Marco Pierre White to host NBC reality show

[PDC]

According to Broadcasting and Cable Magazine, Marco Pierre White will host what essentially is a US version of Last Restaurant Standing. The show was just ordered so they're not even shooting it yet but I'm sure a casting call will go out soon if it hasn't already.

[KristiB50]

Full story HERE

[tino27]

What got me were these two quotes ...

new original cooking competition series

with an original format created by David Barbour and Julian Cress

I do rather enjoy Last Restaurant Standing ... hopefully Chopping Block will live up to it's UK roots. But "original" ... um, no.

[KristiB50]

What got me were these two quotes ...

new original cooking competition series

with an original format created by David Barbour and Julian Cress

I do rather enjoy Last Restaurant Standing ... hopefully Chopping Block will live up to it's UK roots. But "original" ... um, no.

←

Yeah Last Restaurant Standing came to my mind too.

[Bricktop]

Marco was excellent on UK Hells Kitchen. The guy defines charismatic.

[IsleCook]

Yeah Last Restaurant Standing came to my mind too.

And then there's "My Restaurant Rules" from Australia. It's been around awhile too.

[Lisa Shock]

I like Last Restaurant Standing, so I'll be giving this show a try, too. Looks like it premieres on March 11 in the US.

[Shinboners]

Yeah Last Restaurant Standing came to my mind too.

And then there's "My Restaurant Rules" from Australia. It's been around awhile too.

←

There were only two seasons of My Restaurant Rules. It was okay, but hardly essential viewing.

There's also another show here called "The Chopping Block". It's similar to "Kitchen Nightmares" except you have two struggling restaurants that need to be turned around, and the winner gets a cash prize.

[Lisa Shock]

Looks like the show airs tonight.

[CDRFloppingham]

I read the bios and the talent looks pretty thin.

[Busboy]

Pulitzer Prize-winning TV critic Tom Shales pretty much loathed it:

Now, sadly, reality television has turned certain chefs into celebrities on a par with certain basketball or football coaches -- "professionals" with whom they share such unenviable habits as screaming, sweating and humiliating....

If there's anything TV doesn't need, it's another one of those shows, and NBC, granter of wishes never wished, springs forth tonight with just that: "The Chopping Block," a maddeningly empty hour in which hapless schmoes endure insults and temper tantrums from a pompous clod. It's enough, as the British say, to put you off your food.

The "celebrated chef and restaurateur" (NBC's description) at the center of this latest whirligig is "the controversial and unpredictable" Marco Pierre White, a bloated and gloating bully who nibbles at dishes and either mildly praises or wildly assails those who threw them together....

But he loathed in in such a way as to suggest that a shallow fellow like myself, fortified with pizza and a half-bottle of cheap plonk might find the show quite watchable.

I'm quite used to feeling bad about myself in the morning; watching this would be a rather minor transgression.

Tony Bourdain seems to like it, though.

[Holly Moore]

A little over half way through the first episode and the "confessionals" have me reaching for the remote and its mute button.

A new drinking game in the making. A beer whenever a participant says how great a chef Marco is and a shot whenever a participant says how intimidated they are by Marco.

Enough with the kettle drums, too.

[RAHiggins1]

I am sad to report that NBC has taken too many notes from the Fox playbook.

[maggiethecat]

I love it. I'll watch it every week.

It doesn't seem quite as, (although I'm sure it is) scripted as many of these pseudo-competition shows, it's fun to watch, and it's good to suspend belief for an hour a week.

But of course the real reason I enjoyed it is because I'm in love with that madman and TV fraud Marco Pierre White. (Friends have told me I have a soft spot for difficult men, and I guess they're right.) Those bespoke shirts, and the way he shoots his cuff, the hair, the checked shoes.... dreamy.

[Mayhaw Man]

Excepting for the fact that I knew someone in the show, I thought that it was just about as bad as all of the other overly dramatic, uninteresting garbage disposal effluent that I have stopped watching over the last three years.

Awful, actually. Now I'm down to Jacques Pepin on CreateTV and that's about it.

I suppose it's the economy. It's so cheap to create a "reality" show that it just works for the networks. Who needs actors, writers, set creators and such. Why not just get a bunch of schlubs and go for it?

I can hear the conversation now...

"Let's see, we've done actors, models, designers, fat people, stranded people, people locked in houses, has beens, losers,mechanics, rednecks, wives, cheating husbands, criminals, cosmetic work,musicians and cooks and "chefs" in every kind of situation that we can put them in. Sooooo, what's next people? What can we possibly turn into reality? What's left?"

"Oh, Oh, I know!" says the new assistant, straining her hand into the air.

"Ok, honey, let's hear it." snarls the director.

"We could do a show about dishwashers and busboys! It would be great! We could show all of the disgusting piles of dishes coming back, how they are cleaned and stuff like that. And then, for drama, we could show dishwashers yelling at busboys for not separating the silverware and for not putting glassware into the right racks! It would be awesome!"

"Genius!" snaps the director. "Let's run an ad on Craigslist right now! The economy is totally in the tank. Getting dishwashers and busboys will be a piece of cake. We'll need a couple that are really mean and self centered, a few with really stupid haircuts, a couple of tough women, a couple of pretty effeminate ones (both men and women) and two or three who probably just go to work everyday and are only signing on to make a buck. Oh, yeah. We'll need a couple of really stupid ones, too. Can't forget that part of the formula."

" We're on the way! Get cracking people! This is going to be even better than our last show, 'Last Doorman Standing'. It was a blockbuster!"

Sadly, I suspect, this isn't far off of the mark of real life.

Edited March 12, 2009 by Mayhaw Man (log)

[maggiethecat]

Brooksie, I know you're right, and St. Jacques is the only food guy who gets serious attention in this house. I should further explain that we don't have cable, I've never seen more than three episodes of Top Chef (all in hotel rooms,)and have never seen American Idol, Project Runway, etc. So I'm not as savvy or jaded as most of the world.

Plus, I'm in love.

[Mayhaw Man]

That bad part is that I have to admit that I did, in fact, watch Project Runway from beginning to end one season (the second?). A friend of mine's daughter was a model and I had to keep watching because she couldn't manage to get kicked off. She finally managed to win the thing. I was really glad for her, but I was pretty glad to get rid of the rest of that bunch.

As for tonight's offering, despite the shooting of the cuffs, an appearance by Corby, and an interesting ending (if that wasn't scripted somehow, and they really were disgusted, the 250K should go to them right now and they should cancel the rest of the season. Good on em if it's so), yuck. More of the same, really bad stuff.

[Busboy]

I confess I missed the more low-brow screaming and the intermural bitchiness that Hell's Kitchen brings into my kitchen every week (or whenever I can't find anything better to do). Marco's pretense is far less endearing than Gordon's psychosis -- which is even more interesting now that I am assured by a former employee that it is not only genuine but actually toned down for TV. And the contestants seem far too normal -- down to the couple (he from a great local restaurant here in DC, Vidalia) who opted out rather than sell themselves to ego and commerce. A calmer but less likeable chef and a competitve but more likeable cast throws the balance off. A guilty pleasure, still, but the guilt remains high while the pleasure diminishes.

And my teenage daughter dismissed the suit-with-Vans look as hopelessly geezerish. Though I do have a weekness for that Thatcher/Reagan era white cuffs and collar look (though, again, it just makes Marco look like a capitalist prick exploiting the eager proles).

I'm going back to trashy novels.

Edited March 12, 2009 by Busboy (log)

[sandra]

Plus, I'm in love.

←

You should see him in person.... yowza...

[sandra]

There's also another show here called "The Chopping Block".  It's similar to "Kitchen Nightmares" except you have two struggling restaurants that need to be turned around, and the winner gets a cash prize.

←

That wasn't too bad, I liked Matt Moran - is that still on?

[Fat Guy]

Caught about 5 minutes of it while setting up the DVR for something else. Found it unwatchable.

[Shinboners]

There's also another show here called "The Chopping Block".  It's similar to "Kitchen Nightmares" except you have two struggling restaurants that need to be turned around, and the winner gets a cash prize.

←

That wasn't too bad, I liked Matt Moran - is that still on?

←

The second series had finished last year. I don't know if they're going to do a third series.

[Zeemanb]

All I know is, as I watched him during those reflective scenes in the easy chair I thought to myself "now that is one impressive index finger, how does he point it straight up in the air like that?". My sorry index finger couldn't get me an open mic gig at the Chuckle Hut in Topeka, much less a reality show.

[steverino]

All I know is, as I watched him during those reflective scenes in the easy chair I thought to myself "now that is one impressive index finger, how does he point it straight up in the air like that?".  My sorry index finger couldn't get me an open mic gig at the Chuckle Hut in Topeka, much less a reality show.

←

That's freakin' funny!

[Qwerty]

I think the premise is sound and the chef is great, but somehow the execution was lacking. I don't know what exactly to call it...but it was like the editing or something. The show just didn't "flow" well enough for me. Here's hoping they do a better job down the line.