davidh777

Just watched the last two episodes and was floored to see Matthew booted in favor of Rusty. Maybe the judges preferred Rusty's honest reaction to memories of his father rather than Matthew's phony smoothness (and he failed to tie that presentation to himself).

It's Jason's to lose at this point.

Abob Teff

Agreed on all points ... it blows my mind Rusty made the final 3. My mind was even more blown that Matthew was cut at that point. I hate to say it, and my wife swore at me when I said this, but that emotional response from Matthew almost - ALMOST - made me feel a bit sad for him. However, he has always come off as a bionic jerk with no authenticity. Finally seeing some real emotion was different.

Deftones

Yeah, I sort of felt the same way. He's a jackass, but you could tell he was really working hard to get a show. I felt bad for him. Rusty had zero reason to be there. I do agree david, that's it is Jason's to lose. I think food-wise, Cory has everyone beat, but he's just so terrible on camera.

DWilson

Rusty shouldn't have made Final Three, but FN always likes his type for the third place (but will never win) slot. He's the type of guy I call "My Neighbor's Husband", the earthy regular guy, -the Kevin James sort.

Matthew would have a better shot if he were ten years older, -that's closer to FN's demo, and certainly what got Corey where he's at (besides any cooking skills).

Deftones

They really screwed Jason with his pilot. Completely out of his element. Much harder to tie in his POV to French food than the other guys to what they got. I wonder if they did that purposely to see how he would fare since he was the odds on favorite. Good choice since was clearly the most entertaining.

DWilson

As everyone figured, Jason won, and I'll be curious to see how they use him, or if he'll get a show out of this. Last year's winner, Trageye, has apparently only made fleeting appearances on one of their Daytime "group" shows. He'll probably be a guest on one of their Baking comps.

I was surprised that Rusty was the runner-up, though it really didn't matter. I thought his pilot was awful. He shouted through most of it, and the "guest" looked uncomfortable. For that matter, by the end of the hour, all the clips had me kind of tired of Jason's schtik, and the phrases felt more contrived and less organic.It's kind of a shame they've abandoned giving them "pilots" that are an actual pilot, rather than the kind of "local color" pieces you see on your city's noon news. I guess Dameris was the last to get a pilot that essentially became the show she fronts.

davidh777

My college French skills were laughing at his butchering all the pronunciations. But he does it in a charming way so it works.

I thought Rusty's and Corey's pilots were pretty good as far as covering the food and stuff, but yeah, Rusty yelled as he always does, and Corey got into the weird dating thing.

This show is in a weird spot because it wants to be Top Chef, but the winner doesn't actually cook anymore, so it would seem to make more sense to favor people who are good on camera rather than someone like Corey who can cook but not present. Maybe that should be more of a factor in the elimination process than it is.

james2025a

I have seen literally 4 mins of two episodes of this show and just from those short bits i could tell that guy (Jason i believe reading from the comments and a quick google image search) was gonna win. That fat southern female judge was fawning all over him on both occasions. I did see this guy on one of the baking shows at one point and i think even another show on the Food Network, so it seemed clear to me that some higher ups at the channel had a major hard on for this guy and were determined to make him a staple of the channel. The little i have seen of him annoyed the shit out of me. I truly despise the southern yokel bullshit and trying hard to be quirky.

On a side note, whilst watching something on this network with my wife the other day i made two observations. One is that Guy whatshisname must have some serious dirt on the channel execs as that loud annoying dipshit seems to be all over it. Secondly, there are literally no programs anymore where they actually teach people recipes and how to cook. Its all competitions and and trips to restaurants (with Guy stuffing his fat fucking face).

DWilson

I imagine if there were money to be made with programs that taught people how to cook, they'd be showing them in primetime. There's a certain amount of instructive value in the lifestyle-oriented shows they run primarily during the day.
Recent seasons of "Star" have been predominately cast with talent that have previously appeared on one or more FN shows, -you could say it's an audition and I have no problem with that.

Fieri and Bobby Flay still pull ratings for the network, or you wouldn't see so much of them.

Clearly, though, they're constantly throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks. A year ago they tried to run an Andy Richter show that was essentially a rip-off of NBC's "Hollywood Game Night" and they ended up burning it off at 3am. "Cutthroat Kitchen" was prominent on their schedule for a while, and now they're done with it. They're trying to revive "Iron Chef", one of their signature shows.

davidh777

Jason is going to be a judge on Best Baker in America starting at the end of the month.

On a side note, my kid is a fan of YouTube sensation Hannah Hart so we've been watching her new show, I Hart Food. It's basically the kind of Guy Fieri-type show that they want the FNS winners to do: she visits a city per episode and tries their food while coming up with different ways to say "delicious" (in her case, by adding a lot of puns). She'll "demonstrate" one of the dishes in about 20 seconds of kitchen time. It's watchable because Hart is charming as hell, but it's definitely not a cooking show.

Abob Teff

Didn't know Cutthroat Kitchen had been axed. It had charm and I liked it, but it ran thin pretty quick (as most of those competitions do).

I've never disliked Guy Fieri until his family vacations became TV shows and he started shoving his kids down our throats. I guess he is the Will Smith of the food/tv industry.

lwhy?

Has anyone heard anything about a new season of Food Network Star? It usually premieres in late May or June, but I can't find anything about it. I didn't know if it was cancelled and just not publicized. The new season of The Great Food Truck Race is premiering on June 9th.It usually doesn't air until after Food Network Star ends.