SEASON 5 GETS COOKING: L.A. is well-represented this time around with contestants Jeffrey Saad, left, Debbie Lee and Eddie Gilbert in the mix. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
"When the show ends and the winner gets crowned, it's not over, it's just the beginning," Strauss says. "With 'American Idol,' the winner goes away and then you don't hear from them until they have a CD. Here, the contestants come back and you get to watch them week after week. The audience really has a vested interest."
That vested interest has helped make the series the network's top-ranked show, by far, averaging 2.7 million viewers per first-run episode for Season 4. By comparison, Bravo's "Top Chef" averaged 2.9 million viewers for its first-run episodes last season and Fox's "Hell's Kitchen," the only cooking competition on a major network, averaged 8 million.
A grueling trial
Then there's the sympathy factor.
It's not hyperbole to call "The Next Food Network Star" a punishing competition. Contestants are thrust into a series of challenges that mimic life on the Food Network set -- cameras watching every move. Flay says he has wondered whether he would have been able to make it through such a competition when he was starting his cooking career.
When the show was announced, Tuschman says the network had well over 10,000 applicants because so many people watch the Food Network and say, "I can do that."
After the first season's "peek behind the curtain of the star-making process," as Tuschman puts it, applications plummeted. Now they get about 2,000 submissions.
Winning "The Next Food Network Star" does not guarantee success -- those branding opportunities are just that: opportunities.
Now in its fifth season, the show has launched only one bona fide breakout: Guy Fieri, the host of "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" as well as other Food Network shows, author of cookbooks and a pitchman for TGI Friday's.
But there's little downside for the network, says Derek Baine, an analyst for SNL Kagan, who says this star-making machine only helps the highly profitable Food Network.
"A lot of people would love the chance to get on TV and make a name for themselves and are willing to take little upfront to have a chance at some really high upside on the back end," Baine says.
As for Ray -- is she one who got away?
Not really, the network says. She'll be forever associated in the public's mind with the Food Network, which launched her career. And that's the kind of PR the network couldn't begin to buy.
Fogelson says she looks at Ray's success and thinks, " 'Way to go.' . . . I learned a lot from what Rachael does and those business deals."
She added, "I don't look backward, I look forward."
rene.lynch@latimes.com
That vested interest has helped make the series the network's top-ranked show, by far, averaging 2.7 million viewers per first-run episode for Season 4. By comparison, Bravo's "Top Chef" averaged 2.9 million viewers for its first-run episodes last season and Fox's "Hell's Kitchen," the only cooking competition on a major network, averaged 8 million.
A grueling trial
Then there's the sympathy factor.
It's not hyperbole to call "The Next Food Network Star" a punishing competition. Contestants are thrust into a series of challenges that mimic life on the Food Network set -- cameras watching every move. Flay says he has wondered whether he would have been able to make it through such a competition when he was starting his cooking career.
When the show was announced, Tuschman says the network had well over 10,000 applicants because so many people watch the Food Network and say, "I can do that."
After the first season's "peek behind the curtain of the star-making process," as Tuschman puts it, applications plummeted. Now they get about 2,000 submissions.
Winning "The Next Food Network Star" does not guarantee success -- those branding opportunities are just that: opportunities.
Now in its fifth season, the show has launched only one bona fide breakout: Guy Fieri, the host of "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" as well as other Food Network shows, author of cookbooks and a pitchman for TGI Friday's.
But there's little downside for the network, says Derek Baine, an analyst for SNL Kagan, who says this star-making machine only helps the highly profitable Food Network.
"A lot of people would love the chance to get on TV and make a name for themselves and are willing to take little upfront to have a chance at some really high upside on the back end," Baine says.
As for Ray -- is she one who got away?
Not really, the network says. She'll be forever associated in the public's mind with the Food Network, which launched her career. And that's the kind of PR the network couldn't begin to buy.
Fogelson says she looks at Ray's success and thinks, " 'Way to go.' . . . I learned a lot from what Rachael does and those business deals."
She added, "I don't look backward, I look forward."
rene.lynch@latimes.com
