Fox has announced the premiere of Kitchen Nightmares, a new reality series that will follow sharp-tongued British Hell's Kitchen chef Gordon Ramsay as he travels across America and helps restaurants in crisis.
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Unfortunately for Ramsay, the Thursdays at 9PM ET/PT time period -- already home to CBS and ABC's top-rated CSI and Grey's Anatomy dramas -- is the most competitive on broadcast television. However, Kitchen Nightmares will have one thing going for it -- Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, the Mark Burnett-created game show that has enjoyed some ratings success in its current Thursdays at 8PM ET/PT time period and will remain in the same time period and serve as Kitchen Nightmares' lead-in this fall.
Each one-hour Kitchen Nightmares episode will see Ramsay visit a different struggling American food establishment. After arriving at the restaurant in crisis, Ramsay will motivate the owners and bully the kitchen's brigade in an attempt to reverse the fortunes of each struggling restaurant in just one week. Whether he'll save them from their current nightmare or just create a new one will depend on how the establishment's lazy cooks and moody wait staff respond.
Kitchen Nightmares, which was first announced in January and is an American adaptation of the Hell's Kitchen star's British Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares reality series, has already garnered some attention for its format.
Last month, Martin Hyde, the former general manager of Dillons Indian restaurant in Manhattan's theater district, filed a lawsuit requesting a judge block the broadcast of the episode he appears in due to the negative image Kitchen Nightmares depicts both he and the eatery in. Hyde apparently loses his job in the episode at Ramsay's request.
In addition to Kitchen Nightmares, Fox also announced Nashville -- a new Laguna Beach-like docu-reality series that will follow a group of young people trying to make their mark in Nashville's music industry -- will premiere Friday, September 14 at 9PM ET/PT. Following Fox's coverage of Major League Baseball's 2007 playoffs in October, the network also plans to air The Search for the Next Great American Band -- a new American Idol-like reality competition series that will do just what its overly wordy title implies -- as a lead-in for Nashville on Fridays at 8PM ET.
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio
