Rapid Blue’s three seasons of Come Dine With Me achieved excellent viewer ratings, with Season 2 notching up numerous channel records. As with international fans, local viewers warmed to the shenanigans that unfold when ‘ordinary’ home cooking becomes a competition. The secret camera, where vicious private jibes rarely matched public statements, added to this voyeurism. It was this double layer of duplicity versus diplomacy, combined with a heavy dose of culinary feats and failures, that made Come Dine With Me SA a viewer magnet.