Celebrity Cooking Showdown: Shown Off

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Imagine poor NBC. Their ratings are so low these days that they have become the butt of jokes by their own mainstay, Jay Leno. Early last week, Jay said about the show, "Apparently, they left out one of the main ingredients -- celebrities!!!" In fact, NBC's latest attempt to bolster viewership, namely the now-canceled show may become synomymous with the phrase "How low can you go?" You can imagine Jay's predecessor, Johnny Carson, getting ready for this one: Oh, that Celebrity Cooking Showdown! Its ratings dove so low... ("How low, Johnny?") They dove so low... NBC had to cancel a five-night-only show after just three nights!. That's not very funny -- but it is pretty low, at least for NBC. Did you see the online and on-air advertising NBC pumped into this show in the two weeks leading up to the first night's episode? The headlines shot around late Wednesday night last week, like Variety's "Cooking show flames out, which said: NBC couldn't muster much interest for its new unscripted series "Celebrity Cooking Showdown," which opened to a fourth-place finish Monday night. The Hollywood Reporter was even more forthright in its article "NBC cancels 'Celebrity Cooking Showdown'": NBC has taken "Celebrity Cooking Showdown" off its primetime menu..... the peacock shelved "Showdown" on Thursday with two servings still to go...... after three nights of abysmal ratings, averaging a measly 1.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic. Ouch! For our initial review of of the show, see "Celebrity Cooking Showdown: Low-Brow": for our new review, comparing the show with TVFN's The Next Food Network Star, please read "Next Food Network Star Winner 2".) Video: TV.com Wolfgang Puck and Tom Arnold Related news: Variety Variety The Hollywood Reporter Broadcast & Cable San Jose Mercury News Reuters United Press International Washington Times New York Daily News MSNBC Slate New York Daily News San Jose Mercury News TV Guide Previous articles: Celebrity Cooking Showdown: Low-Brow Celebrity Cooking Showdown: Online Now Celebrity Cooking Showdown [Food Television - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, food television, television --> back to superchefblog