3 CHEFS 4 2 FORMATS
Plus a brand new reality show about betrayal with a twist
SAY YES TO THE CHEFS
Cooking shows with charismatic chefs are always popular. Two recent US formats are proof of this, the first with an interesting and distinctive twist, the second a more familiar sight.
The first is Yes, Chef!, premiering Monday, April 28, following The Voice on NBC at 10 p.m. ET/PT, from Magical Elves, the Emmy Award-winning producers of Bravo's Top Chef and distributed worldwide by NBCUniversal Formats, a division of Universal Studio Group.
This cooking competition aims to correct hot tempers, egos and attitudes in the heat of the kitchen with Emmy Award-winning chefs José Andrés and Martha Stewart (pictured). Both will serve as hosts and executive producers on the project.
The series puts 12 highly skilled chefs, nominated by their bosses, colleagues, friends and even family, to the ultimate test. These promising stars all have natural talent, but their egos, intensity, stubbornness or short fuses are holding them back from reaching their full potential.
With humor and tough love, José and Martha will guide the chefs each week through a series of intense culinary challenges designed to test and overcome their personal issues. In this competition, the chefs will have to prove they have the culinary chops and the right attitude to make it to the end. The chef who handles the heat, impressing with both their food and teamwork while improving their behavior, will take home the $250,000 grand prize, provided by granola brand Purely Elizabeth.
Promising emotion and twists, this is an interesting cross between a cooking show and a reality show.
HELL’S KITCHEN 2.0
The second is Gordon Ramsay's Secret Service - Gordon Ramsay's 'new' show, even if it's a little too reminiscent of the old one - which premieres on FOX on Wednesday 21 May and is produced by Studio Ramsay Global and FOX Alternative Entertainment.
The format sees Gordon rescuing America's ‘filthiest restaurants’ with surveillance technology and moles on the inside. After gathering insights and video evidence from inside these disgusting kitchens, Ramsay will infiltrate the restaurants under the cover of night, where a black light investigation will reveal "more filth and grossness than ever before".
“By the time Ramsay reveals his identity, it will be too late for staff to cover up their culinary crimes,” reads the logline for the series. “Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service will be his toughest assignment yet as he takes drastic measures to transform not only the restaurant but also the staff, because Gordon knows he can upgrade the menu and renovate the restaurant, but the most important change has to come from the people. Are the restaurant and staff willing to accept Gordon’s mission, or are they too far gone to be saved?”
“Over the years, I’ve embarked on many daring adventures alongside my partners at Fox,” said Ramsay. “And Secret Service is the most intrepid of them all. With undercover help and cutting-edge technology, I get to go full on ‘MI6’ with these restaurants… and they’ll never see it coming.”
The show can be defined as Hell's Kitchen 2.0. For heaven's sake, that's fine: playing it safe in these complicated times is reassuring; but perhaps it wouldn't have been a bad thing to try something a little more different and innovative (at least for him who has the power to be able to do it).
TRAITORS TO EACH OTHER… BUT WITH A TWIST
Reality shows about betrayal, secrets and lies have become the latest trend, obviously inspired by the phenomenon of TheTraitors (which, it's worth remembering, was itself inspired by the classic The Mole). Netflix's Million Dollar Secret and Crave's House of Secrets are just the latest in a long line.
Got to Get Out, which debuted on Hulu last Friday 11 April, fits into this sub-genre. A group of contestants are locked in a large mansion and have the chance to win up to $1,000,000 if they remain loyal to one another. To make up the show's cast, Hulu recruited 10 familiar faces from the most popular reality franchises - from The Bachelor franchise to Real Housewives - and 10 newcomers hoping for TV fame.
This time, however, there is a fun and adrenaline-fuelled twist. The series takes place over 10 days, with a money clock slowly ticking towards the full million, and those cast members still in the house when the pot reaches its maximum will split the remaining money equally.
However, the contestants are also randomly given the chance to escape the locked house and make their way to the front gate of the estate, a quarter of a mile away. If they make it before the rest of the cast closes the gate, they take the money currently on the clock with them, leaving the others to start again from $0.
The result is an entertaining mix of action and strategy, bright and engaging, as you can see in the trailer below. A twist in the format makes all the difference...
NEWS IN A NUTSHELL
Rabbit Films, the distribution arm of Monday Media Group, has acquired international distribution rights for the German quiz format Masters of Everyday Life (Meister des Alltags), Created by Bavaria Entertainment with SWR Germany
The reboot of the classic game Tic Tac Dough, based on the paper and pencil game of tic-tac-toe, premiered last Monday 14 April on Game Show Network, distributed by NBCUniversal, 70 years after it first aired on NBC.
NBC has greenlit a new unscripted series, On Brand with Jimmy Fallon. Hosted, executive produced and created by Fallon, On Brand will follow the Tonight Show host as he creates a premier marketing agency "and fills it with the most creative, smart and competitive go-getters he can find".
Greg Gutfeld will host a three-part game show for the Fox Nation subscription service, Greg Gutfeld's What Did I Miss?, in which contestants in isolation are tasked with figuring out which news headlines are real and which are fake.
Peacock will launch a new Love Island extension this summer, provisionally titled Love Island: Beyond the Villa. The spin-off will follow the Love Island USA season six contestants around L.A. as they navigate careers, relationships and newfound fame.
National Geographic has set a May 18 premiere for the new travelogue series Tucci in Italy, which sees acclaimed actor Stanley Tucci seeking out the culinary secrets of his ancestral homeland.
Canela Media, a leading multicultural Hispanic technology and innovation company, has announced the premiere date and first trailer for its new original reality show, Secretos de Parejas.
Crave has ordered a new season of Project Runway Canada, an adaptation of the hit fashion competition series that was last on-air in the country in 2009.
Banijay Rights, the global distribution arm of Banijay Entertainment, has announced a new FAST channel built around The Osbournes, making the popular U.S. reality series available on free ad-supported services for the first time.
The battle between Paramount's CBS and Sony Pictures Television for control of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy has taken another turn. CBS has won a temporary legal reprieve allowing it to continue distributing the two gameshows suspending an LA judge's ruling last week that allowed SPT to stop delivering the shows to the Paramount-owned company.
Another great newsletter, Axel - thank you !