The Failed Guy Fieri Show That Food Network Cancelled After 6 Episodes

If you turn on Food Network at any given time, there's a good chance you'll see one of three shows playing for hours on end: "Chopped," "Beat Bobby Flay," or "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives." That last show made a star out of its host, Guy Fieri, and Food Network has seen fit to jam him into just about any show that will have him: "Guy's Grocery Games," "Tournament of Champions," and "Guy's Ranch Kitchen," to name a few. But that doesn't mean they'll do just anything with the frosted-tipped Mayor of Flavortown. There was a live cooking show in 2008 called "Guy Off The Hook" that was cancelled after just six episodes — though in fairness, it wasn't entirely Fieri's fault.

If you've seen "Emeril Live" (hosted by noted detractor of cooking competition shows Emeril Lagasse), you have a good idea of what "Guy Off The Hook" was like. In front of an enthusiastic live studio audience, Guy Fieri would come out and prepare some typical, Fieri-esque dishes: pretzel chicken tenders, black-eyed pea risotto, things of that nature. On paper, it sounds perfect: "Emeril Live" was pure comfort food for many viewers, and Fieri's boisterous personality made him a natural fit for live performance. And yet, after a half-dozen episodes, it was unceremoniously cancelled. It doesn't even have an IMDb page.

So, why did a show as inoffensive as "Guy Off The Hook" get dropped like a hot potato? Well, around that time Food Network was trying to pivot away from cooking shows. That might sound ridiculous at first blush (what, is Tennis Channel going to pivot away from tennis now?), but Food Network executives saw that other networks were getting in on the culinary action with reality shows that weren't bound to a studio. Further, studio cooking shows on a scale like "Emeril Live" and "Guy Off The Hook" weren't exactly cheap to produce. ("The French Chef" wouldn't have been low-cost enough for public access television if there was a whole audience cheering on Julia Child as she made an omelet.)

For Fieri's part, there were no hard feelings. He went right on giving great advice for grilling better burgers and hosting other shows for Food Network, including the eternal "Triple D" (as "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" is often called), and he remains their flagship celebrity chef to this day. Regardless, the cancellation marked a transition away from the comforting cooking shows that were once the network's signature towards familiar, risk-averse programming centered on competition shows, restaurant-makeover shows like "Restaurant: Impossible" or "Mystery Diners," and less-expensive iterations on the classic cooking show.