Rachael’s busy with her network talk show and a magazine. Mario’s canceled. Tony Bourdain’s hit the road for the Travel Channel. Sara Moulton’s starting up a PBS show. No question about it, things are changing at the Food Network, where ratings are down and the honchos are nervous.
With most of the Food Network’s former go-to stars now otherwise engaged, network execs are looking to fill the chef-lebrity gap by grooming new personalities and giving stepped-up opportunities to older ones. Southern-fried matronly cutie Paula Deen has been given the biggest leg up, with a new show called Paula’s Party, set to debut September 29. According to network insiders, there are high hopes Deen’s show will attract younger viewers.
Says Deen in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “I’m keepin’ the hair high and the expectations low, and that way I can’t lose.”
Hmm, right, but the Food Network’s current strategy of airing more info-tainment and competitive cooking shows (think Unwrapped and Iron Chef) at night rather than the more traditional daytime cooking shows seems to make more sense. Why pin hopes for spryer viewers on a white-haired grandma?
Says Food Network blog critic The Armchair Cook, “This blatant MTV-ization of the Food Network worries me. Sheesh, maybe if things don’t work out with Paula and Michael, they can give her a dating show, à la Flavor of Love. For old times’ sake, maybe they could call it Butter Flavor of Love.”
i think if the people at the food network would focus their shows more on informative cooking than a “celebrity” chefs entertaining than more people would watch. i’m 26, part of the younger viewers they’re trying to reach, and i personally stopped watching the network because it was all fluff and no substance. frankly, if you really want to learn to cook watching a tv show you have to turn to some of the shows on pbs, or else your out of luck.
Granted, I am hardly the audience FN is trying to win (though maybe I should be), and I may be way off here, but to say that Unwrapped is a part of a strategy for success seems ridiculous; the show is patently bad. Food Network has lost appeal among viewers (like me) because it no longer has relevant shows with cooks/chefs doing interesting things. While I will probably never cook a la Alton Brown, I find the guy entertaining, knowledgeable and downright funny. It’s a shame that they Mario is leaving, he’s one of the few people on the network who’s food I might actually pay someone else to cook for me. Paula Dean is, in an odd sort of way, engaging – but I couldn’t care less about another show that is full of more talk and BS than actual food and cooking.
I too am not the audience FN or even Chow is trying to reach, however I am a card-carrying-foodie and I agree, the FN has lost it. No substance. Paula Dean may be a nice lady, but please…… no more recipes for canned tuna, tacco salad, etc. Even Rachael Ray and Giada DeLaurentiis, charming they may be, with cute easy recipes, but chefs they are not. I guess we have to keep it in perspective – it is show biz.
What!?!? Giving us more and more of Bobby Flay’s Howdy Doody looking arrogance isn’t working for them? More ways of taking Emeril’s one trick pony act and just changing the set isn’t packing them in? Maybe they should get Gordon Ramsay to do a show about screaming while slamming plates of food into people’s chests. Oh, sorry. FOX beat them to that, didn’t they?
Do the execs at FN ever actually watch their own programming? With a few exceptions (Alton Brown is one, as is Sara Moulton. Jim O’Connor should just be taken out back and shot.) their stars are the kind of people you pray that you’re never seated next to on a flight… let alone would want to have in your home. Yes, is IS show business… but show business is entertainment, and FN has, for the most part, stopped being entertaining, let alone informative and interesting.
I think that’s what FN’s problem is – trying to entertain more and inform less. As a culinary school graduate, I’m not looking to learn anything, but I’m always interested in getting new ideas – and FN hasn’t been fitting the bill in that area lately. PBS or Discovery Home may be the way to go for now.
I thought they were pinning their hopes on the “I like a pretty cake that looks exactly like a bust of Elvis with a real life roller coaster on top and taste be damned!” crowd.
Amen EVERYONE.
Exactly.
“I thought they were pinning their hopes on the “I like a pretty cake that looks exactly like a bust of Elvis with a real life roller coaster on top and taste be damned!” crowd.”
god so so true. thanks for this! i laughed out loud.
I’ve been talking about starting up my own chow network for close to 3 years (which, sadly is the same amount of time I have had cable). When I first had access to the FN, I watched it habitually (and was made fun of by my roommates, since I was a mere 21 years old at the time). Since then there is barely a show I will pause for. There are a few people I would bring along with me for Chowvision: Alton Brown (though I would have to give him some lessons on how to pronounce French and Italian foodstuffs), Ina (though I would make her take the forced acting out of her show to move over with us) and Tyler Florence all come to mind. I would also bring back Jamie Oliver (though it’s BBC syndicated, he’s cute, charming, and a great chef) and would search the country far and wide for entertaining and talented chef who have had it with working in the food industry. No one would get more than one show, there would be re-runs on in the morning instead of infomercials, and Iron Chef America COULD have a place in our programming, if they actually used a few secret ingredients most people don’t actually cook with (abalone anyone?!).
Anyone want to make me the president of Chow Vision? I’ll put in 80 hour work weeks as long as I get to try some of the food!
I’ve been talking about starting up my own chow network for close to 3 years (which, sadly is the same amount of time I have had cable). When I first had access to the FN, I watched it habitually (and was made fun of by my roommates, since I was a mere 21 years old at the time). Since then there is barely a show I will pause for. There are a few people I would bring along with me for Chowvision: Alton Brown (though I would have to give him some lessons on how to pronounce French and Italian foodstuffs), Ina (though I would make her take the forced acting out of her show to move over with us) and Tyler Florence all come to mind. I would also bring back Jamie Oliver (though it’s BBC syndicated, he’s cute, charming, and a great chef) and would search the country far and wide for entertaining and talented chef who have had it with working in the food industry. No one would get more than one show, there would be re-runs on in the morning instead of infomercials, and Iron Chef America COULD have a place in our programming, if they actually used a few secret ingredients most people don’t actually cook with (abalone anyone?!).
Anyone want to make me the president of Chow Vision? I’ll put in 80 hour work weeks as long as I get to try some of the food!
Honestly Mario had a boring show. I think the only shows that are keeping FN afloat is Giada’s show, Iron Chef, Good Eats, Boy Meets Grille, and the Emeril Live show. There are a lot of filler shows are just plain bad. Throwdown is one, that ace of cakes is horrible, and all the cake competition specials put me to sleep. They need to keep it real like the Emeril Live show. He has been going for 10+ years and I still love to watch him. FN needs a facelift and bring it back to the basics of what cooking is all about.
maybe a major food magazine should try to start up a serious food channel. starting point: reruns of the original Julia Child show from the 1960s.