COMPONENTES DEL KIT

In the past, it was common for actors, television personalities, and celebrities to act as the show hosts and judges across factual formats. Now, audiences are looking for expertise. Henderson (2011) believes that chefs with an international following, or 'celebrity chefs,' can be seen as an outcome of the globalization of demand and supply for food-related products and says:

A celebrity chef could be applied to all chefs renowned for their cooking, covering those from the past whose reputations have lingered well beyond their lifetimes, yet the concept is more commonly associated with the modern era. It can be interpreted as embracing successful writers and television performers without the experience as head of a kitchen team that distinguishes chef from cook (Henderson, 2011: 614).

Television has played an integral role in cultivating awareness and disseminating fame. Professional chefs and bakers from all over the world have assumed the role of television hosts and judges in order to add authenticity to these shows. Examples of professionally led food formats include Gordon Ramsay on Fox’s MasterChef and Hell’s Kitchen, Bobby Flay on Food Network’s Iron Chef America, Mario Batali on ABC's The Chew and the cooking competition program by Michel Roux Jr., Disney’s First Class Chefs (2015-present). In their work on business formats on television, Boyle and Kelly (2012) have recognized an industry trend of casting expert hosts on business formats instead of celebrities as they had been done in the past. Their research noted how Lord Sugar, one of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs, has made a societal shift from being a prominent business leader to a host on BBC One’s The Apprentice (2005-present). They explained how the production of BBC's Troubleshooter (1990-1993) has created a template for future business television formats to include not only risk and drama, but the casting of a business expert (Boyle and Kelly, 2012). This section will reveal how the use of expert hosts has proven to be a successful managerial tactic for contemporary food formats as well as others across the board. A notable food show format comprised of an expert cast is ABC's The Chew in the United States.

The executive producer on the show, Gordon Elliot, has made use of panel casting for this food talk show format, as mentioned above. Elliot underwent months of trial and error before getting the casting of the format right and believed that the end result was central to the show’s success (Elliot, Interview: New York City, November, 2015).

84 The hosts of the show include the following five experts in their fields: (1) Mario Batali, a respected chef, author and restaurateur, (2) Michael Symon, a James Beard Foundation Award winning chef and restaurateur chef, (3) Carla Hall, an American chef and former Top Chef finalist, (4) Clinton Kelly, an expert in entertaining and fashion known from TLC’s What Not to Wear (2003-2013) and (5) Daphne Oz, a health and wellness enthusiast and daughter of Dr. Mehmet Oz, a famous surgeon and another expert host from his daytime health show Oz Media’s The Dr. Oz Show (2009-present). Elliot emphasized how each of these five hosts own a level of expertise that has helped open up multiple areas of interest between them and the audience. Collectively, the group formulates a hub of knowledge on topics such as cooking, health, food styling and entertaining, and do so in a way in which no host overshadows another (Elliot, Interview: New York City, November, 2015). Elliot explained how his food talk show format was purchased at MIPCOM by a Turkish network, but then failed due to the poor casting of the show's panelists according to Elliot. He argued:

I think the format is simple. What’s incredibly hard is the casting…What they didn’t get right was that the [hosts were] outstanding in their own field, but when you put them together, they were not a unit. It didn’t work.

My style and my efforts when creating The Chew were in creating that unit and creating that bond. I left the technical aspects of how that one hour was to be constructed to the second part of the development process. Because you have to build the show around the hosts until you know what the strengths of the hosts are individually; but as a group, you can't really give the

appropriate tasks (Elliot, Interview: New York City, November, 2015).

Although the Turkish adaptation included expert panel casting, the licensees of the format did not follow the branding guidelines and support provided by the flying production team. The failure of the Turkish adaptation proves that appointing the wrong group of experts can have an adverse effect on a show’s success.

Nevertheless, this trend to cast field experts as hosts and judges continues to prevail in reality television formats. Much like the business format of BBC’s

Troubleshooter, viewers of food television show formats want to put their trust in

hosts whose knowledge is sound. Mark Turner, a reality television agent in New York City for over 20 years, highlighted the shift from celebrity to reality with regards to the casting considerations of format hosts. He explained:

The evolution (in reality television) is the representation of mainstream hosts, talk show hosts, game show hosts, entertainment reporters. You’ve got the Ryan Secrest types, your Letterman types, your Entertainment Tonight types and that still exists, but it has sort of evolved into the next evolution which was the experts. Everyone wanted a real doctor, a real lawyer, a real therapist, a real interior designer, a real travel expert, a real paranormal expert or someone in the military, a nutritionist (Turner, Interview: New York City, September, 2016).

From Turner’s perspective, the production tactic to employ an expert host has been a trend across multiple genres. This confirms what Boyle and Kelly (2012) argued with regards to business formats. However, viewers of cookery television

formats put more trust into hosts who are proven experts in their fields in a way that is unique to any other factual format genre. Viewers can only visualize what a dish tastes like, whereas it is easier for audiences to judge whether or not a makeover or a home building DIY project was successful or if one singer sounded better than another in a singing competition format. For example, The Voice, a popular talent show format created by RTL4, is based on judging contestants from a blind audition. Expert judges on the show cannot see the contestants and must make a decision based solely on what they hear. Formats like The Voice can be assessed by judges at home much easier than a food show since we are unable to engage with our senses of taste and smell while viewing. The appointment of show hosts and judges from professional backgrounds, such as head chefs and owner of Michelin star

restaurants, provide a sense of tasting authority every time they pick up a fork and critique a dish (Matwick and Matwick, 2015). When speaking about the credibility Gordon Ramsay has in Fox's MasterChef, Cooper stated: 'if Gordon Ramsay says its good, it's good. If Gordon says it's bad, it's bad. He has that stamp of approval.... you wait to see what Gordon says because he's the authority' (Cooper, Interview: Los Angeles, November, 2016).

Ramsay is a staple host of the American version of MasterChef on Fox, but the format has made alterations to the supporting hosts in order to keep each series fresh. Cooper emphasized that rotating hosts with a certain level of expertise has helped add value in direct relation to the challenges being performed in the newer series.

86 He explains how in the seventh season, the show rotated guest judges every week to fill their third hosting role which resulted in a very strong and positive response from the show's Twitter fans and in the ratings. He discussed Fox’s recent decision to bring in the female, all-star baker, and entrepreneur Christina Tosi to seasons six through eight of the American MasterChef:

We brought Christina in because she comes from a baking background and we do a lot of baking challenges on the show now. I think to have someone that is an expert in the baking field, to have a woman on the show helps... She's got that Brooklyn hipster element where she has her bakeshops all across New York... She's got a cookbook, a set bakery, she ran the dessert program in a number of restaurants in New York, so she must know what she's talking about. We're always looking for new hosts and changing things up (Cooper, Interview: Los Angeles, November, 2016).

As seen in this chapter, show hosts from professional cooking and industry-related backgrounds relate more to audiences than actors, celebrities, and media

personalities. Couldry (2002) argues that celebrities can bridge the gap between those who are relevant and famous and those who are not. Industry-based and academic evidence support the notion that audiences have become more interested in the development of ordinary people achieving success and place trust

in industry professionals. However, in contrast to Couldry (2002), Barron (2015) believes that celebrity influence continues to be a potent social and cultural force, which is why many factual formats continue to incorporate at least one celebrity personality amongst professionals on their judging panel. Turner explained how casting experts and more relevant hosts has been a key part of his decision-making process as a reality television show agent in New York. He says:

We look for authenticity. A lot of the times I get ideas pitched to me and it's like "I want to do a show about backpacking through Europe" and I feel like that is just a general thing. Who would be involved? The difference between if you have say a guide that leads tours of backpacking through Europe and we are just going to put in some young, good-looking guy or girl. You would want the person who is leading the tour to be experienced and good on camera. I might take that show on board then.

Whereas if it's just we have a random guy who's good on camera who will be our host, I'd have to say no, that's not enough there. So, authenticity is very, very important (Turner, Interview: New York City, September, 2016).

From the insertion of competition and light-hearted narratives to expert casting, all of the above-mentioned attributes have greatly contributed to the success of some of the most recognizable food show formats around the world. These attributes, paired with a food-centric storyline, are key to the success of this rising format. How imperative the role of the food is within a cooking program is subject to the design of the individual show format.