Unpopular opinion: Georgia deserved to win Masterchef.

Last night was intense.

I’ve been following season seven of Masterchef Australia from the very first episode. I’ve been a true Masterchef fan. Cheering on my favourites. Yelling words of encouragement at the TV screen. Yelling, “Why? Why? Why” when the contestants made a mistake under all that pressure. And drooling over those dishes.

But last night. Last night was something.

Or more accurately, the lead up to last night.

Read more: EXCLUSIVE: MasterChef’s Rose responds to the fans who think she should go home.

From the beginning Georgia Barnes has been a very strong cook. For most of the season, she was hovering at the top of the best performers. There was no doubt that she would go far in the competition. For quite a while, she was everyone’s favourite.

Then something turned. I can’t really put my finger on it, but some Masterchef fans rebelled.

They dropped Georgia from their faves.

They changed their words of encouragement to words of anger when she teared up under the enormous pressure.

The started pointing fingers at the judges. They yelled "favouritism" at their screen whenever a judge would go up to her to talk to her about her dish.

It got to a point where Georgia was getting trolled on social media.

And it spiked last night.

"Poor Georgia had a teary again, bloody hell not going to buy her books, read her magazines or watch her shows if Georgia wins."

"The show is totally bias against Billie. Its all georgia georgia georgia."

"So happy georgia didnt win as she had too much screen time."

As you may know, Billie McKay took out the trophy last night.

With her win, it made fans stop and realise what was actually happening to Georgia.

"And now you can all stop bullying Georgia."

"Yeah a bit too late though. The poor girl copped heaps."

That's exactly what happened. Georgia was trolled. Georgia was bullied. She was slammed for trying her best in a very difficult, high pressure environment.

One fan took to Instagram to defend Georgia:

"Georgia is perfectly nice. Doesn't deserve hate. It's the show and its producers and judges that have portrayed Georgia this way. She was allowed to slip through so many cracks and been favoured - probably because her fragility and tears make for good TV."

Now, I get it. Georgia was the "tearful one". But if I was in her situation, I would be too.

Former contestant Sara Oteri spoke to The Motherish on her exit and she said that working in the "real world" is far less stressful than Masterchef. 

"You know what to expect. There are no curveballs. There's no six hour barbeque challenge."

Read more: Sara from Masterchef talks to The Motherish.

While Masterchef seems like a fun cooking show to us on the couches enjoying our biscuit and tea, it's damn hard. And I bet that any of us probably wouldn't make it past the auditions much less the challenges contestants like Georgia was put through. As one fan wrote...

"Congrats Billie but also congrats to Georgia don't forget everyone she also competed her best and did well as well well deserved to both."

I'm happy Billie won. But I also think Georgia deserved to win too. As the points last night reflected, it was a tight competition right up until the end. It all came down to one tiny detail.

But by coming second place, or shedding a tear because she was worried she wasn't going to win, doesn't make Georgia any less deserving than Billie.

So, shut up trolls.

What do you think of Billie winning Masterchef last night?

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