Cooking Channel: Food Network Offshoot Courts Younger, Food-Obsessed Crowd

New York Times:

Called the Cooking Channel, it is lining up low-key programs targeted at a hipper crowd interested in the grass roots of food culture.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

03:08 PM on 04/22/2010

Oh my god i hate that Ace of Cakes guy, and his disgusting crew. I can't believe people actually ingest those cakes. Eeeeew.

I want to see more of Tyler Florence(one of the best), Mario, Bobby, and even Ina Garten. They still seem to cook without the drama. I want to continue to learn to cook.

This pathetic idiot network that once was the food channel.... is just plain nauseating.....kind of like watching that chubby guy stuff his face till he can't.

[InedaName]

03:03 PM on 04/21/2010

The Food Network has devolved from instructional programming to lifestyle/competitive programming. This is to attract 18-25-year-old viewers with eye candy. Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali, and Tyler Florence have been kicked to the curb to make room for Guy Fieri, Guy Fieri, and Giada De Laurentiis's cleavage.

The launch of The Cooking Channel is just the beginning of a trend we will be seeing in the coming years. As The Millennial Generation (born 1982-1995) comes of age with their vast numbers and purcha$ing power, media and advertisers will be bending over backwards to appeal to this demographic. Millennials will dictate what the marketplace sells and how they sell it. In short, it will be the Millennials' world and the rest of us will just live in it.

If you like cooking shows that just teach you how to cook, check your local PBS listings. America's Test Kitchen is probably the best cooking program currently on TV.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

03:02 PM on 04/22/2010

In agreement 100%. I can't STAND the cooking channel with the drama queens, guy who eats gynormous plates of crap...when IS he gonna drop of a heart attack?, and the stone faced not so good chefs that love to criticize would be chefts, most probably because they themselves....STINK. Guy Fieri is GROSS. I can't stand watching him eat all sloppy with that gross facial hair....oh yes, but that is our new generation....THAT'S where it's at for them. No class; no taste.

If you think THESE slackers will have "buying power" in the next few years.....I beg to differ. They have no interest in anything that's not electronic....nor will they have money or care about their health.

I suspect healthier eaters and people with refined tastes will drive the market just as much.... but we have to drop a lot lower before this happens.... like maybe a 75% poverty rate where people are actually forced to grow and cook their own food....and the obesity rate. Wait, we've already reached that obesity number.

Great post though.

[mtodd49352]

04:31 PM on 04/26/2010

I was pleased to hear about the new Cooking Network. I'm so sick of R.R.'s face on 10 different shows, magazines, cereal boxes etc.
A new channel without EVOO...(yuk). Then, today, my local paper says she also going to be on this new network. Eeewwww.
I was really looking forward to some new faces, getting away from R.R. being on the air 10 hours a day.
Boooooo, Cooking Network. Give us some NEW blood.

[newtom]

01:30 PM on 04/21/2010

I was probably one of the early fans of Food Network. But I feel like others who have since been disappointed by the endless "Challenge" shows, "celebrity-making" and personality contests. They almost totally ignore "cooking" shows, so I'm hoping Cooking channel will replace some of that substance Food is now missing. Maybe they'll bring back some of the informational shows on Food, too. Who would have believed,just a few years ago,that there would be so much of this on TV.

And to think -- it all started with Julia.

[rcmfla]

12:47 PM on 04/21/2010

Food Network has become pure garbage. Every year there are fewer decent shows worthy of watching as the network has made a conscience decision to replace cooking shows with reality-based cr@p. For every Alton Brown, we get two Sandra Lee clones and four more food challenges. Thank god for remotes!

[microsoap]

11:45 AM on 04/21/2010

Here, the Canadian version of Fine Living Network (FLN) was replaced with a Canadiana version of Do It Yourself Network (DIY) last Fall.

[kopanko]

11:10 AM on 04/21/2010

The Food Network in recent years has become pure crap. Contests, "personality" shows, greasy spoon roulette, extravagant cake decorating... And the actual cooking shows are all "ultimate" sloppy comfort food, or else Italian. Nothing else. They have lost track of the reason why people are interested in food-based shows--TO LEARN things that will help them elevate their own cooking. It seems they could not care less about good quality food, healthful food, etc. There is no vegetarian programming at all It's almost unwatchable at this point.

I fear the new network might be similar. . A few rays of hope in the article though, such as the Indian cooking show and so on might be worthwhile--I'll have to check it out when it debuts.

[InedaName]

03:05 PM on 04/21/2010

"There is no vegetarian programming at all "

I know, right? Talk about missing the boat!

[vanno]

11:05 AM on 04/21/2010

i'm upset they are axing the fine living network for this. how can i watch iron chef japan now?

[trunk65]

12:02 PM on 04/21/2010

I miss the Chairman, the Japanese answer to Liberace.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

03:10 PM on 04/22/2010

I totally love that guy..... the uncle of the new Chairman. And I miss those terrible translations! Hiroyuki Sakai ROCKS!!!!

[nancy68]

10:28 AM on 04/21/2010

As long as it is actual cooking shows and not constant "challenges" that are totally uninteresting it is a good idea. I am to the point where Food Network just annoys me.