Friday, February 19
The Cooking Channel Will Kind of Be About Cooking
The Cooking Channel, Scripps Networks' new channel replacing Fine Living, will debut on Memorial Day, May 31. And, surprise, it's not going to be a cooking channel!
Gotcha!
The New York Times reports that "[i]n recent months, Scripps has altered its plans for the second channel to include more entertaining fare." (READ: It's just gonna be Food Network 2)
Instruction-loving Food Network fans will surely be disappointed to find out that the The Cooking Channel, at least in it's original retooling from Fine Living, will probably not end up being as instruction-based as it was once billed.
"We listened to the audience and realized they weren’t necessarily saying they just wanted more instruction or more reality or more travel shows. They just wanted more," said Michael Smith, the general manager of the Cooking Channel.
The Times also has the scoop on new shows by Rachael Ray and Bobby Flay (one titled "Brunch With Bobby"), as well as imports from Food Network Canada, which I'm excited about.
Sooooo... are y'all excited for The Cooking Channel?!?! ("cooking" referring to travel shows, reality show competitions, and the like, of course.) ;-)
***************************
I'm not usually one to complain about "entertaining fare," since that's basically why I watch Food Network. Even the instructional cooking shows on Food Network are entertainment to me. There's nothing better than a vintage Semi-Homemade or Barefoot Contessa to set the weekend right, right?
But I'm still kind of surprised by this announced changeup before the channel even premieres. Maybe Food Network 2 would have been a better (more honest) name from the beginning?
Gotcha!
The New York Times reports that "[i]n recent months, Scripps has altered its plans for the second channel to include more entertaining fare." (READ: It's just gonna be Food Network 2)
Instruction-loving Food Network fans will surely be disappointed to find out that the The Cooking Channel, at least in it's original retooling from Fine Living, will probably not end up being as instruction-based as it was once billed.
"We listened to the audience and realized they weren’t necessarily saying they just wanted more instruction or more reality or more travel shows. They just wanted more," said Michael Smith, the general manager of the Cooking Channel.
The Times also has the scoop on new shows by Rachael Ray and Bobby Flay (one titled "Brunch With Bobby"), as well as imports from Food Network Canada, which I'm excited about.
Sooooo... are y'all excited for The Cooking Channel?!?! ("cooking" referring to travel shows, reality show competitions, and the like, of course.) ;-)
***************************
I'm not usually one to complain about "entertaining fare," since that's basically why I watch Food Network. Even the instructional cooking shows on Food Network are entertainment to me. There's nothing better than a vintage Semi-Homemade or Barefoot Contessa to set the weekend right, right?
But I'm still kind of surprised by this announced changeup before the channel even premieres. Maybe Food Network 2 would have been a better (more honest) name from the beginning?
Labels: Bobby Flay, food network, Rachael Ray, The Cooking Channel
posted by jacob @ 9:42 AM
7 Comments:
Let me read between the lines of the quote from the PR hack:
"We polled our advertisers and felt like they wouldn't support just instructional cooking shows."
It's not about the viewers, kids. Trust me.
No surprise.
Food Network is having some of their highest ratings ever with all the reality and competition shows. PBS' cooking channel can only dream of having FN's ratings.
Why mess with success?
Even if "The Cooking Channel" had started with instruction-based shows, I'm pretty sure it would have ended up like the "MTV/MTV2" channels.
MTV wasn't playing music videos anymore, so they started a MTV2 to show videos, but slowly it ended up like MTV, nothing but reality shows.
I'm sure the same thing would have happened to "FN/FN2"
Thank God for PBS. You can have your stupid reality shows and Duff Goldman/Guy Ferry freak shows that entertain reprobate youngsters.
It's a shame that Scripps can't make one of their food related channels concentrate on actual cooking shows, but I'm most concerned about the future of Zane Lamprey's show, "Three Sheets". After Comcast made the idiotic decision to discontinue MOJO. Three Sheets was relegated to low-def letterbox on FLN, which Scripps apparently felt didn't deserve an HD channel. Well, if the Cooking Channel doesn't make room for the show, let's hope they are smart enough to move it over to Travel Channel.
Yep love PBS and discovery and create. Great cooking! Not 12 commercials and people with their screaming and bands!!!! Can we please just learn to cook.
Yeah, I have to agree. PBS gets my food viewing now. Lidia Bastianich can cook circles around Giada...and she's got the bust to seriously pull off a low-cut top. Haha!
I definitely prefer PBS's cooking shows, like America's Test Kitchen and Rick Bayless. I just wish I didn't have to wait all week for the shows on the weekend!
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