Is second Ramsay show set to be axed as ratings slump?
BBC bosses are considering axeing another of Gordon Ramsay’s shows after the sweary celebrity chef’s ratings flopped.
The Mail on Sunday understands his team fears Future Food Stars will not be recommissioned after the upcoming second series. His Bank Balance game show has already been canned.
A source close to Ramsay, who has achieved TV success in America with Hell’s Kitchen and MasterChef, said some at the BBC had decided his ‘face no longer fits with UK audiences’.
Despite being aired in BBC1’s 9pm primetime slot on Thursdays, Future
Food Stars, which features young food entrepreneurs competing for a £150,000 investment, is attracting under a million viewers.
More people watched Horizon, a BBC2 documentary about insomnia, than watched the first episode of Future Food Stars – which drew 1.9 million viewers – on March 31.
The source added: ‘Gordon was so excited about working with the BBC and entertaining the British public. It is hugely disappointing for Gordon – he is Mr Cookery Show. Nobody can work out why it wasn’t a hit.’
Bank Balance, which the 55-year-old Scot also hosted, was axed in August last year. Contestants in the show tried to win up to £100,000 by putting stacks of bars on a balancing board after answering a series of questions.
It drew 2.7million viewers when it began in February 2021 but that had plunged to 1.5million when the tenshow series ended last March.
Both series were made by the chef’s TV production firm Studio Ramsay, which has had hits with Gino’s Italian
Family Adventure; reality show The Savoy; and Gordon, Gino And Fred: Road Trip – featuring Ramsay, fellow chef Gino D’Acampo and French master maitre d’ Fred Sirieix.
The company set up by Ramsay, who is estimated to be worth about £200 million, also catapulted his teenage daughter Tilly to fame by making her CBBC series Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch. She later appeared on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.
Last night the BBC said: ‘Future Food Stars is attracting a great young audience on BBC iPlayer. We start filming the second series in June.’