After only three weeks, NBC has cancelled The Chopping Block, its food reality show starring British chef Marco Pierre White. Before the show’s debut, I compared its premise to that of Last Restaurant Standing, which I noted makes my eyes glaze over. Apparently I’m not alone.
In today’s New York Times, Alessandra Stanley takes a stab at dissecting why the show flopped. While it remains fashionable among the snark set to snicker at her inaccuracies, on one point she is absoutely correct: following a trend doesn’t work as well as starting one. (Or as she puts it, “Reality-come-lately rarely works.”) She also blames White for being too bland in a reality show world dominated by Gordon Ramsay, who was his protege.
There are also the realities of broadcast TV versus the looser world of cable but Stanley falls into the easy trap — and I’ve been there too — of assuming New York’s reality is America’s reality. She credits a sophisticated audience for the success of cable’s Top Chef, saying Bravo “caters to a narrow but devoted demographic with highfalutin tastes and insider knowledge.”
That might be who Bravo caters to, and who’s watching in Manhattan, but the reality is that a sizable portion of Top Chef’s viewers around the country are drawn by reality tv drama and the celebuchef guest judges. Those viewers are more likely to serve guests a casserole than an amuse bouche. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but let’s be clear: America has a culture of celebrity and while White is known at home, he’s not prominent here among the millions who are needed for a large audience and success by broadcast, not cable, standards.
NBC should have known that. Didn’t they learn anything from Fred Silverman?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Ha! I am pleased.
Your critique of Stanley’s analysis is well-taken. All she had to do is browse the many episode recaps of TC floating around the Web to see that many – if not most? – viewers tune in for the melodrama, not the rarefied approach to the subject. If Stanley really thinks Bravo’s viewers represent a “demographic with highfalutin tastes and insider knowledge,” she’s clearly unfamiliar with the network and its offerings. Shear Genius, Workout, Real Housewives? Stanley’s analysis=fail. Time to discard the NYC-centric viewpoint, Alessandra.
As for White: Cancellation looks good on him.
Phil Barron’s last blog post..Let’s just hollow out the city
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Phil. I know from friends in real life and from reading boards and especially from the Top Chef-related search terms that bring people here what really interests people about that show and it’s not the food. Bravo knows that. And speaking of Shear Genius, when they built a new show around a contestant, was it a winner? No, a loser…who was the bitchiest of them all.
And to think it wasn’t too many years ago Bravo was known for Biography!