Clash of ill-tempered British chefs: advantage, Ramsay

Gordon Ramsay

A couple of weeks ago we told you about a brewing battle between “Hell’s Kitchen” star Gordon Ramsay and his former teacher and nemesis, Marco-Pierre White. White was given his own cooking competition reality show on NBC – clearly a knock-off of Ramsay’s show. Well, it looks like viewers only have room for one grouchy British chef in their hearts- and on their TiVOs. White’s show, “Chopping Block,” was canceled after only three episodes. As Chef Ramsay would say, “GET OUT!!”

NBC is pulling cooking competition series “Chopping Block” from primetime after three weeks, sources say.

The network informed affiliates tonight the reality series starring renowned chef Marco Pierre White will be removed from Wednesday’s lineup.

NBC is fortunate to have Jay Leno’s 10 p.m. talk show in the fall considering how many slots are getting cleared out this season. Including “Chopping Block,” six series are not returning — “Knight Rider,” “My Own Worst Enemy,” “Crusoe,” “Lipstick Jungle” and “ER.” A couple midseason reality shows, “Superstars of Dance” and “Momma’s Boys,” are likely gone. Four others are looking pale and shaky — “Friday Night Lights,” “Kath & Kim,” “Life” and “Kings.”

“Block” will be replaced with repeats of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” (not to be confused with the upcoming “CI” episodes that first aired on USA Network which will make their broadcast debut starting April 29. Until then, these are repeats of the “CI” episodes that aired on NBC last year — repeats of repeats, in other words).

The cooking competition debuted modestly on March 12, then fell in the ratings with each episode. Sources say NBC plans to run air the remaining episodes at some point. “Block” is survived on Wednesday nights by crime dramas “Life” and “Law & Order.”

[From The Live Feed]

You know your show sucks when NBC thinks old reruns of “Law and Order” will get better ratings. I wonder if Ramsay finally feels vindicated now that he’s more of a commercial success than his old mentor? Supposedly, White once made Ramsay cry when he was a young culinary student. Looks like Ramsay learned everything he knew from White – and then some.

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9 Responses to “Clash of ill-tempered British chefs: advantage, Ramsay”

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  1. Mairead says:

    There are a number of other chefs who basically say your last line, but it’s not meant as a compliment to Ramsay – Anthony Worral Thompson for instance thinks Ramsay is a pr*** who knows nothing about food but picked up a lot from MPW.

    I don’t get the point of not showing a full run of the programme – I know it’s commercial television, but still, they’re the ones who approved it and commissioned it. Personally I think moving it to a different timeslot would be more practical.

  2. Ryo says:

    It wasn’t great but I watched. Ramsay’s shows, both over here and abroad, are 100 times better, but I liked this one too.

  3. ChristinaT says:

    i dislike this guy, along with simon cowell… people who make a living based on being rude aholes kinda make me sick

  4. lilred says:

    Love Hells Kitchen

  5. Zoe (The Other One) says:

    I wish MPW would wash. He looks so unsavoury covered in all that grease.

  6. Kelly says:

    Hell’s Kitchen is over the top, and I find it hard to watch because, frankly, who likes getting yelled at? I’d still live with my mother if that was the case.

    A much more palatable (no pun intended) version of Ramsay is on his Kitchen Nightmares show. He gets testy and he swears like a sailor, but you don’t get the impression it’s an act, like you do on HK.

  7. Grandizer says:

    Hahahahaha!!!!

    As I said weeks ago, his show would not be picked up for another season…

    And I don’t know why people think he is stealing from Ramseys shows, he isn’t he is stealing Last Restaurant Standing.
    A far better show than Chopping Block.
    But not as good as ANY of Ramseys shows.

  8. lavender1960 says:

    Ramsay is even quite sweet on the British version of the show Kitchen Nightmares as clearly the US show is amped up for the dramatics. I have found that British restaurant owners tend to be more passive aggressive and a few shows Ramsay has really liked the chef, it was the the owners and other staffers that were the problem.

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