Fox has announced that Kitchen Nightmares, a previously announced 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, will air as part of the network's Fall 2007 primetime programming schedule.
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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.
Unfortunately for Ramsay, Fox will air Kitchen Nightmares in the most competitive time period on broadcast television -- the Thursdays at 9PM ET/PT time period where CBS and ABC's top-rated CSI and Grey's Anatomy dramas already air. Kitchen Nightmares will have one thing going for it -- Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, the new Mark Burnett game show that has enjoyed some ratings success in its current Thursdays at 8PM ET/PT time period, will remain in the same time period this fall and serve as Kitchen Nightmares' lead-in.
Kitchen Nightmares, first announced in early January, is an American adaptation of the Hell's Kitchen star's British Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares reality series. The series -- which mixes Ramsay's fiery passion with a softer, nurturing side -- made its British premiere in April 2004 and has since won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for Best Feature at the British Academy Television Awards in 2005 as well as the 2006 International Emmy for best non-scripted entertainment.
Kitchen Nightmares began production in February and is being produced by Granada America, Optomen Television and A. Smith & Co. Arthur Smith, Pat Llewellyn, Kent Weed, Gerry McKean and Curt Northrup will serve as the show's executive producers.
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The third season of Hell's Kitchen -- Ramsay's other Fox reality series -- that will follow 12 wannabe chefs and restaurateurs as they compete to become head chef at a new Italian restaurant at the Green Valley Ranch Resort, Spa and Casino in Las Vegas, will premiere on Monday, June 4 at 9PM ET/PT.
In addition to Kitchen Nightmares, Fox's Fall 2007 schedule will also include two other reality shows -- The Search for the Next Great American Band, the network's new recently announced American Idol-like reality competition series that will do just what its overly wordy title implies; and 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. American Band is scheduled to air on Fridays at 8PM ET/PT immediately followed by Nashville at 9PM ET/PT.
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio