Friday, August 13, 2021 – Food Network

The photo is of a Food Network star, Bobby Flay, who is in a show called “Beat Bobby Flay,” among other things. Since I have been diagnosed with knee strain, I have not been walking 5-6 miles a day as usual. Instead, I have been riding a recumbent bike at the Addison Athletic Club and watching TV. Often, it is the Food Network. Recently, I watched several episodes of “Beat Bobby Flay.”

According to Wikipedia, in the first round, two guests, often a celebrity chef and a friend of Flay, introduce two contestants who cook for 20 minutes against each other using an ingredient chosen by Flay. The guests then determine who cooked the better dish and will face Flay in the second round. The winning contestant then chooses a dish for both the contestant and Flay to cook in the second round which lasts for 45 minutes. The winner of the second round is determined by three judges in a blind taste test. Through 343 competitions, Bobby Flay's win-loss record is 216–127, a 63.0% win percentage.

The presentation of “Beat Bobby Flay” borrows from boxing matches, with a bell rung to indicate the start of rounds and mild or humorous trash-talking by Flay, competing chefs and guest judges. During both rounds, the celebrity judges will periodically walk into the cooking area to talk to each chef about their strategy; in the second round, they will also make light-hearted attempts to distract Flay. At the end of each episode, if the contestant wins, then he or she gets to tell everyone that they beat Bobby Flay. If Bobby wins, he talks about the contestant's loss. In the first round, two guests, often a celebrity chef and a friend of Flay, introduce two contestants who cook for 20 minutes against each other using an ingredient chosen by Flay. The guests then determine who cooked the better dish and will face Flay in the second round. The winning contestant then chooses a dish for both the contestant and Flay to cook in the second round which lasts for 45 minutes. The winner of the second round is determined by three judges in a blind taste test. Through 343 competitions, Bobby Flay's win-loss record is 216–127, a 63.0% win percentage.

I have only seen one show where the contestant beat Bobby Flay. It was with a pizza with white sauce. The contestant made fresh mozzarella to put on the pizza; Bobby made a pizza with fried clams. The judges said the pizza crust of the contestant was much better than Bobby’s.

Bobby Flay is the owner and executive chef of several restaurants: Amalfi in Las Vegas, Gato in New York, and Bobby's Burger Palace in 19 locations across 11 states. As of September 2019, Flay has an estimated net worth of $30 million.

Let’s learn more about the Food Network and its celebrity chefs.

According to Wikipedia, Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Discovery, Inc. (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group (which owns the remaining 31%). Despite this ownership structure, the channel is managed and operated as a division of Discovery Networks U.S. The channel airs both special and regular episodic programs about food and cooking.

In addition to its headquarters in New York City, Food Network has offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Jersey City, Cincinnati and Knoxville.

As of September 2018, 91 million households receive Food Network — 98.6% of households with cable — in the United States.

History

In 1990 Providence Journal company president Trygve Myhren was attempting to grow the company and decided that basic cable programming at the time was a high-growth area with cable companies beginning to expand their overall channel capacities. With many basic cable channels at the time, he was looking for something different. With food selected as the channel's genre, the working title for the channel was The Cooking Channel up until the its launch. Myhren hired Jack Clifford, Joe Langhan and Reese Schonfeld, co-founder of CNN, to help found the channel. Schonfeld, Landghan and Clifford were CEO, vice president of production and president. Both The Cooking Channel and the Food Network trademarks were taken by other entities, with the Food Network being a newsletter. Myrhen originally wanted the network to be operated from Providence, Rhode Island as he argued that a cable network's costs were much more scalable from a lower-profile location, while Schonfeld preferred it be originated from New York, considered the American nucleus of culinary arts; Schonfeld's preference eventually won out, though at the peril of the network's launch budget, which was lower than it would have been from Providence.

Food Network was founded on April 19, 1993, as "TV Food Network"; its legal name remains Television Food Network, G. P. After acquiring the Food Network trademark after several years, it shortened the name to that. The network initially launched on November 22, 1993 with two initial shows featuring David Rosengarten, Donna Hanover and Robin Leach. On November 23, 1993, Food Network began live broadcasting. Its original partners included the Journal itself, Adelphia, Scripps-Howard, Continental Cablevision, Cablevision and, most importantly, the Tribune Co., which provided the network's technical output.

Given that the channel could not afford to not run anything that they would produce, the channel started taping five shows with a potential host to see if they worked. This was later turned into the Chef Du Jour series.

Reese Schonfeld, managing director, TV Food Network

Schonfeld, was appointed as managing director of TV Food Network and maintained a spot on its management board along with two Providence Journal employees. The original lineup for the network included Emeril Lagasse — “Essence of Emeril,” Debbi Fields, Donna Hanover, David Rosengarten, Curtis Aikens, Dr. Louis Aronne, Jacques Pépin, and Robin Leach. The following year, the network acquired the rights to the Julia Child library from WGBH.

In 1995, Schonfeld resigned as managing director of the network, but remained on its board until 1998, when he sold his interest in the company to Scripps. In 1996, Erica Gruen was hired as the president and CEO of TV Food Network, becoming the second woman in history to be the CEO of a U.S. television network. She led the network into explosive growth until 1998, by launching the largest and No. 1 site for food, FoodNetwork.com, more than doubling the subscriber base, tripling the viewership and multiplying the network's yearly revenue. In 1997, it was the second-fastest growing cable network. Gruen changed the brand positioning from Schonfeld's "TV for people who cook" to "TV for everyone who loves to eat," thereby greatly improving the appeal to viewers and advertisers and saving the network from bankruptcy. That same year, the "TV" portion of the name was dropped, thus making it simply Food Network. Greg Willis and Cathy Rasenberger were two of the original members of the startup team who led the affiliate sales and marketing of the company from 1995 to 1998. Greg Willis served as senior vice president of worldwide distribution until he left to join Liberty Media in 1998.

The A. H. Belo Corp. acquired Food Network when it purchased The Providence Journal Company in February 1997. Belo sold its 56% stake in the channel to the E. W. Scripps Co. in October 1997, in a trade deal that resulted in Belo acquiring the television-radio station combination of KENS-AM/TV in San Antonio, Texas.

The 1080i high definition simulcast feed of Food Network launched on March 31, 2008.

Food Network UK chef Nadiya Hussain

Food Network was first launched outside of North America in the United Kingdom on November 9, 2009, and in Asia on July 5, 2010 on StarHub TV channel 433 and in HD on channel 468. Since the UK launch on November 9, 2009 on Sky, the channel has been added to the Freesat, Freeview and Virgin Media platforms.

In January 2015, the Food Network collaborated with Snapchat and launched its own Food Network channel, "Discover Food Network," where social media users can watch the channel through the app. The channel features recipes, food hacks and tips to entertain and appeal to the social media savvy millennials of today while watching from the palm of their hands.

In June 2020, Domaine Javier became the first-ever openly transgender woman to be featured in the history of Food Network, through the 20th season of the hit reality-competition series “Worst Cooks in America.”

Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse

Food Network programming

Food Network programming is divided into a daytime block known as "Food Network in the Kitchen" and a primetime lineup branded as "Food Network Nighttime." Generally, "In the Kitchen" is dedicated to instructional cooking programs, while "Nighttime" features food-related entertainment programs, such as cooking competitions, food-related travel shows and reality shows. Promos identify "Food Network Nighttime" programming but not "In the Kitchen" daytime programming. Many of the channel's personalities routinely pull double-duty or more — hosting both daytime and nighttime programming — and the channel regularly offers specials which typically either follow its personalities on working vacations or brings together a number of personalities for a themed cooking event. Food Network broadcasts on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. and weekends from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. ET, with the rest of the day being taken by infomercials. The UK channel broadcasts from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. daily.

Mario Batali and Bobby Flay joined the network in 1995. In 1996, Erica Gruen, the network's CEO, and Joe Langhan, an executive producer at the Food Network, created “Emeril Live!,” which became the channel's signature series. Although Batali has moved on to other endeavors, Flay still appears regularly on many programs, including “Iron Chef America,” the channel's well-received remake of the original Japanese series. Iron Chef America's host, Alton Brown, gained a cult following for his “Good Eats,” which mixed science, cooking and off-beat humor. Later, the network had a series entitled "Ruggerio to Go" hosted by David Ruggerio.

In 2002, Food Network made an appeal to the home cook by adding “Paula's Home Cooking,” hosted by Paula Deen. “Home Cooking” focused mostly on Southern cuisine and comfort food. The show took overly complicated recipes and classic dishes and broke them down for the home cook. The show did increasingly well, and Deen revamped the show in a series called “Paula's Best Dishes.” In this series, friends and family members would join her in the kitchen and put a twist on classics and introduce new recipes. In June 2013, Food Network announced that they were not renewing Deen's contract due to publicity about her racial remarks revealed in a lawsuit brought on by a former worker.

Also in 2002, Ina Garten's show Barefoot Contessa aired. Garten is well-known for cookbooks, including The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, Barefoot Contessa Family Style and Barefoot Contessa in Paris. Garten was also mentored by Martha Stewart. Garten's show features her cooking for her husband or hosting friends at their home in the Hamptons, New York. Barefoot Contessa typically has about one million viewers per episode, and has received some of the highest ratings for Food Network.

Currently, the channel's biggest cross-over stars are Rachael Ray and Paula Deen, who have both taken their cable following — primarily through the series “30 Minute Meals,” “$40 a Day” and “Paula's Best Dishes” — into a syndicated talk show and “Positively Paula.” Both Paula Deen and Rachael Ray also have merchandise lines of cookware, food products and pet lines.

Beginning in 2005, an annual reality contest, “The Next Food Network Star,” brought viewers to New York City to compete for their own show on the channel. Previous winners include Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh (“Party Line with The Hearty Boys”), Guy Fieri (“Guy's Big Bite,” “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” “Guy Off the Hook,” “Ultimate Recipe Showdown,” “Guy's Big Night,” “Guy's Family Feast,” “Guy's Grocery Games”), Amy Finley (“The Gourmet Next Door”), Aaron McCargo, Jr. (“Big Daddy's House”), Melissa d'Arabian (“Ten Dollar Dinners”) and Aarti Sequeira (“Aarti Party”). For the 2010 season, production of “The Next Food Network Star” was relocated to Los Angeles. It has become the network's flagship show. For most of its 13-year run, season finales of the show have been followed by lead-out shows the network deems has great potential and will draw even more viewers. These consist of either premieres of new shows, season premieres of continuing shows or episodes of continuing shows that are significant to the schedule. For instance, the most recent season finale of Star was followed by the season premiere of “Beat Bobby Flay.”

In December 2007, The New York Times business section published an article on the end of Emeril Lagasse's show “Emeril Live!” and quoted Brooke Johnson, the president, as saying that Lagasse "remains a valued member of the Food Network family." Derek Baine, senior analyst at the media research firm SNL Kagan, is reported to have commented, "It's not surprising that people move on... They pay almost nothing for the people as they are building their careers... That's been their strategy all along." The article also commented on the declining popularity of the Food Network whose daily ratings were reported had fallen "to an average of 544,000 people from 580,000 a year [earlier]." It noted, "More significant, its signature weekend block of instructional programs, known collectively as 'In the Kitchen,' has lost 15% of its audience in the last year, to 830,000 viewers on average. This had left the network owing refunds, known as 'make goods,' to advertisers." Erica Gruen, president and CEO of the Food Network from 1996–1998 who created “Emeril Live!” during her tenure, was reported to have blamed the decline on increased competition, "There's all sorts of instructional cooking video on the web." But it reported that, "Bob Tuschman, Food Network's senior vice president for programming and production, said the weekend ratings drop was 'nothing we haven't anticipated'. He said the network's ratings in that time period grew by double digits in each of the last four years, growth that could not be sustained." It also wrote, "About a year ago, the Food Network began aggressively trying to change that with new deals that were 'way more onerous' from the stars' point of view, said a person who has been affected by the changing strategy, by insisting on a stake in book deals and licensing ventures, and control over outside activities.

Food Network properties in video games

Red Fly Studio developed a video game for the Wii console in partnership with Food Network called “Cook or Be Cooked.” The game, which was published by Namco Bandai Games and was released on November 3, 2009, simulates real cooking experiences. Players can also try out the recipes featured on the game. There is also a video game based on “Iron Chef America” entitled “Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine.” The PC game “Cooking Simulator” also has extended downloadable content branded with Food Network, including a kitchen which resembles a Food Network competitive cooking show's studio, complete with a studio audience section. This simulator was developed by Big Cheese studio and was released on October 24, 2019.

International variants

Some countries have their own Food Network. Examples include: Food Network Canada, Food Network Asia, Food Network Italy and Food Network Europe. In the second half of 2014, Food Network Brazil began broadcasting with programs fully dubbed in Portuguese and optional subtitles. On February 1, 2015, Food Network launched on Australian IPTV service Fetch TV. The channel launched in Latin America in March 2015 with full Spanish-dubbed programs.

A localized free-to-air Australian version was launched on November 17, 2015 by SBS, which had a licensing and programming output arrangement with Scripps. Another reiteration, the Seven Network's 7food network began broadcasting in December 2018 after SBS's deal ended in November 2018. After lower-than-expected ratings, 7food network closed on December 28, 2019, although select Food Network shows continued to air on sister network 7flix until December 1, 2020.

On December 1, 2018, Discovery Networks Asia Pacific rebranded its Food TV channel in New Zealand to a New Zealand version of Food Network. On February 3, 2021, Sky announced that Food Network will close in New Zealand and a selection of Food Network shows will be moved to its sister channel, Living. On March 1, 2021, the channel was replaced by Investigation Discovery.

Food Network was available in the Netherlands and Flanders between April 22, 2010 and January 31, 2019. Content from former Scripps television channels Travel Channel, Fine Living and Food Network has been integrated into the programming of Discovery, TLC and Investigation Discovery in the Benelux.

Celebrity chef Emeril Lagassé

Emeril Lagassé

Emeril John Lagassé III (born October 15, 1959) is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, cookbook author and National Best Recipe award winner for his "Turkey and Hot Sausage Chili" recipe in 2003. He is a regional James Beard Award winner, known for his mastery of Creole and Cajun cuisine and his self-developed "New New Orleans" style.

He has appeared on a wide variety of cooking TV shows, including the long-running Food Network shows “Emeril Live!” and “Essence of Emeril,” and is associated with several catchphrases, including "Kick it up a notch!" and "Bam!" Lagassé's portfolio of media, products and restaurants generates an estimated $150 million annually in revenue.

Lagassé was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, to a French-Canadian family from Quebec. His parents are Emeril John Lagassé, Jr. and a Portuguese mother, Hilda Medeiros. He worked in a Portuguese bakery as a teenager where he discovered his talent for cooking and subsequently enrolled in a culinary arts program at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School.

His talents as a percussionist earned him a scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music, but he chose instead to attend Johnson & Wales University in hopes of becoming a chef. He attended Johnson & Wales in 1978. Many years later, the school awarded him an honorary doctorate.

He became executive chef at the Dunfey's Hyannis Resort in 1979. He was nominated as Chef of the Year in 1983.

In 1982 Lagassé succeeded Paul Prudhomme as executive chef of Commander's Palace in New Orleans under Richard Brennan, Sr. He led the kitchen there for seven and a half years before leaving to open his own restaurant.

In 1990 he opened Emeril's in New Orleans. It was designated "Restaurant of the Year" in Esquire magazine that year, and has been a recipient of the Wine Spectator Grand Award since 1999. Many of his restaurants, as well as his corporate office, Emeril's Homebase, are located in New Orleans.

Lagassé is the executive chef and proprietor of thirteen restaurants in New Orleans, Las Vegas, Orlando and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

From 1993-1995 he was the original host of Food Network's “How to Boil Water.” After several appearances on several other Food Network programs, Lagassé hosted his own show, “Essence of Emeril.” "Essence" in the title refers to Emeril's Essence, the name of a spice blend of his own concoction that he frequently uses in his cooking which is commercially available in several flavors. He also often suggested that viewers of his show create their own spice blends that reflect their personal tastes and be unafraid to use them to customize the dishes he would teach.

In early 1997 “Emeril Live!” began production. Later that year, the show won a Cable Ace Award for "Best Informational Show" of 1997.

Lagassé was one of 16 chefs featured in the 1993 Julia Child series “Cooking With Master Chefs.” His style of cooking is called "New New Orleans" which uses local Louisiana ingredients in his own interpretation of Creole cuisine, strongly influenced by Asian, Portuguese, Southwestern and other cultures which themselves influence New Orleans cuisine.

The Emeril Lagassé Foundation has distributed more than $6 million in grants for children's charities. Projects funded by the Foundation include an outdoor classroom, gardens, fresh foods cafeteria and teaching kitchen at Edible Schoolyard New Orleans and the Orlando Junior Academy's Edible Schoolyard, as well as a new culinary kitchen house, an accessible learning kitchen for special needs students at St. Michael Special School — a four-year culinary arts program for high school students at New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, the Emeril Lagasse Foundation Hospitality Center at Café Reconcile and hospitality training at Liberty's Kitchen for at-risk youth preparing healthy school meals.

Ina Garten

Ina Rosenberg Garten (born February 2, 1948) is an American author, host of the Food Network program “Barefoot Contessa” and a former staff member of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Garten's mother-in-law bought her a subscription for the Time Life cookbooks series and influenced her. Later, she relied on intuition and feedback from friends and customers to refine her recipes. She was primarily mentored by Eli Zabar — owner of Eli's Manhattan and Eli's Breads — and food connoisseur Martha Stewart. Among her dishes are cœur à la crème, celery root remoulade, pear clafouti and a simplified version of beef bourguignon. Her culinary career began with her gourmet food store, Barefoot Contessa; Garten then expanded her activities to several best-selling cookbooks, magazine columns, self-branded convenience products and a popular Food Network television show.

Born Ina Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Stamford, Connecticut, Garten was one of two children born to Charles H. Rosenberg, a surgeon specializing in otolaryngology, and his wife, Florence (née Rich), a dietitian. Encouraged to excel in school, she showed an aptitude for science and has said she uses her scientific mindset while experimenting with recipes. Garten's mother — an intellectual with an interest in opera — discouraged Ina from helping in the kitchen, instead directing her towards schoolwork. Garten described her father as a socializer and admits she shares more characteristics with him than her mother.

At 15, she met her future husband Jeffrey Garten, on a trip to visit her brother at Dartmouth College. After high school, she attended Syracuse University but postponed her educational pursuits to marry.

On December 22, 1968, Jeffrey and Ina were married in Stamford and soon relocated to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She began to dabble in cooking and entertaining in an effort to occupy her time; Jeffrey served a four-year military tour during the Vietnam War. She also acquired her pilot's certificate. After her husband had completed his military service, the couple journeyed to Paris, France, for a four-month camping vacation; the trip sparked her love for French cuisine. During this trip, she was introduced to open-air markets, produce stands and fresh cooking ingredients. Upon returning to the U.S., she began to cultivate her culinary abilities by studying the volumes of Julia Child's influential cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” During this time, weekly dinner parties turned to tradition, and she refined her home entertaining skills when she and her husband moved to Washington, D.C. in 1972.

In Washington, Garten worked in the White House while earning an MBA at George Washington University; Jeffrey worked in the State Department, completing his graduate studies. Garten was originally employed as a low-level government aide and climbed the political ladder to the Office of Management and Budget. Eventually, she was assigned the position of budget analyst, which entailed writing the nuclear energy budget and policy papers on nuclear centrifuge plants for presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

Strained by the pressures of her work, Garten again turned to entertaining while also flipping homes for profit in the Dupont Circle and Kalorama neighborhoods. The profits from these sales gave Garten the means to make her next purchase, the Barefoot Contessa specialty food store. The store had been named by its original owner in tribute to the 1954 film starring Ava Gardner. Garten kept the name when she took over; it meshed well with her idea of an "elegant but earthy" lifestyle.

Garten established herself with her cookbooks and appearances on Martha Stewart's show, and then moved into the forefront in 2002 with the debut of her Food Network program. After the success of “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook” and “Barefoot Contessa Parties!,” Garten was approached by Food Network with an offer to host her own television cooking show. She rejected this proposal several times, until the London-based production company responsible for “Nigella Bites” was assigned to the deal. She acquiesced to a 13-show season, and “Barefoot Contessa” premiered in 2002 to a positive reception.

Her show features her husband and their friends and generally only hosts celebrities who are her friends. “Barefoot Contessa” has approximately one million viewers tuned in per episode and has posted some of Food Network's highest ratings.

In 2005, the show was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in the category of Best Service Show. In 2009, the show and Garten were once again nominated for Daytime Emmy Awards in the categories of Best Culinary Program and Best Culinary Host, and Garten won her first Emmy in the latter category.

That same year, Garten announced that she had signed a three-year contract with Food Network to continue her cooking show and will release two more cookbooks following “Barefoot Contessa at Home.” She was reportedly awarded the most lucrative contract for a culinary author to date, signing a multimillion-dollar deal for multiple books. She has also been approached several times to develop her own magazine, line of furniture, set of cookware and chain of boutiques, but has declined these offers, stating she has no interest in further complicating her life. Between 2004 and 2005, “Barefoot in Paris” sold almost 400,000 copies and rose to No. 11 on the New York Times bestseller list.

Celebrity chef Guy Fieri

Guy Fieri

Guy Ramsay Fieri (born January 22, 1968) is an American restaurateur, author and an Emmy Award-winning television presenter. He co-owns three restaurants in California, licenses his name to restaurants in New York City and Las Vegas, Nevada and is known for hosting various television series on the Food Network. By 2010, The New York Times reported that Fieri had become the "face of the network," bringing an "element of rowdy, mass-market culture to American food television" and that his "prime-time shows attract more male viewers than any others on the network."

Fieri was born Guy Ramsay Ferry on January 22, 1968, in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Penelope Anne (née Price) and Lewis James Ferry. He grew up in Ferndale in rural Humboldt County, California. During high school, he was a foreign exchange student in France, where he developed his interest in food and cooking.

Fieri began his association with food in grade school in Ferndale, by selling pretzels from his "Awesome Pretzel" cart and washing dishes to finance his trip to France to study. On his return to the United States, he worked at the restaurant Red Lion Inn in Eureka, California, until he went to Las Vegas for college. Fieri attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and graduated with a bachelor of science in hotel management in 1990. Soon after graduation, he went to work for Stouffer's, as manager of a Long Beach, California, restaurant called Parker's Lighthouse. After three years in southern California, he became district manager of Louise's Trattoria, managing six locations along with recruiting and training for the restaurants.

When Fieri got married in 1995, he changed his surname from Ferry to Fieri as an ode to his paternal grandfather, Giuseppe Fieri, an Italian immigrant who had anglicized his surname to Ferry upon his arrival in the United States.

After winning the second season of “The Next Food Network Star” on April 23, 2006, Fieri was awarded a six-episode commitment for his own cooking show on Food Network. “Guy's Big Bite” premiered on June 25, 2006 with the most recent episode airing on November 16, 2016.

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, his second series, premiered in April 2007 — a one-hour special aired in November 2006 — with Fieri traveling the country visiting local eateries. The New York Times called the series "not a cooking show as much as a carefully engineered reality show". “Ultimate Recipe Showdown,” co-hosted with Marc Summers, debuted on February 17, 2008, and aired for three seasons. On September 14, 2008, “Guy Off the Hook” debuted on Food Network. This special studio audience show aired through the end of 2008, but the extra cost of staging an audience show did not result in a ratings bump and the concept was discontinued. For Thanksgiving 2008, Fieri hosted a one-hour special titled “Guy's Family Feast.” He used the "Guy Off the Hook" set for the special, which was broadcast live, on November 28, 2008.

In December 2009, NBC named Fieri as the host of the game show “Minute to Win It,” which premiered in March 2010 and aired for two seasons. On May 13, 2012, NBC announced that the game show would not be renewed for a third season, citing high production costs and low ratings.

In January 2012, Fieri was one of the two team captains — along with Rachael Ray — in the Food Network reality series “Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off.” A second season of “Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off” began airing on Food Network on January 6, 2013. A chef challenge show, “Guy's Grocery Games,” started on October 27, 2013, on the Food Network. It features four cooks who battle through three rounds and are judged by three judges.

His latest series, “Guy's Family Road Trip,” was chosen as the 2017 lead-out show from season 13 of Food Network Star. It previewed on August 13 of that year.