Emeril Live! No More

By JULIETTE ROSSANT The New York Times reports that Emeril Live! will cease production December 11th. Contract negotiations between Emeril Lagasse and Scripps, which owns the Food Network broke down. Rumors have swarmed for years that Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali, and Bobby Flay were demanding (and getting) huge paychecks from the Food Network, which decades earlier had paid its chefs small fees for "dump and stir" shows (see "Todd English: American Chef Gone Wild" for a discussion of founder Reese Schonfeld's vision for the Food Network). Emeril's other, tamer show, Essence of Emeril, will continue in production, and certainly reruns of Emeril Live! will fill the Food Network hours for some time to come. For his part, Emeril has plenty on his plate. Unlike other Food Network stars like Tyler Florence and Giada De Laurentiis, Emeril has continued to expand his restaurant empire. He has food and product lines, books, appearances and more to keep him busy. Freeing himself from a hectic shooting schedule might mean he has more time to build up his staff, attend to his restaurants, and add more locations. What does the end of Emeril Live! mean? If you had your heart set on being in the studio audience of Emeril Live!, time is running out. If you are aFood Network executive, you must have been expecting (and dreading) the day that Emeril would ankle FN. For years now, the network has continued to look for new talent. Most successfully, they found a female alter ego for Emeril -- Rachael Ray -- only to lose her to another, larger network. Will we see another search show a la Next Iron Chef? Is this an opportunity for new chef talent? Get your camera out and start polishing your audition tape. Related Articles Detroit Free Press The New York Times TVWeek Fishbowl New York Glosslip Previous articles: Emeril Goes Gulf Coast Emeril Leads Space Race? Halloween: Emeril's Delmonico Cookbook Emeril Lagasse Lays Apple iPod Emeril Lagasse: Wine Spectator Award Emeril Lagasse: iPod ReciPods Emeril Lagasse: Carnivale du Vin All-Stars Food Television - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, Emeril Lagasse --> back to Super Chef