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Returning champs open the new year.
Season 45 leads with its tournament instead of burying it, then lets eight ordinary episodes carry the rest of a long, overlap-heavy run into summer.
A rhythm worth tracking.
Thirteen episodes open with a five-part $50,000 Champs Challenge, returning champions competing across four qualifying rounds and a grand finale, before the season settles into eight standard hours. The tournament runs January into February 2020; the season itself stretches on into late July, overlapping Season 41, Season 42, Season 44, and Season 46 at different points. The locked basket, three-round structure, and Ted Allen's hosting hold exactly as designed on both sides of the bracket.
The #12 slot.
Slot #12 of 62 in the Chopped Editor's Canon. Season 45 takes the returning-champions concept and puts it right up front, five episodes of past champions chasing fifty thousand dollars before the season even gets to its regular cast. That's a confident placement — betting the tournament can carry a season's opening rather than close it out or split it in half — and it mostly works, the bracket building cleanly to its own finale before the standard hours take over. What keeps it just below Season 36 is the calendar: Season 45's back half runs alongside four other seasons at various points, a busier overlap than Season 36's single tangled neighbor. The tournament earns its slot; the release schedule costs it one.
4 moments, no spoilers.
- Champs Challenge · a five-part opener
Season 45 leads with returning champions instead of closing on them, four qualifying rounds building to a grand finale. Watch the tournament set the tone before the standard format even gets a turn.
- The eight regulars · the format's remainder
Once the bracket wraps in February, eight ordinary hours carry the season into summer. Watch these episodes as the plain baseline underneath the tournament's bigger swing.
- Basket reveal · steady on both sides
The four-ingredient rule holds in the tournament and the standard hours alike. Watch the reveal for that same constraint regardless of the stakes on the table.
- Season close · a long, crowded July
Season 45 closes out in late July 2020, its back half sharing the calendar with several neighboring seasons. Watch this run as a tournament opener stretched across an unusually busy year.