Bam! Food Network pulling plug on Emeril Live
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Food Network is kicking Emeril Lagasse down a notch.
The celebrity chef’s Emeril Live, which has been on the air for 10 years, will cease production Dec. 11, Food Network publicist Carrie Welch told The Associated Press.
“However, Emeril is under contract with Food Network,” Welch said Tuesday. “We love him, we support him and look forward to a long partnership with him.”
Welch wouldn’t comment on Lagasse’s contract.
Asked why the show was canceled, she told the AP: “The only reason would be that it hit a ton of television milestones and, you know, all good things come to an end.”
The Food Network will continue producing Lagasse’s The Essence of Emeril, and he will take part in “specials and other development opportunities in the future,” Welch said.
The network also will air reruns of Emeril Live.
“I am deeply appreciative to all the unbelievable staff — many who have been with the show since the beginning — and all the loyal viewers, and the many talented guests who have appeared on the show through the years,” Lagasse, 48, said in a statement provided by Welch.
“I look forward to continuing my association with the Food Network with The Essence of Emeril, and I have lots of new ideas cooking,” he said.
Emeril’s show was the first show that I ever watched on the then-young Food Network. I was immediately taken in by his warmth, his chuckling and shuffling around the kitchen, the way he interacted with his audience and the sheer joy he seemed to exhibit while cooking for people. I grew up on The Galloping Gourmet and Julia Child’s The French Chef, but I’d never felt an immediate magnetism like Emeril’s before. I like to think that most people felt that way the first time they watched him, too. But in recent years, the show had grown stale and boring while a new crop of TV chefs grew up around it, decreasing its relevance with each passing day.
Emeril helped to launch the current wave of televised foodie-ism, from the grating annoyance that is Rachael Ray and half-assed fakery that is Sandra Lee, to the raw passion of Anthony Bourdain and manic energy of Alton Brown. In a way, I’m sad to see him leave the airwaves for now. But in another, more emphatic way, I’m glad to see him move on.
For as interesting and trailblazing as he once was, I believe Emeril’s river has more than run its course. The man has become a parody of himself, with his endless catchphrases: “BAM!” and “Kick it up a notch!” The low point came when he repeatedly and loudly applied the former catchphrase to cinnamon-flavored toothpaste in a commercial that ran — briefly, mercifully — earlier this year. As far as I’m concerned, “BAM!” was the unfortunate precursor to the headache-inducing “EVOO” and its ilk, and both deserve to be put down once and for all.
So, good-bye Emeril. I can’t say that I’ll miss your show or your catchphrases, but I’ll miss your anchoring presence. I hope to see you again soon in another incarnation.
she eats. 