• reality shows
  • reality TV reviews
  • about
  • contact
  • reality TV schedule
  • best reality TV
  • send tips or feedback
  • support
  • subscribe
Kitchen Nightmares

The sad decline of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant rescue shows

Gordon Ramsay, 24 Hours to Hell and Back, Fox
Gordon Ramsay at Bella Gianna’s on the season premiere of his new Fox series 24 Hours to Hell and Back. (Photo by Fox)

by Andy Dehnart 13 Jun. 2018 | 2:06 pm

Gordon Ramsay has been fixing broken restaurants, on and off, for 14 years now: First on Channel 4, with Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, which came to the U.S. in 2007 as the Fox-ified Kitchen Nightmares.

That ended, mercifully, in 2014, though the basic idea lived on in three seasons of Hotel Hell.

Ramsay never went anywhere, continuing with the infinitely looping track of incompetence and perpetual exasperation that is Hell’s Kitchen, and taking breaths during Masterchef, a competition that is gentler but stretched so much to fill 42 minutes that you can see right through it.

Tonight, Ramsay is back with Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours To Hell and Back, a new Fox series that is simply his old Fox series, Kitchen Nightmares, with a new name that mostly seems designed to cover for behind-the-scenes changes (it’s now produced by Ramsay’s production company, not A. Smith and Co.).

It is changed only by the addition of a semi-tractor trailer with a kitchen that’s called Hell on Wheels, and with a compressed timeline illustrated by countdown clocks set up around the restaurant.

Three-quarters of the restaurants Ramsay attempted to rescue on the old show failed, despite having several days worth of help, so it makes sense to shorten the time available to help the restaurant succeed.

The format is typical: Ramsay goes in, this time undercover, with a fake family and fake mustache that has more surprise and personality than the rest of the series. He calls the food awful; he look around and is horrified by what he finds—Wow. Damn.—and then introduces a new, simpler menu in-between asking people what is wrong with them and trying to get them to yell and/or cry.

Meanwhile a crew renovates the restaurant, which comes across as the production’s recompense for subjecting the owners to the demands of production, never mind the inevitable hatchet job that the editing will do to the reality of the situation. (These are real restaurants with real problems, run by real people with real emotions, but that is not enough for Fox, CYMBAL CRASH, SMASH CUT, CYMBAL CRASH.)

I’m not sure who the title refers to going to hell and back, but after watching the premiere, it certainly felt like it was a description of the experience watching it.

The format is so stale and so noxious that if Gordon Ramsay found this show in a refrigerator, he’d start making gagging noises and throw it into the bin.

Ramsay has been surrounded by the trappings of American reality TV, circa 2018, including fake crowd noises, added in post-production, and so ineptly that I did a triple-take in my living room, wondering where a gaggle of gasping people was, since they most certainly were not on the screen.

There’s also dialogue dubbed in during post-production to over-explain the obvious; an ambush twist stolen from Restaurant: Impossible’s final two seasons; and a time constraint, which makes no sense except to increase tension and decrease the show’s budget.

True hell, though, is watching something that was once so pure be mashed into something unrecognizable. The original UK format has been combined with so many artificial additives it makes Mountain Dew seem like spring water.

I decided to cleanse my palate by going back to the very first episode of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, and settled in for an hour of charming, relaxed television that lacked any of the desperation of US reality TV. And there certainly was a quietness to the show, in part because of a demure soundtrack and longer, more developed scenes.

My sense was that, in the 14 years since, Ramsay had became an infinitely heightened version of himself, piling on the melodrama once he arrived in the States, so I was ready to be re-introuduced to the old Gordon Ramsay.

But no: In that very first episode, he eats a scallop and then goes outside to spit it out, with a chorus of heaving noises for effect. There’s the same horror that the staff keeps the fridge full of garbage, the same insistence that bad food could kill someone.

Hearing those same things over 14 years and dozens of episodes has definitely blunted their impact. (Has anyone actually ever died in any of these restaurants?) But even then it seemed exaggerated, like Ramsay was winking to the audience while trying to make a point to the people he was helping. He hasn’t changed, at least not dramatically.

The most noticeable shift in the 14 years since that show premiered is in the time allotted for Ramsay to help a restaurant.

It’s been collapsed from one week to one day. And squeezed out of the middle is nearly all of Gordon Ramsay’s charm, and any of his concern about the restaurant and food beyond using it as a prop to throw or gag on.

Today, and in his Fox Kitchen Nightmare years, he may be deeply committed to helping train chefs about how to cook properly; and his new menus might be designed to take advantage of the chefs’ skills and specialties; and he might offer salient advice about how to run a restaurant properly.

But the television show cares about none of this.

The television show—Kitchen Nightmares, Hotel Hell, Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back, whatever they’ll call the next one—cares about finding commotion it can highlight and turning it into near hysteria with its phony reaction shots and aggressive soundtrack.

During a restaurant’s televised relaunch, and I’m not using that word with any seriousness, there’s always an 11th hour problem or conflict that threatens to derail the train. But it’s such a false note because the train was never on the tracks to begin with, and it’s absurd to imagine that anything has changed in part because we haven’t been allowed to see any change.

Again, I find it difficult to believe that true transformation can take place in 24 consecutive hours. But if it truly does, the editing of the episode doesn’t give attention or focus to that change. Because who CYMBAL CRASH wants to watch that?

2004 Gordon Ramsay knew how to make compelling, even shocking television, but that was always balanced by an abundance of concern for teaching incremental changes and discovering what was and was not working about a restaurant.

2018 Gordon Ramsay is merely another piece of stagecraft used to assemble television that thinks it’s shocking, but has instead become rote and predictable.

In the premiere of 24 Hours to Hell and Back, Gordon Ramsay says in voice-over narration, “I need to treat the source of contamination now, before it’s too late.”

It’s too late. Time to close the doors on this one.

discuss this story

more great reality blurred stories

  • Recommended reality TV: Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and America to Me
  • The best reality TV shows of 2018
  • The Survivor rule book and Survivor cast contract
  • Go behind-the-scenes at the Big Brother house
  • Behind the scenes of The Last Alaskans
  • Interviews with reality TV producers and cast members

most-popular stories on reality blurred

Life Below Zero season 11, Sue Aikens

When Life Below Zero will return for season 11, and who it will follow

Exclusive: Life Below Zero is returning to National Geographic for season 11 this fall, with a cast that includes one new person.

Jeff Probst, Survivor David vs. Goliath episode 10

Survivor Edge of Extinction: What we know so far about Survivor season 38

Survivor season 38 will feature returning players and a huge twist that could effect how the game is played and who wins.

Bob Harte, The Last Alaskans season 4

Bob Harte’s death arrives on The Last Alaskans. How the show handles it—and his legacy.

Watch a scene from "No Regrets," the episode of The Last Alaskans that deals with Bob Harte's death, and hear from a Discovery Channel executive about how the network and production company handled his loss.

The Lewis family, Last Alaskans

Why the Lewis family is no longer on The Last Alaskans, and where they are now

A definitive answer about why the Lewis Family—Ray and Cindy, and their daughters Sarah, Molly, and Emma—have been missing from The Last Alaskans.

Hunted, Emiley Cox, David Windecher

A few of Hunted’s absurd rules have been revealed

Hunted team David and Emiley revealed several of the show's rules on a radio show this morning—including one ridiculous rule that benefits the production.

Survivor Edge of Extinction marooning

Survivor’s marooning: 34 boats, 714 people, 9 hours, one great 10,000-word story

The opening minutes of Survivor Edge of Extinction took days to plan and involved "34 different boats carrying 714 bodies over a total of 1,500 miles."

Siesta Key, MTV

How Siesta Key was filmed and how it differs from Laguna Beach

An interview with the co-creator of Laguna Beach, whose new MTV show Siesta Key uses that format but avoids the fiction that befell its spinoff The Hills.

Winter 2019 reality TV show debut schedule and guide

Winter 2019 reality TV schedule and guide

This winter reality show 2019 schedule is a frequently updated list of premieres for broadcast, cable, and streaming reality TV shows, documentary series, game shows, and other prime-time nonfiction TV.

Are You The One season 5 cast

MTV’s Are You the One season 8 casting sexually fluid, non-binary people

AYTO's producers want the "usual hot singles" but also "sexually fluid individuals," and twins.

Nandor, What We Do in the Shadows

FX is returning to reality TV as ‘a sustained and enduring part’ of its programming

The cable network home of scripted shows such as The Americans, American Horror Story, Atlanta, Fargo, Pose, Better Things, and Legion is developing several unscripted and documentary TV shows.

behind the scenes of reality TV

Sharknado 3 Ian Ziering

Sharknado 3’s surprises, on screen and behind the scenes

Oh hell yes: Sharknado is back on Syfy tonight, and the third installment brings with it more ridiculous mayhem and another slew of reality TV cameos. Shark Tank‘s Mark Cuban as the actual president, and, of course, the ever-serious Ian “EYE-an” Ziering from Celebrity Apprentice is the franchise’s star, Fin Shepard. The third installment brings… continue reading

Antiques Roadshow season 23, Meadowbrook Hall, Gary Piattoni, Temptations trunk

How Antiques Roadshow works behind the scenes, and what’s changing

Antiques Roadshow executive producer Marsha Bemko on how much appraisers are paid, how the show is filmed, and why it made a major change this season.

Behind the scenes of Knife Fight

What happens when a real restaurant becomes the set of a reality TV cooking competition.

older

Gordon Ramsay will spend even less time renovating restaurants on 24 Hours to Hell & Back

newer >

Gordon Ramsay’s terrible new show is a hit for Fox, gets a second season

other reality TV show reviews more stories about Kitchen Nightmares

reality TV news and reviews, in your inbox

One hand-crafted message sent every Friday. Free. Subscribe now:

discuss this story

about Andy Dehnart

Andy Dehnart’s writing and criticism about television, culture, and media has appeared on NPR and in Vulture, Pacific Standard, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications. He has covered reality television for more than 18 years, and created reality blurred in 2000.

A member of the Television Critics Association who serves on its board of directors, Andy, 41, also directs the journalism program at Stetson University in Florida, where he teaches creative nonfiction and journalism. He has an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing and literature from Bennington College. Learn more about reality blurred and Andy.

stay connected with reality TV

Get advice about what to watch and keep up with the latest in reality television with reality blurred's e-mail newsletter. Just enter your e-mail address:

about reality blurred

reality blurred is your guide to the world of reality TV and unscripted entertainment, with reality show reviews, news, and analysis. It was created in 2000 by Andy Dehnart. He's still writing and publishing it today.

reality blurred is regularly updated with highlights from the world of reality TV: news and analysis; behind-the-scenes reports; interviews with reality TV show cast members and producers; and recaps and reviews of these reality TV shows, including Survivor, Big Brother, The Great British Baking Show, Shark Tank, The Amazing Race, The Bachelor, Project Runway, Dancing with the Stars, Top Chef, and many more.

explore

  • recent news
  • reviews of reality TV shows
  • behind the scenes reports
  • interviews with producers and reality stars
  • archives
  • send tips
  • search
  • advertise on reality blurred
  • about reality blurred
  • newsletter
  • RSS and social media
  • contact reality blurred
  • send tips & contribute
  • privacy policy
  • terms of service
Copyright © 2000 to 2019 Andy Dehnart and individual contributors.