On this page
The shortest run yet.
Season 26 gives a viewer less than any season ranked before it: eight self-contained hours, a full five short of the thirteen-episode baseline, nested inside two other seasons' air windows on top of it. The format holds up fine episode to episode — there's just less of it.
Wraps in about ten weeks.
Eight episodes run from October into December 2015, the shortest season the format has aired — below even Season 8's nine-episode low — airing entirely inside Season 24's window and overlapping most of Season 25 too. Nothing about an individual hour falters: the locked basket, three-round elimination, and Ted Allen's hosting all run exactly as designed. There's just five fewer episodes' worth of it than the baseline promises.
The #60 slot.
Slot #60 of 62 in the Chopped Editor's Canon. Season 26 sits below every episode-count shortfall for the same basic reason Season 8 once anchored that group: episode count. Eight hours is five short of the thirteen-episode baseline, one below Season 8's nine-episode floor. That alone is enough to rank it this low, and it isn't the only mark against it — the season also airs entirely inside Season 24's window and overlaps most of Season 25 too. Nothing about the format itself is at fault; the locked basket, three-round structure, and Ted Allen's hosting hold exactly as they should. There's simply less of this season than nearly any other, on the axis this canon measures most.
4 moments, no spoilers.
- Every episode · five short of the baseline
Season 26 runs eight episodes, the fewest the format has aired — below even Season 8's nine-episode low. Watch it as the clearest example yet of how much a short count costs a season.
- Basket reveal · the standard rule, unchanged
The four-ingredient basket holds exactly as it has since Season 4, regardless of how short the season around it runs. Watch the reveal for that same steady constraint.
- Judges' table · sharp, even across fewer hours
The rotating panel's critique doesn't thin out just because there are fewer episodes to spread it across. Watch the judges argue with the same specificity as any full-length season.
- Season close · mid-December 2015
Season 26 closes out in mid-December 2015, its brief run nested almost entirely inside two longer seasons. Watch this run as the format's current floor, on episode count alone.