The addictive and super entertaining reality cooking competition series Crime Scene Kitchen will officially return for a fourth season, but sadly we still don't know when to expect the next batch of episodes to debut.
As part of TVLine's weekly "Inside Line" feature that offers tidbits and answers to user-submitted questions, Matt Webb Mitovich confirmed that show is coming back and we'll, of course, see the return of the Confectionator 3000, but Fox hasn't set a season 4 premiere date and the show was not included on the network's upcoming 2025-2026 television schedule.
Fox included several unscripted series on the fall schedule, including Celebrity Weakest Link, Name That Tune, Hell's Kitchen, and 99 to Beat. It's disappointing that Crime Scene Kitchen season 4 isn't featured, but it's also not unprecedented.
The first two seasons of the series aired during the summer months, but Fox changed things up for the third season, airing it during the traditional fall television schedule. Season 3 premiered in September 2024 and wrapped a few months later, in December.
Does that mean we have to wait until fall 2026 for season 4? Possibly, but I think it is much more likely that Fox will simply hold the show for a midseason debut, meaning it could come back in January or February 2026. Still a lengthy wait, but not nearly as bad as waiting more than an a year.
Note that this has not been confirmed, but it seems likely. Fox is also holding one of its most popular and long-running reality shows, The Masked Singer, until midseason, along with American Dad and the debut of several new dramas. Even ABC is holding some of its more popular shows for midseason in 2026, keeping Will Trent and The Rookie in the same spot to run them uninterrupted (more or less) for 18 weeks.
Debuting in 2021, Crime Scene Kitchen provides a refreshing twist on the traditional baking competition show. In every episode, teams are tasked with examining a kitchen laden with clues to help them figure out exactly what dessert was baked there beforehand. They're then tasked with re-creating the dessert. The judges then evaluate each dish based on how accurate it is to the actual dessert, taste, and presentation.
Joel McHale has hosted all three seasons and is also an executive producer on the show. Yolanda Gampp and celebrity chef Curtis Stone serve as the judges. At the end of season 3, Canadian bakers Jessica Harrison and Lenore Johnson won and landed the $100,000 prize.