Gordon Ramsay is one of the busiest chefs in the business. I honestly have no idea how he has time to cook at one of his restaurants because he’s a part of SO many TV shows: “Hell’s Kitchen”, “Masterchef”, “Masterchef Junior” and “Hotel Hell” (the American version of “Kitchen Nightmares” also ran for 7 years on FOX). This summer, he’s filling FOX’s Wednesday night lineup with a new season of “Masterchef” at 8, followed by his new LIVE series “The F Word” at 9.
“The F Word”, which debuted on May 31, is essentially Gordon Ramsay’s version of a talk show – and could be his audition for a legitimate one. The concept is based on a show of the same name that Ramsay did in England from 2005-2010. It’s a cooking competition, with two teams making food for dozens of restaurant guests. The team who receives the most positive feedback from the guests wins the night and gets the chance to return at the end of the season to compete for $100,000.
But there are also celebrity guests in the restaurant that Ramsay interviews and plays games with. So far they’ve included Jamie Foxx (promoting “Baby Driver” and “Beat Shazam”), Leslie Jones (just days before she hosted The BET Awards) and Joel McHale. “The F Word” has also aired taped cooking segments with Ramsay and celebs such as Katy Perry, Kevin Spacey, James Corden and Andy Cohen. More taped segments are featured during the hour, including Ramsay attempting Guinness World Records, dressing-up in characters to attend focus groups, and scuba-diving deep into the ocean.
And while its ratings haven’t been stellar, averaging 2.43 million viewers an episode so far, that number is just about what the average daytime talk show brings-in each day. And when you add in the 7-Day DVR viewership, its average jumps up to 3 million.
I’m not sure if doing a show like “The F Word” every day is in Gordon Ramsay’s future (simply based on scheduling), but as a weekly summertime filler, it’s like comfort food – mixed with that frenetic, brutally honest Gordon Ramsay energy.