Chef Appeal
thirty minutes, ineptitude at baking—even a tendency to burn toast. . . giggle,
giggle.
Yet Ray’s triumph is an exception to a meaningful mle. Throughout its
history, chef-centered programs have precipitated the biggest gains in TVFN’s
overall viewership. The first big boost is associated with chef Lagasse, initially
with The Essence oj Emeril and subsequently Emeril Live. Interviews with Food
Network representatives frequently cite Lagasse as the one who put the Network
on the TV map and even kept it on track in the early years before the Network
hit its stride with the rest of its lineup. Emeril Live's launch was positively
rocket-like. When TVFN established a hotline for giving away tickets to a live
taping in the fall of 1997, 50,000 people called in 22 minutes. The Network was
overwhelmed with 500,000 ticket requests in the show’s first season. As of this
writing, the site www.foodnetwork.com warns those who want tickets to Emeril
Live that they must submit to a yearly lottery and be accommodated as seats
become available.
The next spike in the Food Network’s audience can be credited to Iron
Chef. One and a half million tuned in to the June 2000 match between Bobby
Flay and Masaharu Morimoto, over four times the viewers for an average Food
Network show. Immediately afterward, chef Flay’s Food Nation went on to
surpass Emeril Live and become TVFN’s top-rated series for the third quarter of
2000. Iron C/?£^/'was still counted among the Network’s highest-rated shows in
2002 and, in 2004, when Iron Chef America was introduced with a weekendlong series entitled Battle of the Masters, the station experienced its highest
ratings to date. For the Sunday finale of the special series, 1.3 million viewers
paid attention.
What’s more, it is the chef-centered shows that have largely been
responsible for the widening of TVFN’s audiences. Throughout the Network’s
history, it has consistently drawn mainly college-educated, affluent, urban adults
25 to 54, typically of dual-income households with kids. What expansions there
are have occurred in the number of men and younger viewers. For example, in
1997, more than half the Network’s audience consisted of women, but by 2002,
the audience was evenly split by gender among adults 25 to 54. In 2004, the
fastest growing sector of the audience was 18 to 34. The introduction of chefcentered shows such as Emeril Live (1997), Iron Chef (\999), The Naked Chef
(2002, featuring Jamie Oliver), and A Cook's Tour (2002, with Anthony
Bourdain) were shortly followed by these demographic expansions and have
been cited in media reports as their principal triggers. Astonishingly, as of 2004,
Lagasse’s fans were primarily men 30 and over, followed by children 5 to 15,
and only then women. In light of these audience gains, 1 am not surprised that,
by the summer 2006, promotion of three new shows with the Network’s
manliest titles yet. Throwdown with Bobby Flay, Feasting on Asphalt, and Guy's
Big Bite sound compensatory to me.
That the circle of people interested in chefs has widened is also evident
in the spread of chef-centered programs beyond TVFN and the other usual