Tuesday, May 6
Finally the Truth: No Season 2 for Gourmet Next Door
After many months of speculation, vague half-answers, and downright uncertainty, Amy Finley--season 3 winner of The Next Food Network Star--has finally come forth and said that there will be no more new episodes of her show, The Gourmet Next Door.
"I will not be back for another season. The producers offered me more shows, but with my family I decided it was time to move on to other projects," writes Amy on the new Where Are They Now section of NFNS's site.
"The lifestyle and obligations of a television personality – including cultivating the thick skin it takes to survive the harsh criticism and vicious personal attacks mounted by bloggers – just aren’t compatible with my goals or my family at this time."
Vicious personal attacks mounted by bloggers?!?! Surely she couldn't be referring to this post or this picture. I actually thought Amy's show ended up being pretty good, but it looks like her heart wasn't in it from the beginning:
"It’s hard to hold two conflicting emotions simultaneously: Happy for myself – though also terrified – and guilty because I felt I didn’t deserve to win. It was a very bittersweet victory. By the time I was announced the winner, family issues had also helped me determine that working in television was not going to be in my future."
Ummm... so you already asked to go home once, but stayed on. Then JAG dropped out and you were brought back. You still wanted to go home, but were then announced the winner. Crazy!
Too bad. I wish Amy, who's currently living in a small village in France, the best in all her future projects. Sorry it didn't work out!
"I will not be back for another season. The producers offered me more shows, but with my family I decided it was time to move on to other projects," writes Amy on the new Where Are They Now section of NFNS's site.
"The lifestyle and obligations of a television personality – including cultivating the thick skin it takes to survive the harsh criticism and vicious personal attacks mounted by bloggers – just aren’t compatible with my goals or my family at this time."
Vicious personal attacks mounted by bloggers?!?! Surely she couldn't be referring to this post or this picture. I actually thought Amy's show ended up being pretty good, but it looks like her heart wasn't in it from the beginning:
"It’s hard to hold two conflicting emotions simultaneously: Happy for myself – though also terrified – and guilty because I felt I didn’t deserve to win. It was a very bittersweet victory. By the time I was announced the winner, family issues had also helped me determine that working in television was not going to be in my future."
Ummm... so you already asked to go home once, but stayed on. Then JAG dropped out and you were brought back. You still wanted to go home, but were then announced the winner. Crazy!
Too bad. I wish Amy, who's currently living in a small village in France, the best in all her future projects. Sorry it didn't work out!
Labels: Amy Finley, food network, Next Food Network Star
posted by jacob @ 10:10 PM
23 Comments:
The Next Food Network Star is an entertaining show in itself, but, let's be honest, none of the contestants have ever had the cooking talent and tv charisma to be a breakout FN chef.
That's too bad--I liked her show and thought it was a refreshing change from a lot of the shrieking and flailing that goes on with the FN hosts.
I just hope that the fact that the public selected Amy--in spite of the Network's (and, it seems, her own) best efforts--teaches them that their audience would rather see more chefs with qualifications than "personalities" with "quirks."
I really wish we could have seen what Rory's show would've been like. :/
I agree strongly with Jordan Baker's posting but the current ethic of television cooking shows (or, more accurately, food shows)favors "quirks" over "qualifications" on cable tv (as opposed to PBS). I can only imagine how Julia Child would have been savaged if she had started her television career on FN. She would have been portrayed as a huge, horsey bluestocking with a falsetto voice and "elitist" attitudes about French food - all of the things we loved about her.
Ug. It looks like NFNS isn't such a great finder of talent. "The Hardy Boys"? Please! "The Gourmet Next Door"? I saw it only once. And I enjoy Guy better on "Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives" than I do on his regular cooking show.
Give the woman credit for her honesty. Not everyone needs to become a TV media star . I happened to like her show and thought she could do much bigger things with it.
I think this also shows you that she is quite smart as well. She knows that FN honchos would make every attempt to saturate the world with her, then discard when her purpose was finished.
Good on her for telling the FN to shove off. Maybe she can get a show on PBS where the standards are different and she wouldn't be subjected to some of the nonsense that FN people are asked to carry out.
hmmm... family issues. i heard this whole story about how her husband left her because he didn't want her to be on TNFNS then came back once she won or something crazy like that...
Hey, Tiffany, you don't think Guy Fieri(winner of TNFNS2)has charisma? Or Dan and Steve who won TNFNS1? Maybe you're not watching Discovery Health Channel or FitTV, which air Nathan Lyon's series, "A Lyon in the Kitchen."
He placed fourth in TNFNS2. I think he has a pretty good show.
bonne chance, chere Amy.
Jeff--it's the double combo that's missing for me. Guy Fieri has big personality and I enjoy him on the Diners and the Ultimate Recipe/TGIFriday's commercial shows, but his cooking show was a mess. He's a tv personality not a tv cook.
It's the exact opposite with The Hearty Boys. They make (made? is it still on?) good food on their show, but they're fairly dull to watch. I actually liked their low-key show, but it was clear that it wasn't going to be a hit on a network loaded with Paula Deens, Pachael Rays and Emerils.
It seems obvious that the FN doesn't have much faith in TNFNS winner as well since it seem to stick the shows at dead time slots and barely advertise them.
What it comes down to is: Times have changed. From my understanding, Bobby Flay and Mario Batali and Emeril all pretty much sucked -- and admit they sucked -- when they first started. But go back 10-12 years ago with a small audience and they were allowed to grow.
To put it another way (or two) if Flay started today, with the same age and inexperience he started with over a decade ago, he wouldn't last a season or be who he is. He might not make it on the "Food Network for Today."
By the same criteria, if someone like Amy started 10 years ago and was allowed to learn and grow slowly into it, who knows, in that "alternate timeline" she might be the female Iron Chef of today.
In short, we'll never know, because those opportunities aren't there anymore. At least not at FN they aren't.
Guy Fee'Eddie. Charisma ?? Are you nuts ?
"By the same criteria, if someone like Amy started 10 years ago and was allowed to learn and grow slowly into it, who knows, in that "alternate timeline" she might be the female Iron Chef of today.
In short, we'll never know, because those opportunities aren't there anymore. At least not at FN they aren't."
Actually reading the article, it appears that FN did want to keep Amy on for a second season, but other factors in her life led her to decline the offer. A silver lining in this is that if FN offered her a second season, then the ratings must have been good enough to keep the advertisers who pay FNs bills happy. So in a sense Amy's show did succeed in the new FN era. It was the host, not the network, that decided not to continue.
Remember George Duran? He produced MTV's House of Style before going to France to study at culinary school. Upon graduation, he became a host of a cooking show on French TV. Later, he came back to host "Ham on the Street," and "The Secret Life of...". Maybe Amy will follow the same route and come back to TV somewhere.
Anomymous, I cede your point. :)
I enjoyed Amy's show and am disappointed it did not work out for her. But I understand her feelings. In today's world of TV "personalities" (either pro or non pro) being held to a higher standard, people/bloggers can be so very shallow...ooops, I mean cruel.
Good grief, I watched Molto Mario from his very first shows - wow, what a disaster. But look at him now! Same for Flay.
I too agree that if the times were different, perhaps Amy would be a big wig on the FN. Oh well. But this is why I have lost sooooo much interest in the FN and where it is going today...
To see where FN started and evolved into, and now there is too much Party time (how emberasing to Paula), Diners (diners on the Food Network??) that and Guy dude, cakes that look totally unedible, and other "silly reality type shows"...so very sad.
I wish Amy all the luck in the world and will miss her and her show. I got some wonderful and simple recipes from her show -- thanks Amy!
That is pretty said when you are brought down by a bloggers criticism. Her show was pretty decent and had potential...it is really too bad but obviously she isn't cut out for the life of a tv star.
I thought she was, in her own words, a "fighter"? How much fight did she actually have in her if she ran away to France to hide from a bunch of bloggers? I mean, come on. France?
Neither Adrian nor Rory would have run away...
Iam a big Food Network fan and I thought from the get go this show
was terrible, the food wasn't that good and she certainly didn't have
what it takes to be a tv cook. Iam glad it's off the air, it took up good tv air time.
if you notice they do not let the home audiance decide the winners anymore
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