Flay and Food Network have been in negotiations on a new contract for some time. The superstar chef’s most recent exclusive three-year pact with the Discovery-owned cable network expires at year’s end. Sources close to the situation say that Food Network has ended the negotiations.
As the COVID-19 crisis gripped the nation, millions of people went into lockdown and suddenly found a lot of unexpected free time. Some picked up new or long-forgotten hobbies, while others soaked up extra family time. Still others combined the two and began focusing on more involved home-cooked meals. Social media exploded with images, videos and commentary about sourdough starters and banana bread, and that inspired a new wave of unscripted television series.
Exclusives
What Happens Next For Tegna?
Premium
The cable TV channel he helped start turned food from fuel into entertainment. The network eventually reached about 100 million U.S. households and created a new culture and language around what people eat. He was 85.
Discovery Inc. has promoted HGTV and Food Network executive Courtney White to president of Food Network. The executive will relocate to New York and oversee all of Discovery Inc.’s food-related brands.
Mario Batali has abruptly exited as co-host of ABC’s The Chew amid sexual harassment allegations leveled against the celebrity chef and restaurateur. Food Network has also put on hold plans to relaunch the series that made him a TV star, Molto Mario. The online site Eater New York, part of Vox Media, reported Monday that the incidents involve at least four women, three of whom worked for Batali. One of women, none was named in the story, said that Batali groping her chest after wine had spilled on her shirt. Another said he grabbed her from behind and holding her tightly against his body.
Scripps Networks Interactive and Tribune Media today announced a multi-year extension of their Food Network partnership agreement. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. “Food Network is the strongest food media brand across the globe and continues to grow its footprint around the world,” said Kenneth W. Lowe, chairman, president and CEO of Scripps […]
The head of Scripps Networks Interactive’s food lifestyle brands will remain a consultant through 2016.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Food Network television star Sandra Lee is undergoing surgery for breast cancer. Lee wrote in a Facebook message posted Monday night that her procedure was scheduled for Tuesday morning. The double mastectomy had been initially scheduled for last week but was delayed after Lee came down with an upper respiratory infection. […]
NEW YORK (AP) — Talk about an unlikely recipe for success — a cable network dedicated to … food? It may not seem even a little preposterous today, but when Food Network launched 20 years ago America was sitting at a very different dinner table. After all, this was before we’d learned to fetishize cupcakes, […]
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that book-publishing giant Penguin Random House is trying its hand at television, expanding a media diversification that began when Random House started a movie unit to spur sales of its titles a few years ago. Penguin Random House’s first TV co-production, Heartland Table, will make its debut Sept. 14 on the Food Network. WSJ subscribers can read the story here.
NEW YORK (AP) – A New York City resident has sued the Food Network, saying its reality show “Giving You the Business” wronged him by failing to award him a promised frozen yogurt franchise. Kris Herrera says in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in state court in Queens he was told in April along with three […]
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The Food Network said Friday it’s dumping Paula Deen, barely an hour after the celebrity cook posted a videotaped apology online begging forgiveness from fans and critics troubled by her admission to having used racial slurs in the past. The 66-year-old Savannah kitchen celebrity has been swamped in controversy since court […]
NEW YORK (AP) — Paula Deen should hope for more fans like Jennifer Everett of Tyler, Texas, who carried a shopping bag filled with $53 worth of merchandise from the celebrity chef’s Georgia store on Thursday. A day earlier, it was revealed that Deen admitted during questioning in a lawsuit that she had slurred blacks […]
LOS ANGELES (AP) — With a wink and smile at his wife, former “Calorie Commando” TV chef Juan-Carlos Cruz was sentenced to nine years in prison Monday for trying to hire two homeless men to murder her. Looking considerably grayer than he did during his arrest in May, Cruz turned to catch one more glimpse […]
BALTIMORE (AP) — Celebrity baker Duff Goldman hasn’t decorated his last elaborate cake, but he no longer has Food Network cameras following his every move. The network confirmed Sunday that it has canceled “Ace of Cakes,” the reality show that followed Goldman and the colorful staff of his Baltimore bakery, Charm City Cakes. The network […]
