NBC has revealed the identities of the three chefs and nine celebrities that will be appearing on Celebrity Cooking Showdown, the reality cooking competition series that it will air over five consecutive nights beginning Monday, April 17 at 9PM ET/PT
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Produced by Sean "Diddy" Combs and Reveille, the production company responsible for reality shows like The Biggest Loser, Nashville Star, and Blow Out, each of Celebrity Cooking Showdown's first three episodes will feature chefs Wolfgang Puck, Cat Cora, and Govind Armstrong coaching one of the nine celebrities through a crash-course "culinary boot camp," after which the three celebrities will compete to prepare their own three-course dream meal. Colin Cowie and New York magazine restaurant critic Gael Greene serve as the show's studio judges.
"Cooking shows have commanded huge ratings around the world, and we can't wait to bring this exciting new competitive format to primetime network TV," Reveille CEO Ben Silverman -- who had also partnered with reality uber-producer Mark Burnett on 2004's failed The Restaurant series -- stated in NBC's announcement.
The winner of each of the first three cookoffs will advance to the Thursday night show, were the three celebrity finalists will face-off in the final cookoff. After the broadcast, home viewers will vote on the meal's presentation, resulting in Friday's broadcast in which the viewers' vote and those of the studio judges will be combined and the competition's winner will be revealed.
The nine celebrities who will be competing in the pre-filmed competition are:
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• NFL football star Tony Gonzalez, Days of Our Lives actress Alison Sweeney, and model Cindy Margolis (Night 1)
• Singer Patti LaBelle, MTV reality TV star Ashley Parker Angel, and volleyball player-turned-model Gabrielle Reece (Night 2)
• Actor Tom Arnold, country singer Big Kenny, and reigning Miss USA Chelsea Cooley (Night 3)
Former Growing Pains star Alan Thicke will serve as Celebrity Cooking Showdown's host.