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The format's best swing, run back.
Season 28 runs the Champions concept back, bigger this time: five episodes instead of four, and placed right up front instead of closing out the season. It's the format repeating its best swing, on a larger scale.
A rhythm worth tracking.
Thirteen episodes open with a five-episode Chopped Champions block — past winners returning to compete against each other — before settling into eight standard hours. It's a bigger version of the swing Season 2 first took, placed at the front of the season instead of the back. The locked basket, three-round structure, and Ted Allen's hosting run underneath exactly as they always have. No other season shares its calendar.
The #05 slot.
Slot #05 of 36 in the Chopped Editor's Canon. Season 28 takes Season 2's biggest swing and runs it back at a larger scale. Five episodes of returning champions open the season instead of four closing it, and the whole concept — past winners cooking for cumulative stakes — plays out with the confidence of a format that already knows the gambit works. That's the case for ranking it just below Season 2 itself: it's not the original risk, so it doesn't get credit for invention, but it executes the idea more fully and on a clean, unshared calendar. The eight standard episodes that follow hold the closed-door premise exactly as designed, with nothing to distract from either half.
4 moments, no spoilers.
- Episodes 1-5 · Champions, up front
Season 28 opens with past winners returning to cook against each other, the same concept Season 2 introduced years earlier. Watch how placing the block at the start changes the season's whole shape.
- Episode 6 · back to the standard hour
After five Champions episodes, the season resets to brand-new chefs and a closed-door premise. Watch how cleanly the format snaps back once the tournament block ends.
- Judges' table · reading returning chefs, again
The panel already knows these competitors' track records, just as it did during Season 2's Champions run. Watch how that history sharpens the critique.
- Season close · June 2016
Season 28 closes out in late June 2016, its no-overlap calendar clear on both ends. Watch this run as the format's fullest replay of its most successful early experiment.