MasterChef: The Professionals viewers were left baffled on Tuesday night when the show announced it had edited out one of the four contestants.
A slide at the start of the BBC1 show read: "This programme has been edited and features 3 of the original 4 contestants who took part."
The remaining three contestants were Guillame from London, Burhan from Coventry and Scott from Manchester.
They took part in the skills test in a bid to impress judges Gregg Wallace, Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti, and Scott was sent home at the end of the show.
But fans spotted glimpses of the fourth chef, whose shoulders and elbow could be seen in the corner of some shots.
Whoever the chef was, they were reportedly booking Marcus' version of Crepes Suzette, but their attempt was never aired.
A MasterChef spokesperson told MailOnline: "Due to unforeseen circumstances concerning one of our contestants, the programme tonight was edited to remove their appearance."
One viewer asked: "Anybody know why tonight's MasterChef has been edited to show only three contestants???"
"Someone's been edited out of MasterChef and I need to know what happened," remarked another.
"Just when 2020 couldn't get any weirder , MasterChef edit out the 4th chef in a skills test in a shroud of mystery," added a third.
Other fans wondered if the missing contestant had done something potentially offensive, after Sky History recently pulled an episode of its new woodworking show The Chop.
A contestant on the Lee Mack-fronted show was seen to have tattoos that had links with Nazi and white supremacy, leading to outrage online.
Other fans suggested it was Covid-19 related, writing: "Maybe something to do with Covid possibly?"
Someone replied: "Don't see why they'd edit them out for that, one of the celeb masterchef contestants had to drop out because of suspected covid, it wasn't covid, but they were still present."
* MasterChef airs on Tuesdays at 9pm on BBC1
