Ramsay back in Hell
He’s back. Mild-mannered chef Gordon Ramsay OBE is back with a new season of Hell’s Kitchen, the TV reality-competition show that has added whole new meaning to the phrase, “Too many cooks in the kitchen.”
In a Hell’s Kitchen first, the new season begins in Las Vegas, with the 20 contestants assembled on a stage before a live audience. As the season gets underway, the scene will shift to the regular Hell’s Kitchen restaurant in Los Angeles that longtime followers of the popular program have come to know and love.
“It was built over three, four months, right down to the tiniest detail,” Ramsay explained. “It’s totally kitted out. It’s been designed with an open plan, so that you can stand by the hot plate and be able to see what’s going on, from the left-hand side to the top right-hand corner.” The customers who dine at Hell’s Kitchen are not actual paying customers, though. “I don’t think, for legal reasons, that we’re actually allowed to charge,” Ramsay said. “Sadly, for the first three or four weeks, hardly anyone gets fed anyway. So they’re unlikely to pay.” (Fox, Citytv — 9 p.m.)
One reality-TV cook-off begins, another one ends. The Taste calls it a season after eight weeks of elimination challenges, fragile egos, testy tempers and smashed dishes in the kitchen. (CTV — 9 p.m., ABC — 10 p.m.)
Alan Thicke extends his 15 minutes of celebrity fame — again — in Celebrity Wife Swap, in which his wife Tanya trades in their Santa Barbara ranch life for a New York City apartment and a stay with Gilbert Gottfried. (ABC — 9 p.m.)
Rick Mercer Report features a repeat from earlier in the year, in which the intrepid Mercer journeys to St. John’s and the set of Republic of Doyle, where he hangs out with writer-star Allan Hawco. (CBC — 8 p.m.)