Grilling and Shilling on The Food Network
This year's Next Food Network Star showed that the FN has given up on maintaining any semblance of integrity or credibility. One entire episode was a commercial for Red Lobster. Now they've gone beyond product placement. A sponsor can virtually buy an entire show. Just as bad is Guy Fieri. His "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" is supposed to be a love note to quirky, regional, family run restaurants. Yet he's out there shilling for TGIF, a homogenized, standardized, national corporate chain, the exact kind of place thats destroying the diners and dives he's supposed to be championing. You can say that's him as acting as an indiividual, not FN, but contracts can be written that require network permission for endorsement deals. The bottom line is that the FN wants their hosts doing this kind of thing, because it only increases the network's marketability to advertisers. Not surpisingly, as the product placement and cross promotions have ramped up, the quality of FN programming has gone down. Can anything reverse this trend?
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13 Comments:
FN is dead to me.......
izatryt at 8:44AM on 08/03/08
nope FN as a serious place to watch real food prepared by serious cooks and chefs, is over. They have sold out to the lowest common denominator and decided that quality programing is just not their style.
huneybumper at 9:16AM on 08/03/08
Where you been? They been slinging hash and cheese wiz for a decade. Sponsored by is the flavor du jour. When SLop showed up I saw the writing on the wall. Ever see the menus from Guy's restaurants?
http://www.johnnygarlics.com/food/food.html
http://www.texwasabis.com/food/menu.html
How similar to Fridays?
He won Next Food Network Star because he is friends with Michael Chiarello and appears on a few episodes years ago on Entertaining with Michael Chiarello. I bet the whole show for NFNS is fixed from the get go.
JerzeeTomato at 10:01AM on 08/03/08
I still watch Alton Brown, Jamie Oliver, Bobby Flay (from time to time), and that new Anne Burrell show--she's the chef at Centro Vinoteca, and used to work with Lidia Bastianich. She's really good TV and really knows what's what. Also unafraid to voice strong and smart opinions.
But yeah, the rest is pretty horrendous.
Gourmet Guy at 10:22AM on 08/03/08
It's the equivalent to Tiger Woods' pimping of everything from cars to credit cards. He doesn't make the bulk of his money from golfing. Michael Jordan didn't make the bulk of his money from BBall. (Can you say NIKE? I thought you could.)
These shows are a way for a "personality" (cooking or otherwise) to get corporate sponsorships. If the person's heart isn't really in cooking, work product (the show) isn't his or her first priority, merely a stepping stone.
If someone who excelled at his or her field was asked to be a corporate sponsor, it used to be an honor (think Wheaties box). Now it seems to be the prize.
chiff0nade at 10:42AM on 08/03/08
I would love to see someone on a Wheaties box with the caption, "Hey I really eat this." LOL
JerzeeTomato at 10:44AM on 08/03/08
I no longer even have FN as shows are so repetive. I do wish i could watch the new show from Chef Burrell as it seems informative but otherwise...... I stick to PBS cooking shows I like Test Kitchen. I like the way they test products so you can see what the best oil is or whatever item they are looking at.
love2cook at 11:30AM on 08/03/08
FN jumped the shark years ago, when they brought on Sandra Lee, and her myriad of Cool Whip-frosted store-bought Angelfood Cakes, and actually published her "recipes" for them. It has gotten progressively and exponentially worse every year since then.
The only show I watch consistently on FN any longer is Barefoot Contessa. Once Ina is gone, I will be gone, too, and for good.
Brownie at 11:53AM on 08/03/08
Sandra Lee is a favorite target of criticism, but at least she admits to making heavy use of packaged foods. I've seen pretty much every FN "star" commit food atrocities. Yesterday I saw Paula Dean use canned pie filling, not to mention cooking a 12 oz. steak in a pound of butter.
Guy Fieri is a raging egomaniac, and the whole spikey-haired cool dude persona feels like a calculated marketing ploy. He goes to these local restaurants allegedly to talk with the chefs/owners but he clearly doesn't give a damn about what anyone has to say. It's all about Guy. And who really cares about that?
bluepiano at 5:26PM on 08/03/08
Morgan Spurlock, of "Super Size Me" fame, should make a documentary in which he eats nothing but Paula Deen's food for thirty days. If he survives, we can exhibit him in the Smithsonian. If he dies, Paula Deen should be brought up on charges of violating the "Jesus Christ, what are you doing?" Act.
minstrel at 7:40PM on 08/03/08
@Jerzee - I can still see that photo of Mary Lou Retton on the Wheaties box and I wondered the same thing!
@Brownie - Here's a big fat Amen. Shamdra Lee and the Kool Whip Contingent pounded some hefty nails into the coffin of TVFN. That was a program decision that should never have been made. It cost TVFN their credibility as a source of cooking information.
@minstrel - ROFLMAO.
Some of the TVFN personalities that hawk goods should begin their ad with a disclaimer: "I'm not a cook, I just play one on TV."
therealchiffonade at 8:14PM on 08/03/08
I also still watch Alton Brown, Jamie Oliver, and that new Anne Burrell show (she is also Mario's sous Chef on Iron Chef) - but it does seem that FN has 'dumbed down' the programming for the less experienced cook and the less sophisticated palette. OK...call me a heretic, but I have to admit I LOVE Guy's Diners show...love to see the people that he meets and the cute, quirky places that exist out there....that and Ace of Cakes...too funny!
pjacob01 at 11:15AM on 08/04/08
@therealchiffonade Honestly, do you know how incredibly funny you are? I love "I'm not a cook, I just play one on TV." That's it! Nothing more needs to be said about the FN. Please! Believe me when I say I love PBS chefs...no commercials....high standards....great recipes and techniques.
dianeb at 1:55PM on 08/04/08