Head on Desk

Spoilers for Hell's Kitchen and Master Chef, under Inviso-text -- highlight to read.

Good lord, both of these shows irritated the hell out of me tonight. If anyone has ever questioned the clear fact that for all the onscreen stuff involving Gordon Ramsay and the other two guys on Master Chef are deciding who stays and who leaves, it's really the producers who are calling the shots, there can be no doubt now. Each show had a person or two who really deserved to leave on the basis of what they did in the episode, and in both cases, those people were spared.

On HK, either Elise or Carrie should have been booted. It was painfully obvious, from the way both cooked terribly, and from the way that as soon as both of them were booted out of dinner service, the Red Team found its groove and completed dinner service with few hitches. And on Master Chef, it was clear that Christian attempted to weasel out of responsibility for his and Suzy's loss in the challenge, and that his lemon meringue pie was not as good as Suzy's. But on HK, both Elise and Carrie were spared and Ramsay pulled a surprise eviction of Jamie (who had been part of the red team's recovery after the Drama Queens were sent upstairs), and on Master Chef, Suzy was given the boot.

I really can't see any rationale for this other than the producers of each show basically telling Gordon Ramsay and company that he had to keep around the people who produced the most conflict, which in reality teevee terms translates to "the best teevee". This is the problem with these shows where eliminations are supposedly decided by the show's star/host: it's clear that the producers have input.

I remember the second or third season of The Apprentice, when in a "shocking" boardroom sequence, Donald Trump fired four people at once. This was billed as a stunning development, but if one considered that the show's numbers of both contestants and episodes were known well in advance, it became clear that that season was specifically set up so that Trump would have to do a mass firing at some point or other. It's the same thing here. There's no doubt in my mind that the producers told Ramsay, "No way are you getting rid of Elise or Carrie just yet." And that sucks, because watching the two of them is just annoying now.

And what exactly makes a 'sexy' dessert, anyway? OK, end of rant!