halloween Baking Championship and Halloween Wars premiere dates, judges, prize, streaming
- Food Network — Bobby Flay's The Line premiere date and Tuesday slot
- Variety — The Line release date
- Variety — Kitchen Nightmares season 10 dates on FOX
- Gold Derby — MasterChef Finale Part 1 recap and where the finalists stand
- Listings data via TVmaze — episode numbers, titles and air times for every row above
Elsewhere on this desk — the MasterChef hub and our Part 1 preview, the Hell's Kitchen page, the baking championships, the Food Network competitions hub and the equipment we have actually priced in knives and pans seen on air. Our sister sites Reality On Air and Game Show On Air run the same weekly grid for their own corners of the schedule.
- Great British Baking Show 2026: Netflix US Release Schedule and UK Air Dates
- Hell's Kitchen Season 25 Guide: Sept. 24 Premiere and an All-Under-25 Kitchen
- How to Stream Food Network Shows in 2026: HBO Max, Hulu and the Next-Day Rule
- Cooking Competition TV Schedule, Fall 2026: Every Show, Night and Stream