MARCO PIERRE WHITE
It turns out that while imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, it doesn’t always equate to success. After just three weeks on the air, NBC has decided to cancel the Marco Pierre White “Top Chef-ish” incarnation, Chopping Block. The show has come in last place against all the major networks in the past two weeks and this week only averaged 2.6 million viewers. The network will instead run Law & Order reruns in the time slot until a replacement is found. Sidebar, does anyone else realize that Law & Order has been on for 19 years? Not that I feel old or anything. Ok, maybe a little.
Following suit of hit shows like Hell’s Kitchen and Top Chef, NBC debut its own incarnation tonight (March 11th) called The Chopping Block. Those of you whom have been sitting in a depression induced comatose since the season finale of Top Chef are saved.
Hosted by Chef Marco Pierre White (who is as well known in Britain as his former protégé, Gordon Ramsay) the show offers a refreshing new format. The two teams of 16 contestants are made up of pairs — married couples, siblings, mothers and daughters — and they all have hard-luck stories and financial hurdles that lend a virtuous streak to their quests to open restaurants in New York. Kind of invokes that movie cliché’ of the Midwestern girl who packs it all up and moves to the big city in search of her dreams! Wait, no maybe, it definitely does. Where I typically expect white uniform donned snarling chefs, I find that NBC’s franchise lends itself to a more “The Biggest Loser” persona - with constant flashbacks and over the top montages of tears and triumph. Sigh. As corny as it sounds, it all actually works together in a batch of warm gooey reality TV goodness.
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